Coffee House Writers

Top Menu

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Article Categories
    • Creativity
    • Culture
    • Design
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Fiction
    • Food
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home
    • Lifestyle
    • Memories
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Politics
    • Relationships
    • Sports
    • Style
    • Technology
    • Travel
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Founder
  • Meet Our Admin
    • Chief Editors
    • Editors
    • Poetry Editors
    • Advertising Team
    • Recruiting Team
  • Testimonials
  • Apply
  • Login

logo

Coffee House Writers

  • Home
  • Article Categories
    • Creativity
    • Culture
    • Design
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Fiction
    • Food
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home
    • Lifestyle
    • Memories
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Politics
    • Relationships
    • Sports
    • Style
    • Technology
    • Travel
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Founder
  • Meet Our Admin
    • Chief Editors
    • Editors
    • Poetry Editors
    • Advertising Team
    • Recruiting Team
  • Testimonials
  • Apply
  • Login
  • A Piece Of Deadwood

  • The Island Flamingo: Chapter 17

  • Perils of Gaming

  • Paradise Falls: Chapter 8

  • Autumn Whispers

  • The Red Maiden, Part Twenty

  • The Witching Hour

  • Getting Away with Murder

  • The Inhabitants

  • All the Books

  • The Vampire of Longbourn

  • Cause of Death

  • An Ode to Swedish Metal

  • Éowyn, Queen of Earth

  • Reading Values

  • Autumn, Halloween’s Escort

  • The Thing About Football

  • Score Success for Two

  • The Island Flamingo: Chapter 16

  • Droplets Of Joy

  • The Red Maiden, Part Nineteen

  • Paradise Falls: Chapter 7

  • The Calm After the Storm

  • From Across the Void

  • Take Me Out to Bananaland

  • Pangea’s Dilemma: The Looking-Glass

  • Womanly Advice

  • A Gap in Time – 5

  • Jane’s Chance Encounter

  • One Fine Spring Day

EntertainmentCultureCreativityLifestyleNonfiction
Home›Entertainment›Writing With Tarot: Building Character

Writing With Tarot: Building Character

By Haley P Law
July 19, 2021
698
0
Share:
Writing with Tarot - breathe life into your characters
Photo by Haley P. Law

Part 1 | Part 2


A person is stuck in your head. You see them when you close your eyes, when you gaze unfocused into space, and even when you’re being productive. This person, however, is not your partner, your child, or even an unrequited love. They’re a character in a story yet to be written. They invade your thoughts, demanding to be seen and heard.

In life, character is revealed through choices made. As writers, our characters also reveal themselves by the choices they make in the story. Using tarot to breathe life into a character can help shape both the relationships as well as the plot.

Start with Introductions

All relationships begin with introductions. Why would you begin relationships with your characters, who you will likely spend a significant amount of time with, any other way? Tarot cards can help not only get to know a character but also form a deep connection. 

First impressions are key in all relationships and begin with basic information: gender, age, personality. 

While cards in traditional decks often depict a human figure with a predetermined gender, many modern decks are interpreted as gender-neutral. You can choose to stick with the traditional interpretation, or use a modern deck to determine whether the character’s energy feels neutral, feminine, masculine, or something else entirely.

A character’s age can be deduced based on the card’s position in the sequence. In the pips, or numbered cards, lower numbers can represent younger, or less mature, characters. While higher numbers can indicate a matured or wizened character. In court cards, pages are youthful with a sense of naïveté, Jacks are in the midst of action, while Queens and Kings have learned their lessons and grown with their kingdoms. This metaphor can apply to your characters, whether your story contains pages, jacks, queens, or kings, or any representation thereof. 

The card’s sequential order can also be interpreted as a character’s point on their journey rather than their age. Aces generally represent beginnings while higher numbers indicate a fulfillment or completion.

Additionally, the symbols in the cards are excellent tools to paint a personality portrait. By determining which suit best represents a character you can identify their emotional drives, motivations, and standard method for operation. 

  • Pentacles – The suit of the earth element. Grounded. Stable. Interested in material things and security.
  • Swords – The suit of the air element. Intellectual. Logical. Interested in language and communication.
  • Wands – The suit of the fire element. Passionate. Driven. Interested in goals and desires.
  • Cups – The suit of the water element. Emotional. Imaginative. Interested in relationships and creativity.

As you select cards, set aside your logical brain and use your creative intuition to piece together the symbols in the ones you’re drawn to. This process can identify what drives a character. 

Here are a few additional questions for the cards to get to know any of your characters. Draw as many cards or ask as many questions as you need to bring your character to life:

  • Where does this character fit in your cast?
  • What is their home life like?
  • Do they have a spouse?
  • Do they have children?
  • Do they have a sidekick or pet?
  • What do they do for fun or entertainment?
  • What is their occupation?
  • How do they feel about their occupation?
  • What do they desire most from life?
  • What are their biggest fears?
  • How does their zodiac sign shape their behavior?
  • How does their childhood affect their present?
  • What was their first memory?
  • Why is it their first memory?
  • What is their physical appearance?
  • What identities do they embrace most fully?
  • Are they a public figure?
  • What are their strengths?
  • What are their weaknesses?

