Category: Writing

2020…What a Year!

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Wow, 2020…you have definitely been a year.  Would I say a good year?  Probably not, but was it a total wash? Nope, not really.  Let’s take a little look back at some of my favorite writing posts from this year and you tell me down below in the comments, which was your favorite?

I started the year off with a few of my favorite things when I write – coffee, notebooks, and music, oh my!

A Few Of My Favorite Things…When I Write

I showed how I get into the head of a character and do my various journaling techniques for finding voice.

How To Get Into The Head Of A Character

Then I shared my author journey from NaNoWriMo to Self-Published Writer!

My Author Journey: How I Went From “Oohhh NaNoWriMo Sounds Fun” To “Self-Published Author”

I shared an interview I did with the two main characters of my upcoming YA novel.

An Interview With Etta And Gina

Oooh, I tried to explain why I love writing YA Coming of Age novels — I really, really do — they are the best!

Why I Write Coming Of Age Stories for Young Adults

After quarantine craziness, I talked about how I’m making my writing more fun!

How I’m Making Writing More Fun

I showed how I use Pinterest to create a mood board for my books – with character images, pictures from the novel’s setting, and other things that remind me of my book as I’m writing.

How I Use Pinterest To Create Mood Boards For My Novels

Lastly, I shared a series of how I use Tarot in my writing by creating characters, making an outline, and working through the muddy middle.

Using Tarot Cards (And My Own Spreads) To Write A Short Story

2020 was rough, but I’m actually proud of all I’ve accomplished.  Tell me below, what good things have come out of 2020 for you? 

I hope everyone has a good year end and I’ll see you in 2021!!!

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Using Tarot with my PowerSheets for 2021 Goal Setting

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Most of you probably know this by now — unless you are super new — but I love goal setting!! 

This year, I decided to marry one love with another and use my Tarot cards with my PowerSheets.  Ok, I can hear the questions loud and clear: How do you use tarot with goal setting? What are PowerSheets? Why are you so dang cute?  No? That wasn’t one of your questions?  Are you sure because I’m pretty dang cute?!?  

What are PowerSheets?

PowerSheets are a goal setting workbook from Cultivate What Matters. 

I used their undated 6-month version about two years ago, and while I loved the prep work, I also really like setting quarterly goals so after those were all used up, I didn’t purchase again.  Until, a friend of mine told me that this year they were adding quarterly refreshes and more mini-steps so basically it was my perfect goal setting system!  

Why? Because of the Prep work — 50 or so pages of guided questions to help you analyze and think about what’s important to YOU and your dreams and your vision for the year and for your life.  Not what goals you think you should have, but what goals you want to have.  Not what goals will make your neighbor think you’re awesome, but goals that will help YOU feel awesome and be awesome and do awesome things!

I have a serious addiction to workbooks and guided journals so the prep work is right up my alley. I love diving in and getting into this brain of mine to find out how I tick and what I want to accomplish this year and in life overall. I like taking a big picture look, then narrowing it down bit by bit so I have my five goals for 2021, smaller goals for Quarter 1 of 2021, and then even smaller goals for January 2021.  

It feels soooooo good!

It doesn’t hurt that I get to use bright colored markers, pens, stickers, and washi tape – let that inner child play, you know?!?!

How do you use Tarot with Goal Setting?

So once I figured out my big picture goals for 2021, I got out my deck of cards and started pulling one for each goal.   What I’m doing is getting a litmus test on whether or not this goal is going to work for me or if I need to do anything different. Rewrite the goal maybe? Make sure I include certain things during my quarterly goal setting sessions. Or scrap it all together.  Let me walk you through my five goals below.

Write and Self-Publish Entertaining YA Novels 

I pulled the Nine of Swords which isn’t exactly a great positive card, but I pulled a clarifying animal guide card and got the Shark which is about honesty. What? Ok…right off the bat, you’re probably thinking I’ve lost my mind but I started to really think about things and I realized that I am scared to self-publish again. I love writing, but the business side of things still eludes me and I find myself flailing around.  Nine of Swords is about grief, sadness, anxiety, and worry.  If I’m being honest (The Shark), I have a ton of worry and anxiety around this goal.  These cards helped me come to terms with this fact, made me face that I have these fears and I did actually think about scrapping this goal.  But the fact is, I love writing and love hearing from readers about my books. I want to do this goal, so I know I might have some mindset shirts and some stuff to deal with and that’s okay!

