The Writer's Tarot™
a Wicked Works Project
Sample Reading Applications Page 2
5) Deckborn Character (draw)
Rather than spreading your character across the nine positional traits above, you could try something more direct—drawing him/her/it straight from your deck.
1) Shuffle the cards
2) Draw cards one at a time from the top, until you’ve acquired two Archetype cards. Note that all cards drawn will be evaluated in building your character.
3) Now, spread out those cards drawn so you can see them all. First, you’ll need to relate the two Archetype cards. How they interact will determine the character’s evolving social role. You must decide which will be the Origin role and which will be the Transition role. The Origin role references how your character started out, regardless if by chance or design. The Transition role is how the character is changing over time, which can exist in direct conflict with Origin role or naturally emerge from it, or else compliment the Origin in a parallel state. Meditate on these two Archetype cards, considering their comparison and contrast and how they would interact. Once you see their relationship, then you’ll know which is the Origin and which is the Transition.
4) From the displayed cards, place the Origin Archetype at the furthermost left end and the Transitional Archetype at the right. The remaining cards will be Incident and/or Element cards. These will also be positioned in sequence along what will soon become the character’s lifeline.
5) Consider the Incident cards next, if any. Using the same meditative technique for determining their relationship to Origin and Transition functional roles (similarities, differences, and interaction), try to imagine where each Incident falls along the character’s lifeline. Also, perform the same meditative exercise between multiple Incidents (if any) in determining their order of occurrence in the lifeline.
6) You’ll now do the same with any Element cards drawn. First, consider their relationship to the Origin and Transition Archetypes, and then with the Incidents. After a while, you should begin to see how the Elements fit, and your character will come into focus.
You can see how this character building process differs from the nine position Spreadborn Character (sample #4). It’s less structured, which may cause difficulty for some, but can also open unexpected doors for the imaginative writer. Either way is fine and entirely up to you (or you can dream up your own layout). The goal is to produce a raw character with enough potential to engage your reader, and then find colorful ways to fill in the blanks later on. Only you can determine which path toward that goal will be your path.
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6) Hybrid Character (mixed)
Once you’re familiar with Spreadborn and Deckborn Character building, consider combining them with the following hybrid approach:
1) Begin with steps 1-3 of Deckborn Character method above.
2) The cards drawn above will next be applied to a Spreadborn layout. First, place your two Archetype cards face-up in position A (Primary Trait) of the Spreadborn layout, with your chosen Transition Role Archetype on top.
3) Next, review the remaining cards from the Deckborn drawing. First, you must relate them to the Primary Trait position, deciding if any of them may represent some character trait which will outshine this character’s Transition Role Archetype. If so, then place that card atop the two Archetypes in the Primary Trait position. Otherwise, leave the Transition Role Archetype on top.
4) Then, relate the remaining Deckborn drawing cards to the other 8 positions of the Character spread, one at a time, finding a home for each one based on your sense of how it relates to what you know so far about your character. Place those cards in their newly assigned positions.
5) After that, you’ll need to fill any remaining vacant positions with face-down cards drawn from the Tarot deck. If there are no vacancies after assigning out the remaining Deckborn cards, all the better. If you have extra cards after filling the spread positions, then you can either discard them unused or else relate them to some other aspect of your character not found in this spread; either way is perfectly acceptable.
As in the previous two sample methods, this one begins to suggest an interesting character. You’ll want to follow up now or at some later point, filling in any other blanks required to complete him/her/it. Remember, you don’t need to define every conceivable trait. Your character is complete when those traits relative to the story have been defined. The rest irrelevant. See the Supplementals page for a list of character traits.
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7) Trait Picker (draw)
Refer to the Character Traits List (found on our Supplementals page). This list contains over 160 different traits for defining your character. Draw cards to produce a random number in selecting one of these character traits to address. You'll need three Element cards to do this, each one representing a single position of your random number: hundreds, tens, and ones positions.
