(Tarot Prompts for Writers)
Keep the image and meaning of Strength 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 disciplined and finish this story.
First line prompts
- His teeth were coated in a meaty scum and his breath was rank.
- As any good assassin knows, the first step to success is mastering your childish impulses.
- The reporters called him a man-eater, the terror of our town, but a woman walked right up and caressed his face.
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 at high noon in a small place of safety.
Maybe it’s exactly like the card at left: a grassy clearing, surrounded by rugged mountains. Or maybe that’s more of a metaphor and your place of safety is a closed bedroom in a volatile home, a closed stall in the bathroom of a hellish boarding school, a fenced playground beside a dark wood where someone’s gone missing. Picture one small place of comfort in a big scary world.
Remember the meaning of Strength, but go beyond the card to imagine any safe place that strikes you as a promising setting. Close your eyes and picture this place and feel the character who’s safe here.
It’s nice here. It’s pleasant. It’s yours. There’s nothing to fear if you stay — you have everything here under your control. But the world beyond is dangerous, unknown, unforgiving. And you’re going to have to go out there.
Consider the time and place. Is it here and now? A post-apocalyptic future? Neanderthal days? Is this spring, summer, or late fall when your supplies have run dry? Is this a virtual world? An afterlife? There are no limits to your fictional setting — anywhere safe surrounded by danger will do.
Your character knows they’ll have to leave soon. Feel their attachment to this place, their fear of leaving it. They must be strong. They must control their fear. They must be mature enough to face the reality that they have to leave. Maybe give them a companion animal for solace and support. A lion, a boar, a border collie. They might have to persuade the critter to come with — but they’re good at persuasion.
So here they are, in this place of safety, knowing it’s time to leave. Feel the landscape — what can you see, hear, smell? What’s the temperature? What’s the mood?
Now show this setting to your readers.
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 describing this safe place as your character prepares to leave.
Maxim Prompts
- What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. (Hah!)
- He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.
- When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Freewrite for five minutes on any of these sayings.
To turn the saying into a scene, think about who’s quoting it, under what circumstances. Where are they and what’s going on? Do they believe the saying? Who are they trying to convince, and is it working?
Happy writing!
Images on this page are by the following artists: Banner, left to right: Marseilles deck engraved by Nicolas Conver; Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington; Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith; Dragon Tarot illustrated by Roger and Linda Garland.
Catherine Austen 