Writer-In-Progress

I’m in this really fun online workshop for using Tarot cards to build my character. If you read my posts this summer, it’s the same workshop I took back in August. Arwen is a gifted teacher and her lessons(her blog is: http://tarotbyarwen.com/blog/–cool stuff) did such a good job of drawing out my character’s nuances on the former story that I had to jump back in with my new characters to give me insights I would have to struggle to find.

Today I’m catching up on lesson two, and had a fascinating experience. Mind you, my only Tarot “experience” (I’m not a reader but I have always been intrigued and interested in Tarot) previous to this was Arwen’s summer class, so I really have little to go on.

I’m working on the Call to Action, you know, the second step in the Hero’s Journey to all you good writing students out there. I was to shuffle the deck and choose one card at random which would signify the call to action. Just before I shuffled, I looked through the deck to pick out my card from the previous lesson. I passed the Death card and thought…I hope I draw that card. That’s the only way my heroine is going to get involved in the story. It was a completely random thought–I didn’t ponder any other card, and I really didn’t even know what the heck I was talking about.

From there I shuffled. A good, solid five minutes of shuffling while I concentrated on my heroine and her station in life. I cut the deck three times as instructed, put the top pile on the bottom, bottom on top, and drew the top card.

If I said I drew the Death card, would you be surprised? I have to admit I was pretty shocked but pretty amazed. One thing Arwen said in a lesson that I remember vividly is that when you concentrate, the cards will give you what you need. That’s for sure…!

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