1) Drawing the hundreds position: The hundreds position can only be a 0 or 1, which are binary numeric values. Therefore, we'll retrieve a random binary number. To do this, draw off the deck until an Element card appears. Every Element presents a Yes/No (binary) value, so we'll say "Yes" is numerically represented as "1" while "No" equals "0". And this value will occupy the hundreds position of your random number. Element cards also present actual numeric values from 0 to 9, but it would be too tedious to draw until a 0 or a 1 appears and this binary method is easier.
Note that each of the 27 Elements can equally yield both "Yes" or "No" results, so the chances of one over the other are even. And the same can be said for Male/Female results, so you may wish to assign binary values to these instead. Just make sure to pick one binary assignment system and stick with it.
2) Drawing the tens position: Draw until another Element card appears and assign the number referenced there (0 through 9) as your tens value. If this tens value would exceed the range of character traits (example: "1" for hundreds, plus "9" for tens), then simply draw additional Element cards until an acceptable number appears.
3) Drawing the ones position: Same as step two, but for the ones.
4) Now you have your random trait selection. An example would be drawing Yes/1 and a 4 and then a 2, or 142, which links with “Mental Fatigue” in the Traits List (at the time of this writing). So the focus trait for your character would be Mental Fatigue (his/her/its state of mental fatigue at a fixed point in your story's timeline--which naturally leads to what prior or "in progress" event would have caused such fatigue.
Once a trait has been randomly selected, it’s time to define that trait’s value. You can think up the value on your own if you like, or else draw from the deck and meditate on how the drawn card applies to your targeted trait.
Some traits are quantifiable, with a numeric value. In this case, the selected trait should deviate from the norm (typically a value of 1:Crippling to 7:Superhuman, with 4 being the norm). You can decide for yourself in which direction the deviation moves and how much. Or, draw from the deck for suggested values. But as a rule, remember that these randomly targeted quantifiable traits should yield remarkable results, either above or below the norm. Remember that you don't need to define all of a character's traits, just the ones that make him/her/it stand out in a crowd.
Other traits can be descriptive or subjective. In these cases, the cards may still prove helpful. Consider the Name trait, for example. You could draw from the deck to help think up a name for your character. And maybe you draw the Ring Element card, where the focus word “repetition” catches your eye and the name “Pete” is derived. Or, the last name “Turner” is derived from the focus word “circular” or the “Balance” sense tag triggers a contrasting name of “Tripper.” Maybe you draw the Emperor Archetype card and associate the name “King” from that, or you derive “Walker” from meditating on the Freedom Incident card.
Return all cards and shuffle the deck between trait assignments, and continue this exercise until your character begins to take shape. Also, remember that these values aren’t set in stone. If, along the way, there’s suddenly a strong sense that your character is female instead of an earlier defined male gender, then change the value as you please. The Writer's Tarot™ is here to help, but once your characters begin speaking to you, put the cards down and listen.
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8) Character Versus... (draw)
This is a method for plot or scene development. The goal is to identify a character, and then identify what challenges the character (either in scene or overall story).
1) You can come into this with someone already in mind, selecting a placeholder card from the deck that best represents your character (up to you), and placing that card on the table, face-up, to help you focus. Or, you may use one of the previously defined methods to summon up a rough idea of your character and then assign a placeholder card to represent. For example, use Method 5 specifically, to introduce a new character by drawing into a pile until you have two Archetype cards and then further evaluating these cards as that method suggests, but then record the results and pick a single card to represent that character in this exercise.
2) Now that you have your character in mind (remember, doesn't have to be human or even alive), the next step is to draw a single “Challenge” card from the deck and place it face up on table, in its own separate space. It’s recommended you place your character card to the left and the challenge card to the right, just to keep it straight in your mind.
3) At this point, you should meditate on how the Challenge card relates to the character (which may also bring your character into greater focus). Meditate on the shared and conflicting natures of these two subjects, the character and the challenge, and try to envision where their conflict will occur. Note that the challenge could end up as anything from a fully developed antagonist character/condition to a minor inconvenience within the scene. There are no right answers here. It’s all in how you read the cards.
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