(Tarot Prompts for Writers)
Keep the image and meaning of The Tower 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. Write a powerful tale.
First line prompts
- It was his life’s work and he thought it would last till the end.
- We were at the table, buttering bread and arguing over politics, when lightning hit the roof.
- She wasn’t snooping; she heard his phone buzz and picked it up, reached across the bed with a smile that vanished when she read the text.
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 opens in a tower.
Ponder the meaning of The Tower, but go beyond the card to imagine your setting. It might look like the broken stone tower in this tarot card — tarot-lovers with another deck can use their image to inspire their setting — but it doesn’t have to resemble any card. Imagine whatever tower excites you.
Maybe it’s the Tower of London where Anne Boleyn awaits execution. Maybe it’s an ice tower where an evil sorcerer has imprisoned his enemies. Maybe it’s a tower of blocks two toddlers are building together at daycare. Anything goes. (And it’s entirely up to you if the tower is about to be destroyed, as in the Tower card, or if it’s going to stand forever.)
Consider the time. Is it here and now? Past or future? What season? And what time of day when your story opens — dawn? midnight? noon?
Think about the place. What country? What planet? What culture? What surrounds the tower? Ocean? Forest? Metropolis? Empty space? And what does it contain? Prisoners? Sheltering creatures? Artefacts? The greatest poem ever written?
Why was your tower built and what is it used for now? Are you narrating from inside the tower or outside of it? What can you see, feel, smell and hear here?
Now show this tower to your reader.
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, as the tower comes under threat.
Object Prompt
Your object — not one you can hold in your hands — is lightning.
Think about The Tower and what it means, and then think about lightning, its actual properties and its mythological associations. You might write a story about a bolt of lightning striking a tower, but you don’t have to. Any tale sparked by lightning will do.
Maybe yours is an adventure story of a storm at sea. Maybe it’s a memoir about that time on the beach when you were almost hit by lightning. Maybe it’s a drama about a domestic fight in the midst of a storm. Or maybe it’s a children’s story about a dog afraid of lightning.
Start with the lightning itself and see where you take it. What does your lightning look like, feel like, sound like? Is it heat lightning, sheet lightning, lightning in a bottle? Zeus’s weapon?
Think about using lightning in a story. Does someone see it? Is someone is struck by it? Is someone terrified of it? Or chasing it? Have they been looking forward to it or dreading it? Does it trigger memories or emotions? Does it put something at risk?
Write a scene where lightning strikes and shatters something, for good or ill.
Happy writing!
Images on this page are by the following artists: Banner, left to right: Marseilles deck engraved by Nicolas Conver; Dragon Tarot illustrated by Roger and Linda Garland; Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti (also shown in the box below).
Catherine Austen 