Start my Tarot Business

I pulled The Hierophant and that is awesome! This card is all about spiritual wisdom, traditions, balance and being a teacher or leader – the holder of truth.  I take this as a very good sign that I’m on the right track with my ideas of what I want my tarot business to look like. It’s a little scary putting this out here so early but I want to help writers, actors, musicians, and other creative people deal with blocks, fear of success, imposter syndrome, and life in general using the tarot cards.  I will be doing this via courses, books, and hopefully life coaching. I feel 100% to take this goal on for next year.

Make our Apartment a HOME

Our place is a cluttered mess and I want to change that so I pulled Knight of Pentacles which is all about hard work, charging ahead, productivity, routines, and responsibility.  Basically the road won’t be easy with this goal, but it will be so worth it.  Not much to say here – this was a great card and I feel pretty good about things.

Make my self-improvement a priority

I feel like, honestly, I do this but I wanted to make it an official goal so I have a place to track things and make sure that I’m actually doing it.  The card I pulled for this goal was the 4 of Pentacles.  What?! This is about control, security, not having connection to spirit (okay, getting closer to making sense) and saving money.  So don’t buy a bunch of stuff for self-improvement…but what? I was still confused so I pulled a clarifying animal spirit card for this goal as well and got The Golden Egg which is all about the message at the center of the heart.  Time for introspection and contemplation (adding more meditation back into my life) and staying open to hearing the messages you need to hear.  Basically I need to take the pentacle off the top of my head so I can be open to the divine, and stop controlling every little thing – BE OPEN.  

Now I gotcha and I can keep that in mind while I dig deeper each month.

Live a Magical Life!

I pulled the 9 of Wands…which is all about a test of faith, courage and persistence and being tired. I need to get clear on what I will need to be successful here and then communicate with others. I have to stop allowing things to get in my way. 

It’s me…I get in my own way. 

I want every day to feel magical, I want to use witchcraft to make the mundane into magic.  Stirring my coffee with intentions, charging my lotions for self-love, using my candles and crystals, and seeing myself in a new light.  Maybe the card wasn’t 100% but some good things to remember and it will keep me on my toes this year.

After I did these, I pulled one card to represent all of my 2021 goals and got my old friend, The Chariot. I see this card as my inner guide telling me I’m on the right track.  It’s about action and determination, success and will power, and a spiritual transformation.  I’ll take it!!

Have you started working on your 2021 goals yet?  If you need help, hit me up below and I’ll pull a few cards for you!  

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How To Create An Editing Plan

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

I took a break from my manuscript and now I’m ready to dive back in for what I’m hoping will be the fourth and final round of edits.  If you read my last blog post you know I had some feedback from my editor, so I sat with that for awhile and then made an appointment to speak with my editor about a plan.

We talked about being methodical with the draft so I don’t miss anything – because I’m serious, I’m ready for this book to be out in the world – and really going as slow as I need to accomplish that goal. We also came up with some really good guidelines that I think will help other writers.

Read and create a Reverse Outline

And while you read, take notes – lots and lots of notes. I plan on doing this right in the Word doc I sent to my editor and making my notes and comments in a different color than her notes so I can see them both.  As I’m reading I will create a Reverse Outline – which is my editor’s favorite thing – and for good reason, it helps you see all the big problems right away.  A reverse outline is simply an outline you make after you’ve written your book – instead of mapping out where you want to go, it helps you see where you’ve been (or where you haven’t been). 

Once I’ve read through my book, read through all of her notes and made all of mine, and created a new reverse outline – it will be time for the next step.

Priority Checklist

Since a lot of my editor’s notes were about things that I need to fix book-wide, I’m going to make a checklist of all of those things and look over them while I’m editing.  Things like – are we in a white room or is there description? Do my characters sound the same or different? Is everyone mad or angry or is there variety?  Having one checklist to look over will keep me organized and on track to fixing those book-wide issues that I seem to be having this round.  I call it my priority checklist because these are things that NEED TO BE FIXED!!  Like major attention needs to be paid. 

