Writing a novel..maybe

herself

3ill.yazi said:
I am actually using tarot to help in writing a novel I am working on, but it's to help with structure and plot, and tarot will show up nowhere in the content. Any book I've seen that uses tarot as an obvious element has always seemed contrived to me. But to use it to tell the fortunes of your characters behind the scenes, that I get.
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Nice! Care to share how you use it for structuring (as opposed to plot)? I've often wondered about using Tarot to do the same thing but wasn't sure how to approach it.
 

Disa

GreenFlame, I sorta like your idea.I'm with Griz, though about not perpetuating stereotypes, and what TarotBear said, too. Fiction or not, people get an idea about something and it just grows from there. We should do our best not to show ourselves as something unsavory to the masses. Good luck with your story :)

bogiesan said:
Have you written something as complicated as a novel before? Successfully submitted fictional material to an editor for consideration for publication? Or are you doing a personal project, perhaps a self-published e-book?

Writing is hard. Writing well is very hard. Writing something that will get published is stupid hard and writing what people will enjoy reading enough to pay you for it is beyond the skills of most humans.

Tarot as a primary vehicle or backstory plot mechanism has been done hundreds of times but it's only been done well a few times. Find those few books and learn from their authors.
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True dat! ALL of that. Writing is much harder than people think, but GreenFlame is young, he has to start somewhere.


bogiesan said:
Just my opinion, the best tarot tropes are never (or only superficially) supernatural. Stooping to spirits or inexplicable or hidden forces is a tyro's copout.
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Gotta disagree to a point here. People who see, sense, and hear spirits can write about this stuff and it isn't a copout. It isn't really always considered "super natural", but rather a very natural thing to have the presence of spirit around. Magic Realism is the closest I can come to defining the genre?

bogiesan said:
Threading tarot into a well crafted story is a monumental challenge but no more so than having a main character make their living as a photographer or an actor. To write convincing characters, the author must know something about their skills.
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Yep.

herself said:
Nice! Care to share how you use it for structuring (as opposed to plot)? I've often wondered about using Tarot to do the same thing but wasn't sure how to approach it.
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I think Corinne Kenner's book "Tarot for Writers" touches on this?
 

herself

I think Corinne Kenner's book "Tarot for Writers" touches on this?
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I've got this, somewhere. I remember reading it at the time and not being that excited by it. Sounds like I need to take another look! :)
 

BrownBear

I would like to encourage you to follow your dream and give that novel a try. No writers are born famous. Many are called, and few are chosen. But we all started at the same place. I have some horrible early attempts under my bed that will never see the light of day, but I learned a lot from the process of writing them, and now I am regularly published. So give it a go.
 

GreenFlame

BrownBear said:
I would like to encourage you to follow your dream and give that novel a try. No writers are born famous. Many are called, and few are chosen. But we all started at the same place. I have some horrible early attempts under my bed that will never see the light of day, but I learned a lot from the process of writing them, and now I am regularly published. So give it a go.
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Thanks, I will..can you private message me/write here a few names of your books, i'd love to read them xD :3
 

MarkMcElroy

A Writing Tool for Tarot Readers

There's a free tool for exploring your characters (and your story, and your plot!) over at TarotTools.com, along with examples of how it can be used.

The character generation template is here:

http://www.tarottools.com/tarottools-character-generator-2/

and a detailed example of the tool in use is here:

http://www.tarottools.com/how-to-create-characters-and-stories-with-the-character-generation-tool/

Full disclosure: I made these! I'm happy to offer them freely, and would be happy to hear how they help you or others.
 

Teheuti

GreenFlame said:
I had an idea for a book, now i'm gonna share it with you guys not just because I want opinions, but also because since i dont really have knowledge in tarot and tarot books (not that much at least) maybe someone else already did a book like that, and I don't wanna copy someone book or whatever. So now this is the idea (its still raw and i need to expand it)
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GreenFlame - Your book idea sounds intriguing. Go for it.

There are quite a few novels that have included tarot to a greater or lesser degree and a few have taken elements from the Fool's Journey idea. _The Book of Paradox_ by Louise Cooper (1973) is one of these, but anything you write will be utterly unique. It can't help but be.

I don't really recommend your reading other tarot novels if you want to write one. Study tarot itself and write your heart out.
 

herself

Teheuti said:
Study tarot itself and write your heart out.
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This is such wonderful advice. And it's very brave of you to share your book idea. I look forward to hearing updates about your progress!
 

GreenFlame

MarkMcElroy said:
There's a free tool for exploring your characters (and your story, and your plot!) over at TarotTools.com, along with examples of how it can be used.

The character generation template is here:

http://www.tarottools.com/tarottools-character-generator-2/

and a detailed example of the tool in use is here:

http://www.tarottools.com/how-to-create-characters-and-stories-with-the-character-generation-tool/

Full disclosure: I made these! I'm happy to offer them freely, and would be happy to hear how they help you or others.
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Thank you so much, and congrats for making those things :3 i'll make sure to use them when i start writing :3
 
Any good books? Tarot meanings and reading intuitively.