Signifier Card

Once you’ve determined some of their main traits, you might be drawn to identify a single card that seems to embody the character. This card, known as a signifier, can be pulled from the deck and set to the side to set the energy of follow-up readings.

Spreads for Character Development

Try any or all of these spreads, drawing one card for each element in a reading to further develop your characters.

  • Charcter’s lifestyle – Personal life, professional life, inner/emotional life.
  • Character’s Growth – Beginning state, internal conflict, external conflict, ending state.
  • Character Motivations – Character’s goal, Character’s “why” for wanting this goal, what will happen if they succeed, what will happen if they fail.
  • Identify your Cast (each card represents a character): Protagonist, antagonist, supporting character.  

Writing Exercise

Now it’s your turn. Try these tarot readings and spreads to get to know a character, then use your creative mind to interview them. Identify a signifier card to represent them, pull the card from your deck and set it out beside your writer’s journal. Ask your character to tell you about themselves. Allow them to use their voice as you breathe life into them on the page.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, Plotting Stories with Tarot.

Happy writing and reading!


Feature photo by Haley P. Law.

Tagscoffee house writers nonfictionwriting inspirationWriteWriting with Tarotwriting advicemagicalwritingTarot for Writerswriter's blockwriting lifeWriterTarot for Inspirationpsychic readingswriting communitywritersLearn Tarotpsychic mediumsdivinationcraft of writingStart Writing Fictiontarot readingsCoffee House Writersbuild character with tarotmagicktarot readingwriting tipswriter's inspirationtarot cardswriting craftpsychicTarotmagicnonfiction
Previous Article

South Carolina’s Boo Hag

Next Article

Stella

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Haley P Law

Haley P. Law graduated from Texas State University with a BFA in Mass Communications and Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. She is a native Texan, currently living in Austin.

Related articles More from author

  • Trees silhouetted against a brightening sky
    EnvironmentCreativityPoetry

    Why Must You Cry?

    August 15, 2022
    By Ritu Anand
  • Child
    MemoriesEntertainmentCultureCreativityFamilyPoetry

    Flashback

    October 25, 2021
    By Scarlett Faye
  • HomeEnvironmentCreativityFamilyMemories

    Eight Ways To Beautify Your Garden

    May 25, 2020
    By BriVee
  • Droplets on a spider's web precious moments
    MemoriesTravelEnvironmentHealthCreativityPoetry

    Precious Moments Last, but a Moment

    June 6, 2022
    By Ritu Anand
  • forbidden couple baby love
    CreativityFamilyRelationshipsFictionHomeCulture

    Forbidden Union

    August 5, 2019
    By Allorianna Matsourani
  • Woman at bar
    CreativityFamilyRelationshipsEnvironmentFictionMemoriesCultureEntertainment

    Widow Speak

    June 22, 2020
    By Eric Carasella

Leave a reply Cancel reply

You may be interested

  • FamilyPoetryMemories

    Apartments: A Poem

  • Live More Worry Less
    NonfictionHealthCultureStyleMediaCreativityDesignEntertainmentLifestyle

    New Year; New Project

  • RelationshipsFictionPoetryMemoriesHome

    It Had To Be His Halo

Timeline

  • September 18, 2023

    A Piece Of Deadwood

  • September 18, 2023

    The Island Flamingo: Chapter 17

  • September 18, 2023

    Perils of Gaming

  • September 18, 2023

    Paradise Falls: Chapter 8

  • September 18, 2023

    Autumn Whispers

Latest Comments

  • Cast In Marble (is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine) – Ivor.Plumber/Poet
    on
    September 8, 2023
    […] Hello dear readers and followers, as you may know, I now write for “Coffee House ...

    Cast In Marble

  • In This Limbo, (at Coffee House Writers) – Ivor.Plumber/Poet
    on
    September 8, 2023
    […] https://coffeehousewriters.com/in-this-limbo/ […]

    In This Limbo

  • A Day At The Race, (is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine) – Ivor.Plumber/Poet
    on
    September 8, 2023
    […] Hello dear readers and followers, as you may know, I now write for “Coffee House ...

    A Day At The Races

  • A Welcoming Roar, is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine – Ivor.Plumber/Poet
    on
    September 6, 2023
    […] Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a ...

    A Welcoming Roar

  • Birds on Fences, is in This Weeks Coffee House Writers Magazine – Ivor.Plumber/Poet
    on
    September 6, 2023
    […] Magazine. … please click on the link below to view my poem, at Coffee House Writers. ...

    Birds on Fences

Find us on Facebook

About us

  • coffeehousewriters3@gmail.com

Follow us

© Copyright 2018-2023 Coffee House Writers. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s administrator and owner is strictly prohibited.