I’m committed to NaNoWriMo this, year, to continue the novel I’m working on, a novel that came together as a personal challenge.
Each character was created by a card draw, all the characters have a POV, and each chapter’s conflict is based on a card draw. The story also contains a Cartomancer.
I’m having a blast writing this and I’ve learned a lot about myself and the use of the cards while embarking on this challenge.
So, for this month I’m including posts on my experience in using the cards for creating my story.
For today’s post, I want to share how I got past the dilemma every writer experiences at some point: I don’t know what to write about.
As writers we all know the typical answers—write what you know, or use the stuff going on around you as fodder.
There are books full of prompts and ideas. (I use and love those books!)
But what I have discovered using cartomancy for my writing is this: The themes and stories that are within me can be uncovered with the cards.
Before explaining, I’m going to tell on myself.
In getting my profile all set for NaNo to begin at midnight on Halloween, I was trying to answer the question: What is your novel about?
I’m not good at story blurbs or elevator pitches and have not created one yet for my book. I do know what it’s about, but have yet to fully flesh out its themes.
So, yesterday, I drew a card after asking “what is this story about?”
After looking into the various meanings of the card, I had an interesting aha moment.
First, the card fit perfectly with my heroine and her crisis. But more importantly, the card’s theme fit MY life and what I’m dealing with right now.
I operate from the belief that the cards reveal what we are truly, deeply, feeling. As we all know, we don’t always speak what we are really feeling or we can’t articulate it, or we just have so much stuff on top of the true feelings, they are hidden to us. (which is why I love using the cards—we need to know our real feelings in order to make the right choices—but that’s for another post!)
What the card draw showed me was that my own theme/situation was relevant to my story—even if I began my story a few months ago– the stuff of my life right now was there, underneath, simmering, getting ready to reveal itself to me on a conscious/physical level.
So, while my characters and story seem to have nothing to do with my life, it does, on a different level. I can write about it and not be revealing to all, hey, this is all about me!
Because I understand the emotions and feelings, I can write the story with a depth of understanding—I can “write what I know”
So, when we say “I don’t know what to write about”, that can be translated as, “I’m afraid to really write about what I know, or I’m afraid to look at certain things, or my feelings (and a story about them) are too hidden.
A card draw can reveal a theme, subject matter or characteristic that you do know about and can put in a story—without revealing to the whole world what’s going on inside.
So, you need a plot or setting idea and you draw the Ace of Hearts. Here are some ideas represented by the Ace of Hearts:
The Ace is always about new beginnings and fresh starts. In the same vein, it can represent starting out, such as the path of a child, especially with the hearts suit.
And since it is the Ace of hearts, the focus can be on a child, or teen, crossing into adulthood. It’s a plot about growing up, also known as the Maturation plot. (Hearts start at home and venture out)
The young protag has things to learn and those things can be very difficult. But in growing and learning through the difficulties, they enter adulthood a better person.
If you don’t want to have a young (child) protag, then look at a person who goes from one stage of life into another due to the circumstances they’re presented with.
For example: A college student has to stop school and go back home to care for a dying parent; a thirty something career women discovers she’s pregnant and will step into motherhood when she never expected to go through that door.
A protag can be in one phase of life and with the onset of some circumstance (a difficult one) they must “grow-up” and step into the new phase.
If drawing the Ace of hearts to determine a setting – think of places of innocence: an undiscovered place or the discovery of a place never inhabited before.
To me, the Ace of hearts represents “Home” or that pace where we begin our journey through life.
That could also be an orphanage, the streets, a hospital or the back seat of a cab. We each enter our life somewhere, literally. We also enter somewhere emotionally—into a happy family, unexpectedly to a fearful mother, in chaos to an already too big family or (in the worse situation) a place where one wasn’t wanted.
There are some deep emotional plots/settings to brainstorm with the Ace of Hearts and that is key: Emotions.