Planning

Now comes the somewhat fun part, planning my writing sessions. I will look at my calendar and my digital planner and I will start working out how much time I’m going to have each week for editing.  2-3 sessions a week is usually my average with some weekend times thrown in there.  And I usually average one chapter per session so I can plan on having 30-35 days of work to get everything done.  OK! 

Side tip! Get yourself a reward system — use stickers for each day you do your writing and after so many stickers give yourself a treat – either a day off, or a fancy coffee, or time with YouTube.  Make this part fun!

Start working and writing

Once I have my notes, my general checklist, and my plan it’s time to actually start. I will open up the Word Doc and my Scrivener file and  get to work – little by little, fixing each chapter. I read through the notes from me and my editor and fix those first.  Then I’ll go through the checklist and make any and all changes to make sure my chapters are near perfect.  I’m hoping I can get one chapter done per editing session but some chapters might need more sessions so I can adjust as I go.  Try to remain flexible with your own plan – things happen.

Final read through

Since I would like this to be my last major edit, I will do a final read through at the end and run a spell check to catch any glaring errors before sending it back to my editor.  Whew!  That was a lot of steps, but when you want to do something right you need to buckle down and do the work, right?  Right!

Have you ever edited a major project? A book, or large term paper perhaps?  What were your steps?  What are you still curious about in terms of editing?  Let me know in the comments below or email me and I’ll get back to you with my answers.

5 Ways to Handle Feedback & Criticism Like a Champ

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Getting feedback on your writing, or any other task, isn’t always easy. I recently got my manuscript back from my editor with all of her feedback and notes and a video outlining all the things I needed to fix. That same week, I got a pretty harsh review on one of the free Tarot Readings I’m doing as part of my Tarot Reader Certification program (more on that later). In both cases, I felt my heart race, my chest tighten, and I felt like I was on the attack. 

This is normal! 

But instead of crying in my coffee or yelling at the sky, I did these 5 things and felt like a true champ. 

Give yourself time and space

Don’t read through the feedback or reviews (seriously, this works great for those less-than-stellar book reviews!) until you have time to devote to reading it slowly and the mental space to not be distracted by TV, your family, or day job tasks. You want to set time on the calendar to hold space for yourself and for the feedback.

Let yourself feel your feelings

Reading feedback or criticism of any kind is going to bring up all kinds of feelings, this is natural. You’re going to feel defensive, upset, angry – don’t stop yourself from feeling these things. Talk it out – even just to yourself, write it out, dance it out, draw it out, whatever you do when you have big feelings – let yourself feel all the things. This is another reason for taking space, because you want to have the time to feel and process these things.

Take a break

After you read through the entire thing, and you’ve let yourself feel all the feelings – give yourself a break. If this is a major criticism or feedback from your boss or your editor, take a day or two. If it’s something smaller (but still just as serious to your psyche) maybe an hour or two will be sufficient. But give yourself that extended time to let yourself process what you read without responding. This is important – do not email, do not respond, do not take any actions or make any changes until you let yourself take that space away from the feedback. Please, don’t be rash – we can let our emotions get the best of us, send off a quick email, and then realize too late what we did. You don’t want to burn any bridges or cause any hurt feelings.

Re-read the feedback

After your break, re-read the feedback. See how you feel now? Still angry? Feeling better?  Can you now see their point of view? Especially in the case of an editor’s feedback – can you see that she might be right – even if only on certain things?  Is this something you are willing to fix?  Start asking yourself these questions while you re-read the feedback as many times as you need. If you need to email them back or respond in some way, start taking notes about what you want to say. Again – do not respond yet. If you’re still feeling very prickly or on guard, repeat the steps above – talk out your feelings, take a break, and come back. You don’t have to agree on everything but you do need to be able to express that in a calm, clear manner.

Fix the problems

Once you have calmed down, seen the feedback from the other person’s point of view, and responded in a mature manner it is now time to make the necessary changes. Do you need more input? For example, my editor and I are meeting this week to work on a new editing plan for the final draft of this book. In the case of my tarot reading, I just made some choices for how to read going forward, no further input needed. And if you decided not to change something, and you’ve told them in a clear and calm manner, can you live with that choice? Good! 

