(Tarot Prompts for Writers)
Keep the image and meaning of The Lovers 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. Be open-hearted, like the Lovers.
Setting Prompt
Your story takes place at a wedding. At least two people are gathered together, possibly hundreds. Where are they?
Remember the meaning of the Lovers, but imagine any world that excites you. Use the sunny open-air image from my tarot deck, or use your own preferred deck to inspire your setting. Or invent a whole new world for your wedding — perhaps the lovers aren’t even human.
Consider the time and place. Is it here and now? 6000 BC? A post-apocalyptic future in which some other sapiens adopts human customs? A dream world where someone weds the one that got away? There are no limits to your fictional setting — pick a place that excites you, where something exciting might happen.
Imagine the day — the weather, the surroundings, the architecture. Feel the sunshine, smell the flowers, admire the clothes. Or shiver in the rain and smell the decay and tuck your frozen hands in the pockets of your robe. What can you hear? Crowds murmuring? Musicians tuning up? A jilted lover screaming for this to stop? What’s the mood?
And who are these lovers about to be wed in this place? Describe the world that has brought them together.
Planners can do a setting sketch — time and place, five senses, maybe a map, and notes on what might happen here.
Pantsers can write a paragraph or three, from one lover’s point of view, describing the scene as they wait to be wed.
Rewrite Prompt
Re-tell the story of famous lovers in a new genre or with a new twist.
Try Cinderella and Prince Charming, or Romeo and Juliet, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Buffy and Angel. Or dig for lesser known lovers, or lovers from your own cultural background.
Or start with real-life lovers — that Hollywood couple whose divorce is all over the news; that political power couple who seem so smitten; that small-town religious couple whose marriage ended in murder.
Take a story that has already been plotted — by life or by another author — and mess with it. Tell it the way you think it should have happened. Or tell it from a point of view you think is missing from the public version.
Write an opening paragraph in which these lovers are about to be wed. Perhaps your narrator is looking back on the day. Or perhaps they’re at the event looking back on the road here. Or perhaps they’re not looking back at all; perhaps they’re looking forward to something sinister they’ve planned that no one at this party is expecting… It’s up to you who gets the happy ending in your rewrite.
Happy writing!
Images on this page are by the following artists: Banner (and top box), left to right: Marseilles deck engraved by Nicolas Conver; Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington; Dragon Tarot illustrated by Roger and Linda Garland: Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti (also shown in the box below).
Catherine Austen 