(Tarot Prompts for Writers)
Keep the image and meaning of The Magician 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. Take control, like the Magician.
First line prompts
- Everything was laid out before me.
- Glass, copper, wood and steel — they had everything they needed.
- It’s always so hard to choose!
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
Tarot-lovers with another preferred deck can use that to inspire their setting prompt — maybe a dim workshop or dusty library — but I like the feel of this bright landscape…
Your story opens in the heat of the day, outside, in a park or yard. A table is set before you. There might be an audience or you might be alone, but there’s no danger here.
Remember the meaning of the Magician, but go beyond the card itself to imagine this world at the start of a story.
Consider the time and place. Is it here and now? Eighteenth century? 2125? An otherworld? It looks like Spring or Summer. Maybe the third week of a heatwave? Or the first day without snow?
Is the magician the first of their kind to arrive on this planet and they’re just assessing the contents of their luggage? Or is this a busker at a magic festival or a performer at a school event in a town like yours?
Think about what sounds you might hear in this place. What you might smell and feel. What creatures might be in the grass. Is it windy or still? Is the magician sweating in those long sleeves?
Describe the world this character is in right now. 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 a character stands in the hot sun making big decisions.
Character Prompt
Your protagonist works wonders on their own. They’re smart and organized and thoughtful. Not a bumbler. They know the value of their tools and skills.
Think about the Magician and the ways that others see them, and create a character who has many skills and secret techniques — and who will have to use them in the story they’re about to embark on.
Consider the character’s exterior (species/gender/age/abilities) and interior (temperament/interests/beliefs/fears). Think about their history — where’d all their stuff come from? Are they selling it? Packing it? Assigning it to their heirs? If they’re about to pack it up and head off, where are they going? They look like they’re planning something — what do they hope will happen?
Now show that character to your reader.
Planners can write a character sketch and a diary entry about hopes and dreams, what tools they’re looking at and how they might have to use them.
Pantsers can write a scene of the character thinking, speaking, and acting as they pack up and head off to great things.
Object Prompt
A table.
This table can look like the Magician’s — it might be laid with a cup, a sword, a pentacle, a wand — but it doesn’t have to! Imagine any table. Let your vision loose.
What does it look like? Feel like? What’s it made of? How big is it? What’s on it? Who’s around it? Is someone under it?
Who prepared the table? When? For whom? Is it a dusty table in an abandoned house laid out for a dinner that never happened? Is it a folding table in a laundry room where a tired mother left a pile of towels? Is it a preparation table in the back room of an apothecary where dangerous substances are weighed?
Does it trigger memories or ideas? Emotions? Yearning?
Write a scene where characters meet at this table.
Thematic Prompts
- Taking stock.
- Someone thinks they have it all in hand.
- We all start out so brave and strong.
Freewrite for five minutes on any of these themes. Wax poetic. Make magic.
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 (also featured alone in mid-page); Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith; Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington.
Catherine Austen 