How do you handle feedback or criticism? Could you try these next time the situation arises? What do you think might happen? Let me know in the comments below!

Next time, I’ll be talking about my editing plan and how to create one for your own book, see you then. 

Ghosts of Writing Past

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

I was doing some rearranging the other day – not cleaning, not decluttering – just rearranging of the stuff, and I found an old binder that had writing pieces I did when I was a kid.  Now these are not the first things I ever wrote, I’m sure, but they are the oldest things I have in this apartment.

To highlight just a few — an autobiography I wrote in 2nd grade, a small booklet written in French about Ma Famille in 3rd grade, a how-to paper about loading a program onto a TANDY computer, and one of my favorites – a small descriptive piece about Main Street in Walt Disney World from 1990 (I was 14 years old!).

MAIN STREET IN WALT DISNEY WORLD

As I walk through the gates at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and step onto Main Street, I see the glorious blue towers of Cinderella Castle at the end of Main Street.  

I get the feeling that I’m in a small nineteenth-century town.  I see the horse-drawn carts taking people to the castle. I see shops such as the Drug Emporium, the Penny Arcade, and a Candy and Ice Cream Shoppe.  At the end of Main Street I can see six different paths leading to different lands of the Magic Kingdom.

All of the people shopping, eating, riding, walking, looking, and taking pictures are smiling and enjoying themselves. 

I think Main Street in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is a fun and exciting place to be. 

Let me first say, I still love Main Street and seeing the Castle for the first time each trip always brings tears to my eyes — so the love of Disney, Magic Kingdom, and Main Street haven’t changed.  Luckily, my writing style has improved somewhat. HA

As I was re-typing that piece I kept wanting to edit and fix and change (I didn’t) – especially redundant phrases – and I wanted to change up the pacing, the sentence structure, and give more details — like what about the smells coming from the bakery and the popcorn carts? What about the sounds of kids who are already crying? What does the shadows look like on the ground as the sun goes through the massive amounts of balloons being sold?  What does the park smell like after it rains?  Or after the horses have gone by during a parade and left their fun…uhm, deposits?  

Writers have you ever looked back on your old writing? What has changed for you?  What has stayed the same?

For me, the things that are still the same when I write are not knowing where to cut off for paragraphs and using way too many examples and action words (shopping, eating, riding, walking, looking — okay, we get it!).  

Readers…was this a fun peek into the child-like mind of Jennifer?  I try to stay in this mode, or a little older, when I’m writing my characters – what would a young adult see when they’re standing on Main Street or writing about it later and telling someone else?  I try to keep this wonder in all things honestly, but especially when writing my Young Adult coming of age novels.

Once Upon A Time…

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Okay, now we are getting into the writing – finally!

This spread will get your creative juices flowing, give you some amazing ideas for how to start your very first scene (or in our case, the first page) and what conflict your characters are facing. Each scene or chapter needs its own conflict – which can be tricky to write (at least for me) so pulling 1-2 cards for each scene to work out the problem can help save you from getting stuck halfway through a draft.

I pulled cards to answer my 5 questions…I feel like Paige is doing something slightly secretive, it’s nighttime and her intuition is coming into play. I think her motivation is to protect itself, help her make a difficult decision – or figure out two sides of an issue. I see the overall conflict of this scene is Heidi, our love interest, but it’s also saying that Paige is overcoming some fears and dealing with unconscious desires. 

The other person in this scene is her Dad. He’s feeling confident and normal – even social and is happy seeing his daughter grow up and become a woman. This all tells me that the very first scene happens before the Mom is arrested. They are in the status quo of a happy existence right now, unaware that tomorrow (?) that the world will come crashing down around them.

Exciting place to be before we get to the Muddy Middle – which is next week’s spread.

Here is my very rough, right out of my brain first draft using these cards as inspiration. Let me know what you think in the comments below or email me and this weekend let’s have a conversation on Instagram about beginnings and what I can do to make the first draft even better. Yes, that’s right – for the next three weeks you get to help me rewrite and edit what I actually put on the page. 

Seriously, I’m so giddy about all of this right now, I can barely stand it. Okay, let’s get into it!!