It can be great happiness, a joyful celebration or the deep emotions of overcoming something that catapults a hero into catastrophes that polish them into a beautiful shine.
So, you’ve drawn a card to develop a character or to look deeper within one of your characters.
That card is the Ace of Hearts. So, what can you glean from that?
I’m going to just cover some basics. Use it as a jumping off point or to start the creation of a more dimensional character in your story.
This is fiction and what matters more than anything when you use the cards is to let YOUR imagination fly.
If one of these areas sparks an idea or brings to light an aspect of a character, run with it!
OK, as with any personality, we have positive and negative qualities:
Here are a few of both with the Ace:
Positive: A natural leader, ambitious, an initiator, dynamic, independent and self-motivating. Likes fresh starts and new ideas.
Negative: Overbearing, egotistical, selfish, antagonistic or a jealous lover.
Add in the Hearts suit: A very sensitive, driven by their strong emotions person who loves to love, give love, is compassionate, shows affection and is loyal and sensual.
They’re good with people and very social.
So, an Ace of Hearts character is someone with a big, giving heart who deals with life via their emotions and those emotions are strong and motivates them. They are people with fresh ideas and very intuitive. They might seem a bit “odd” because they can have “out there” ideas and they like to talk about them.
Let’s go a bit deeper. In cartomancy, there are two spreads, (earthy and spiritual) so each card corresponds with the seven planets via another card, which adds to their personality traits.
Without going into the details of that, I’m going to do a short list of seven areas of life and how the Ace of Hearts relates to those areas.
How they think/communicate: They have original and entrepreneurial ideas and great money sense. Quick thinkers who like innovative ideas. They can seem overbearing because they can go overboard “talking” about all their ideas.
How they love: They’re very sensitive, creative & dramatic with high ideals about love.
How they “take action”: They like variety and adventures—they also like to flirt and be witty in order to seduce someone. Risk takers and might have affairs to deal with stress if they don’t handle it in other ways.
How they enjoy life: They seek mental stimulation and need to express themselves in a creative way—so, they enjoy events/parties where they can mingle with a variety of people and talk, talk, talk.
How they are disciplined and seek structure: Work and career issues can be their biggest struggle. They need to be creative at work to solve problems and can get too serious and be indecisive.
How they use their intuition: They use it in a global, humanitarian way to support their liberal views. But they can get disappointed easily because they are so emotionally attached to ideas.
How they dream and imagine: If they take the time to explore the “outer realms” they are very mystical, philosophical and can tap into higher wisdom. They typically have faith in a higher power and their inner wisdom.
This last area is a gold mine for a writer working on a character. I call it the “Hero or Monster” area.
This can be the area for their inner story arc:
There is an oscillation between material gains/goals and their ideals. They can either take their powerful “inner wisdom” and do good with it, or they can get lost in those “outer realms” and use to it to escape.
They will experience big fluctuations in their finances and can make it transformational, or lose it all.
Or—you can go simple. If I were to draw an Ace of Hearts and do a quick character sketch, this is what I’d come up with:
(Ace is masculine) So, a male who can be overly dramatic, bossy and very emotional. A drama queen?
Or a man who is super sensitive and has the gift of channeling…and channels an entity that loves to talk! He becomes a mystic for celebrities and gets involved in a big scam—
Oh yeah…I could have a lot of fun with this character!
Let your imagination go wild and use the above as a jumping off point!
Need any help? Feel free to leave a comment or contact me!
This is the second part of my posts about the Joker card. The first one talked about the characteristics of the Joker.
So what if you are drawing for a setting or plot idea and you draw the Joker?
Oh my—what fun!!
Let me list a few characteristics of the Joker again:
Clever
Charismatic
Dramatic
Great need for self-expression and creativity
Forceful opinions
A freedom to express
Artistic
Can be foolish
What place/city comes to mind when you read these words? New York City? Paris? Las Vegas? Miami?
My own town of Asheville comes to mind even.
