Teneice Durrant, creator of Tarot with Ten, will use various tarot and oracle decks to provide monthly readings for writers, with exercises on using imagery and intuition as prompts. July’s prompt concerns a story’s falling action.
Falling action as change
In the last two months, we’ve plotted the rising action and climax of our story, so this month, we are dealing with the fall-out, or falling action.
What does the world look like now that the main character, or protagonist, has finally figured out what’s important?
Are there changes to the physical world or has the landscape only shifted in the mind?
Are any relationships (with the love interest or antagonist) reinforced or are they shattered?
Has the main character lost their sense of purpose now that they have achieved their goal?
Let’s draw some cards and see what we can come up with.
Ten of Cups Reversed
As always, these images are from the Rider Waite tarot deck, via Pixabay (Creative Commons license), and you can flip through all cards from this reading here:
While the Ten of Cups upright is the happily ever after card, in the reverse position, it is the recognition that everything has been an illusion. Everything that your main character thought made a fulfilling life is tipped upside down and emptied. Your main character now has to figure out what their real purpose is.
Four of Swords
The four of swords is a card of rest and healing; the literal laying down of swords. The fighting is over and your main character needs a safe, sacred space to recuperate. In the stained glass, the priest is bestowing a blessing, and this is a good time for a blessing to occur for your protagonist. They have done well and deserve a gift.
Six of Pentacles
This is the card of balancing resources. If your main character is in need, someone from their previous life returns to help out. If your character is now in a position of abundance, part of finding their new purpose could be giving to others or returning to the place where the inciting incident happened to give back to that community.
A writing exercise
As with previous prompts, take a minute to write down all of the literal images you see in the cards. The colors, the people, where they are, how they are dressed. Briefly write a scene for each of the cards that uses the senses to interpret what’s going on. Then, see how these scenes or sensory impressions might help your main character resolve whatever was brought up during the climax.
I hope these cards have helped you steer your main character toward resolution of your story’s tension. Next month, we will discuss the finale or epilogue to see what the long-term implications are once the protagonist finds their way.
Until then, here’s how to find me outside of the Center:
Podcast anchor.fm/tarotwithten
YouTube Tarot with Ten
What did you think of this tarot reading and the cards as visual prompts for story development? Share with us in the comments, and contact us if you’re interested in working one-on-one with Teneice in writing with tarot.
Want to receive tips and inspiration like this in your inbox every Sunday morning? Join our email list community! You will receive weekly advice, a year’s worth of weekly writing prompts as a FREE download, and be eligible to participate in our monthly photo prompt contest for a chance to share an original piece of writing with our community of more than 2,500 writers.