The Beginning (1st Draft)

I could still taste her strawberry lip gloss as I walked down the boardwalk toward our house. I wasn’t in any hurry to rush home, but my curfew was just minutes away. Turning around, I searched for her, but she was long gone. She did say her car was parked just a few feet down the beach. She was probably half way home already.

I wasn’t expecting to kiss someone today, but she had been so funny. And that crooked smile.

Last year I was all about Troy, and then Devin, but Heidi was something else. For one thing, she had to be at least 5 years older than I was. She mentioned a job in the morning and seemed quite serious about it – so it couldn’t have been just some shop along the boardwalk like me.

Dad was sitting on our small porch, reading a book, the little book light on top illuminating the page he was on. He was in the rocker that we had purchased for Mom that past Christmas, slowing going back and forth as he read, finger on the page of an actual book even though his Kindle was sitting next to him on the little table. He glanced at his watch, then up at me.

“Cutting it close, huh Paige?” he asked with a smile.

“I know, sorry. Lost all track of time,” I said and sat in the small non rocking chair that was on the other end of the porch. Our house faced the beach and I could hear the waves before I saw them crashing under the moonlight.

“Anyone in particular making you lose track?” he smiled. He knew me well, but since this was so new and I still wasn’t sure what was happening I didn’t want to answer him. I had never kissed a girl before. I had found them cute before, that sensation wasn’t new but I had never acted upon those feelings before.

“Maybe,” I said bowing my head so he wouldn’t see me blush and maybe he would stop asking me questions. He was in a good mood though. “How was work?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Really good, we closed a deal to help build a new eco friendly office space downtown.”

“Nice,” I said standing up to go in for the night, “Congrats, Dad.”

“Thanks. Be quiet going in, your Mom came home in a funky mood and went right to bed,” he said and put out his hand for mine.

I held his hand and smiled. I thought about Heidi holding my hand just moments earlier, while we starred up and discussed the full moon.  We talked about our sun signs and giggled while we talked about the favorite things to do at night.  Dad squeezed my hand and brought me back to the present moment. 

“Is she okay?” I asked, bringing it back to Mom.

“She just seemed kind of sad, but didn’t want to talk about it. I’m hoping a good night’s sleep will help.”  He kissed the top of my hand and dropped it. I walked into the quiet house and made my way to my bedroom. Passing Mom and dad’s room, I could hear Mom softly snoring.

Keep reading — Stuck in the Middle With YOU can be found HERE

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Let’s Meet The Rest Of Our Cast

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

So originally I wanted week 3 to be actually writing the beginning of our story, but after the simple outline was finished I knew I needed to spend a tiny bit more time with the characters.  Again, instead of a formal tarot spread, I just pulled 1-2 cards for each person.

If you’d like to catch up – here’s the article for Week 1 and Week 2

PAIGE

Okay, let’s jump right in with our main character, Paige. I pulled a card for her inner strength and her inner demon so I could get into her brain and find out what she wants in this world and what’s holding her back.

Inner Strength/Wants – Strength

I see this card showing us that she has great confidence and self-esteem, she knows what she wants in life – something to do with animals, possibly a veterinarian or someone who rescues animals.  She has great inner determination and knows exactly how her life is going to go.  Optimistic even.

Inner Demons/Issues – Temperance

BUT I also see that with that determination comes some self-absorption or selfishness, she feels the world should revolve around her. She’s a bit insensitive at times, even tactless and I’m curious about her spirituality.  I get from this card that she might have lost faith OR that she really wants some kind of connection to a higher power and can’t seem to get there.

FATHER 

Side note, I’m going to be doing some polls over on my Instagram this weekend to figure out names for the other two characters so join in, please!!!

I just pulled one card to get an idea about who this guy is and got the 5 of Wands.  Very interesting. This card’s “book” meaning is all about conflict but I’m reading it more like they are building something together.

I think her father works for an eco-friendly construction company (remember it’s California) as either the CEO/founder or one of the higher up VPs.  He was an old hippie who had to grow up.  Why am I seeing Alex P. Keaton’s father for this?  I see that he’s passionate and willing to fight for what he thinks matters.

LOVE INTEREST

Instagram this past weekend chose a female FBI agent for our love interest with the twist that she was on the team who arrested Paige’s Mom for attempted murder. What?! This is getting really good. I pulled two cards just because one card didn’t feel like enough information.