Get the idea?
Now, what if you need a plot idea and you draw the Joker?
On my Basic Card Meanings page, I list plot ideas for each card. I have the Joker listed as a “Forbidden” plot. This plot can be anything that goes against the conventions of society and is forbidden.
A protag has a dream or quest, but must ignore social conventions to go after it—which of course places hardships on them.
If you draw a Joker for anything, it can be fun to draw a second card and put the two together for a more in-depth idea.
For example, you need a plot idea and you draw a Joker, then you draw another card–say, a 9 of hearts- one idea fora 9 of hearts would be: Global travel to go after a wish.
How about traveling to another country to capture the heart of someone from a culture that is disliked by the culture of the protag?
Or going to a country one has been banned from to seek the one they love?
Inception comes to mind here — Attempting an unconventional plan in exchange for an opportunity to finally enter a country you’ve been banned from so you can reunite with your loved ones.
The ideas are endless!
The point with the draw (any draw) is always to get those ideas started and flowing — then you can land on what you want, twist it around however you see fit and go for it!
Ah, the Joker-that silly, wild card that can take the game in a new direction….
The Joker has no suit, no color and no number. It is seen as the wild card in many card games and can be likened to the Tarot’s “Fool” card.
A bit of trivia to start: The modern Joker is an American invention, originating around 1870 for the game of Euchre. German or Dutch settlers brought the game here and the word “Euchre” is the English spelling of an old German term, “Juker” meaning “jack knave.”
In the game, the most valuable cards are two Jacks, known in play as Right Bower and Left Bower, a corruption of the German Bauer. Some versions of Euchre use a third Bower, called the Best Bower. The Joker was actually born to represent the Best Bower.
The Joker is usually depicted as a jester or harlequin and was probably based on the tarot’s Fool.
The original Italian name of the Fool card is il Matto and a closer translation of it is “Lunatic”, or “the madman”.
Back when freedom of speech was unheard of, lunatics were the only ones to express themselves freely, blurting out what they thought. No one paid any mind to them—yet, their words could sometimes be truth. But because they weren’t given any credence, their insanity acted as a shield.
Mental insanity could grant you freedom of speech and could also act as a bridge between mortals and heaven. During the Renaissance, the jester, although the lowest member of the court, was entitled to tease, to advise, to jest with no negative consequences.
So, both the Joker card and The Fool card share the dichotomy between their mortal and intellectual condition-imperfect humans-raised to a level of “spiritual” authority and given winning power when used in the card games.
Many cartomancers do not use it to read a spread, but for the sake of what I discuss the cards use for, I like to include them.
The joker has many faces, the main ones being: The Lunatic (or Fool) and The Trickster.
In some card games, the Joker might be seen as lucky and can be used as any card you want to use, or as a replacement.
So, when you draw a Joker, think in these terms. If drawing for a character, the joker represents an individual who is unique with special talents. They’re an enigma with natural charisma and not easy to label or define.
They might even be “mad” but as Shakespeare said, “Though this be madness, yet there be method in it.”
That might seem to make drawing the Joker a confusing thing—it’s not. See that character as someone who can get away with anything, gets out of any mess, charms their way into or out of things and is just plain lucky.
They’re great entertainers and very adaptable, putting on a show, out-witting, masquerading, fooling, and charming their way through life. But they also have a serious side, are hard-working, forceful, opinionated and practical.
I call the Joker the soul card. To me, this is where we begin—with our soul/divine-connected self that decides what we want in this lifetime and what we’re going to experience, learn and achieve before we come into a physical body. At this point, we don’t consider a life of challenges an unpleasant way to learn new things—our Soul-Self sees the importance of the lesson. We know that the challenges are not permanent and that we can handle it. This is the attitude of the soul—which is still connected to ALL and knows it is always LOVE and LOVED.
When this is a card for a character, that attitude is at their core. Give them hell, take them on a crazy journey because they are equipped to handle it and pull it off with bling and pizazz!
