Tarot for the Fiction Writer

Paula Chaffee Scardamalia

… myth, magic, and transformation …

This book is for the writer daring to brave the unchartered waters of writing a novel. Whether those waters are the writing life and business or the current novel in progress, the tarot is compass and map.

Because story is inherent in its structure, the tarot is an effective storytelling tool. Myths, symbols, characters, settings and conflicts are all found within the images of its 78 cards. Those images and their innumerable combinations give the writer a powerful, portable, imaginative tool for story from initial idea to editing and revisions to publication and promotion.

Excerpt:

As a fiction writer, experienced or not, writing is a mysterious process. Sit with a group of writers talking about their current works in progress (WIP) and you are apt to hear comments like:

“My characters just took over the story!”

“I was going along full force, and suddenly the story just lost steam.”

“I don’t get it. I have a strong beginning and a dramatic ending but my middle…”

Writing is a wild, unpredictable adventure, a journey into deep and uncharted waters. You set out thinking you know where you are going, only to discover that you’ve lost your sense of direction and haven’t the slightest idea of how to course-correct.

Reading book after book on the craft makes your head spin like a compass that’s lost true North.

You don’t need a different map. What you need is a compass that works, so that the maps and charts make sense again, and so that when the wind rises, you know how to tack your sails to head in the desired direction.

The Tarot is that compass…

Testimonials:

…this book absolutely and clearly shows the similarities of the tarot and a story, and how you can use the tarot to inspire and navigate the storytelling process.
~Rebecca Elson, The Magical Buffet (website)

…she suggests great questions I can ask the Tarot to further my characters’ development, or questions on how to move the plot forward… she also poses questions that I can ask myself, the writer, to help me build my own confidence in writing…
~ Irene P.

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