(Tarot Prompts for Writers)
Keep the image and meaning of The Devil in mind as you develop a story. But go beyond the card — don’t stress about any aspects you “should” include. The card is just a tool to prompt ideas. You can take it anywhere. Tempt your reader.
First line prompts
- He’d been serving Lucifer for thousands of years but he’d never seen the devil in such a mood.
- The last thing he remembered before he woke up in Hell was his son pointing a shotgun at his heart.
- The music had just reached a crescendo and she felt weightless in his arms, dancing on clouds, when she looked down and saw not shoes at the hem of his pants but hooves. (This line is dedicated to my late mom, who often told the story of a friend of a friend who danced with the devil, god’s honest truth.)
Continue the scene for another 500 words, in any direction you wish to take it. Change to third or first person or switch genders as you see fit. Make this an opening to a longer work or a complete flash fiction.
Setting Prompt
Your story takes place in Hell.
Remember the meaning of The Devil, but imagine any hellish world that excites you. Try the fiery landscape from the card at left, or use your own preferred deck to inspire your setting. Or invent a whole new hell for your story. Perhaps the damned aren’t even human. Perhaps the fallen angels haven’t yet arrived.
Consider the climate, the temperature, the geography, the architecture. How old is this place? What does it look like? Is it cramped and crowded or vast and empty? What kind of creatures are there? Is this an afterlife or a virtual world, or does it exist parallel to regular life? There are no limits to your fictional setting — invent a hell that excites you.
Imagine one particular day in hell for one particular character. There they are, in Hell. What can they see, hear, feel, smell, taste? Give them a purpose: to escape damnation. They have a compulsion to leave and they’ve found a way — I leave those little details up to you. Maybe it’s the devil himself, who comes and goes as he pleases; maybe it’s a soul who feels wrongly damned and has to attend an appeal hearing; maybe it’s a human who snuck into Hell to rescue some beloved or accomplish some task.
Describe the hell they pass through on their way out. (Who they are and how they got there may come to you as you write.)
Planners can do a setting sketch — sensory details, maybe a map, and notes on what’s going on here.
Pantsers can write a paragraph or three describing the hellish scene as the hellion sneaks away.
Rewrite Prompt
Re-tell the tale of a deal with the devil in a new genre or with a new twist.
Try Faust, Dorian Gray, Daniel Webster — or any copy of a copy you’ve ever enjoyed. (Goodreads has a fun Faustian list.) They all have the same premise: someone sells their soul to the devil. They’re offered that thing they want so badly, that thing they truly deserve, for 0% financing, no money down, just a promissory note for future payment of a teeny tiny soul.
What exactly they get and give, how exactly the deal is struck, is up to you. Make your rewrite a comedy, a romance, a police procedural, a horror story. Move us to sympathize with the one who sells her soul, or make us side with the devil in damning her. Show us some poetic justice, or non-stop action, or stream of consciousness, or biting dialogue between the devil and his dupe.
Write a scene at one end of this oft-told tale: either at the time the deal is made, or at the time the devil comes to collect. Show us who these characters are by how they manoeuvre around each other.
Happy writing!
Images on the banner are by the following artists, left to right: Marseilles deck engraved by Nicolas Conver; Dragon Tarot illustrated by Roger and Linda Garland (also shown in the box); Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith (also shown in the box below); Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington.
Catherine Austen 