The Joker is also a great chameleon and magnifies the cards around it. If you draw a Joker and another card as the other character (hero/heroine, protag/antag, parent/child, friend/foe, hero/side-kick, seeker/mentor, etc.) the Joker character can take on the nature of the other card. This can create interesting drama as the Joker character will mirror and reflect back the other character’s issues/needs.
A good example of the Joker in a story is the character of Forrest Gump, a seemingly nit wit, yet he is master of all he chooses to do, oblivious to the logical consequences or hardships of his tasks, spouting truths in his childish talk.
I’ll begin with a disclaimer: I’m not writing about cartomancy as if I were doing a personal “card spread reading”.
That said, the intent of this blog and upcoming ebook is to be a reference for those wishing to utilize playing cards to aid with creativity-because they really do rock as a brainstorming tool!
This post is about the suits and how I view them as the path we all take in life, which is great to remember when you draw a card to help with characterization or conflict/goal ideas.
For me, the “soul” card is the Joker (more on that in a different post) then we are born, which is the Ace of Hearts.
So the first suit on our path is the suit of Hearts.
Home is where the Heart is—the Hearts are our first connection to life with our family, our home and the innocent, youthful view of life. It’s about first love, first connections with family, romance and relationships and of course emotions–how we feel about everything– because as children, we feel our world. We’ve yet to analyze it, or put it in categories or decide what we don’t want or do want, because at this point we want it all.
It is about celebrations (because we are here!) and about happiness—we’ve yet to face the cruel cold world.
The next step on the path is the suit of Clubs– and is about action and learning about our world. We go and we do and we experience, we learn, we teach, we gather information, we analyze and we process. This is an energy/action suit. It can be about psychology, learning to trust, to judge and to utilize what we have learned. This suit strives for harmony within the world.
Then we enter the stage in life where we are building–we are taking the knowledge we gathered and we are creating our stability. This is the suit of Diamonds. We are ensconced in the material world; the world of things, of values, of recognition, rewards and compensation. We come to know and be influenced by the stabilizing (or sometimes not so stabilizing!) world of financial institutions and the government.
This suit encompasses our vitality, our nerves, electricity and working to “improve” our circumstances.
We can see a pretty typical view of one’s path in life to this point. The last suit is the suit of Spades.
They are sometimes seen as the negative suit because they are about all the problems and challenges that we face in life.
If you see the suits as stepping stones and the Joker as the soul, the Spades are the farthest away—which is because life so easily disconnects us from our truest self and as we deal with work, and money and the daily grind, we can feel alone, angry and over-burdened.
BUT-and a big but it is—the spades are about taking the stuff of life and creating wisdom. Allowing negative experiences and emotions to polish us, to help us move beyond the material plane and back toward our higher self, our soul, our connection with the One.
So, while the spades can be about karma, struggles, rationalizing and demanding things to be a certain way, if one is highly developed, they can be a wise guide and a sacrifice for the greater good.
When we use the cards to help us dig deep into a character, using the suits and the path in life can be a great guide for seeing where they are and where they need to go.
It can also tell us a lot about ourselves and our work if we are drawing a card because we are feeling off and need to check in and center ourselves.
The suits are what make each card (number) different from each other, and if you are drawing several cards to represent several characters, you can see how the relationship might be according to what stage each is in.
The next post will be about the Joker.
If you have any questions or you have a project block and would like to draw a card and talk about it with me–please feel free to do so!
I’m going to pretend that I’m a 5 of clubs today–I’m going to change things in here!
In previous posts, I was drawing a random card and breaking the meaning down into sections. From this point on, I’m going to start at the beginning and explain a bit about each card.
I’ll start with the Joker (and I’ll explain why)
I’m currently writing an ebook that will act as a reference book. This ebook will have all the meanings and numerous ideas to help anyone who is utilizing the cards as a brainstorming/creativity tool.
I am also composing a free download with some basic card meanings as well as ways to use the cards to brainstorm.
I would love any feedback if you have used the cards to aid in your story telling ( or poetry, or visual art!)
Please, chime in and talk about your creativity and the cards!
Stay tuned…I’m going to talk about the suits and the walk of life…..
P.S Please join in on the conversations on Facebook!
The card I’ll focus on this week is the 6 of spades.
Creative tip from the 6 of Spades:
Here is a thought for you to chew on: You can tap into the unconscious desires of your generation and through your creativity, manifest those desires, so that others can clearly see, embrace, feel and react to those desires, which is what brings about change.
To me, this is what “Art” is all about and this is why we, as creatives, have a mission to fulfill.
I’m behind on my posting this week and it’s already Friday! So, I’m going to lump all of the categories into one post here for the 4 of diamonds.
Theme for 4 of Diamonds:
Stability & Security in values and finances
Question/Concept: What defines stability in your life? If that was taken away, what would you do?
Character Keywords:
Needs/Has Financial stability
Loves to work & accomplish
Positive thinker
Practical planner
Self-reliant
Can be too critical or stubborn
Likes to put great effort & hard work into what they believe in
To find contentment—needs to blend imaginative ideas or aspirations with practical plans or financial objectives.
Meticulous, loyal, sincere
Conflict:
Can be uncooperative or unsympathetic
Can have a resistence to being restrained—needs freedom to move—but can conflict with need for stability, security & hard work. Can cause flucuating moods.
Restlessness & impatience can undermine hard work.
Person/Place/Thing:
The “Boss”
Office/cubicle
Business card
Bank card
Cash register
Bank office
Lottery ticket
Teachers Pet
Top of desk
Desk drawer
Workaholic
Over-achiever
A closet-fully stocked & organized, ready for anything
“Nose to the grindstone”
Bank vault
Stubborn work horse
Landlord
*My personal challenge for this card/week: I drew 4 cards to write a short romance
Card 1- Heroine
Card 2- Hero
Card 3- Where/How they bumped into each other
Card 4- Ending
The main object/trope in the story will be a business card.
I’d love to hear any additions to this card or if you used it for a creative project!
53 Muses consists of 52 cards plus the Joker in a deck of playing cards. Reading a deck of cards is commonly referred to as cartomancy. 53 Muses teaches you how to use a deck of playing cards to inspire ideas, structure plot, develop characters and dissolve blocks in your creative writing.
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Quick Reference
Using Cartomancy During NaNoWriMo-What Is My Story About? by admin - 11-05-2011 It’s November, which means it's NaNoWriMo time!
I’m committed to NaNoWriMo this, year, to continue the novel I’m working on, a novel that came together as a personal challenge.
Each character was created by a card draw, all the ...Ace of Hearts- Plot & Setting by admin - 10-20-2011 Ace of Hearts- Plot and Setting
So, you need a plot or setting idea and you draw the Ace of Hearts. Here are some ideas represented by the Ace of Hearts:
The Ace is always about new beginnings and fresh starts. In the sa...Ace of Hearts - Character by admin - 10-12-2011
The Ace of Hearts Character—
So, you’ve drawn a card to develop a character or to look deeper within one of your characters.
That card is the Ace of Hearts. So, what can you glean from that?
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If you're birthday is December 30th--you're an Ace of Hearts! In our Zazzle shop, you can view the designs with the Ace of Hearts.
Create a personalized gift at Zazzle...The Joker-Plot & Setting by admin - 09-14-2011 This is the second part of my posts about the Joker card. The first one talked about the characteristics of the Joker.
So what if you are drawing for a setting or plot idea and you draw the Joker?
Oh my—what fun!!
Let m...
Search: Type in the card you’re looking for with a dash and the topic. Ex: Ace of Hearts-Characters
It’s November, which means it’s NaNoWriMo time!