I pulled the Moon card first and I see that there’s some repressed emotion and inner confusion – maybe around falling for a newly adult woman – and some fear or anxiety.  As an FBI agent I assume you might fear for your wellbeing or life while on duty.  I didn’t feel like I had a full handle on this woman so I pulled the Hierophant and immediately I saw inner conflict – someone who loves the sold institutions (the FBI) and is very conservetive, but had to challenge the status quo to be considered an equal as a woman in a mostly male-dominated field.  Interesting inner life we’ve got now.

Next week I’ll finally be ready to start actually writing!! I also have a fun Beginning of Your Story tarot spread too…and don’t forget, I’ll be sharing the full edited story as a PDF to my newsletter subscribers only, so join today! Not only will I be sharing the spreads I’ve used for this short story, but I know there will be some bonuses and goodies too!

What do you think of our little cast of characters?  Do you think 3 characters is the right amount for such a short story?  Let me know in the comments below.

Check out Week 4 – Once Upon a Time HERE

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Let’s Start With A Simple Outline

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Welcome to Week 2 of this fun tarot experiment where we will be working on a very simple outline using a 3-card spread for the Beginning, Middle, and End of our story.  

I shuffled and pulled three cards, laying them down side by side.  I usually start by looking at each one individually and then together in pairs.  I take notes and jot down all of my thoughts.  To save space, I’m not going to bore you with all of my ideas and notes — literally, it was about 3 pages of handwritten scribbles – but I will share some things I’m thinking about over on Instagram this weekend so make sure you’re following along there to help me decide!

And speaking of  Instagram, they really came through big time this past weekend and my lovely Page of Cups main character has a name — I’d like you to meet Paige (gotta love the play on words)!!  

Okay, so here’s the down and dirty outline I came up with.  What do you think?  What do you see in these cards? What would you add or change?  

Beginning

A happy family, happy memories of being together — something happens, a death/self-destruction and jail?  The happy memories are gone.  Paige has to act like the adult, her father is not handling things well.

Middle

During all of this, Paige falls in love – with someone she shouldn’t — someone who is connected to who hurt her family and brought them down in the first place – the cop’s son or a young FBI agent. Basically, he’s part of the system that’s now tearing her family apart.

Ending

Paige’s father tries to assert dominance, become the patriarch again by going back to old rules/old regulations/old religious ways of thinking about women.  This causes an even further tear in his relationship with his growing daughter – who should be getting ready for college or her next steps and now she’s terrified for her life and for her freedom.

I have so many questions:

  • Who is this person she’s fallen in love with?
  • What happened to her mother?
  • Why is her father so down on his luck? 
  • What happens after she falls in love?
  • What will she do when her father starts acting so differently?  

Whoo boy!  So many questions!!! This is exactly where you want to be when you start working on a new idea.  

If you’re writing a longer novel (or series even) you’d want to then move on to a longer story arc type spread, work through the entire hero’s journey to come up with your plot points, subplots and all the other things you need when cranking out 60,000+ words.  You’ll also want to pull cards to help with character development and help you create any additional characters. 

For me, I have some basic understanding of my overall story now and what Paige is up against – bad luck, karma, old vs. new, and the cycle of life that one must go through to become an adult sometimes.  

I was going to jump straight into the beginning of my story next week, but I feel like I need to know more about my main character’s wants and needs and inner struggle. I also want to pull cards for her love interest and her father. Then I will be prepared to write the beginning in Week 4 followed by the Middle in Week 5 and Ending/Finishing up in Week 6.  

Thanks for joining me on this journey.  Let me know what you would do with these cards? I had about four other ideas written down but this one felt the most interesting. I do have some things though that I’m thinking of tossing in so follow me on Instagram to help me choose this weekend.  

It’s going to be so much fun!!  

Check out Week 3 – Let’s Meet The Rest of Our Cast HERE

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Using Tarot Cards (And My Own Spreads) To Write A Short Story

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Yesterday, while I was doing the dishes, I was thinking about my social media and what I wanted to write about. I had some ideas written down but none of them were feeling very fun or exciting. In between soaping up some bowls and drying some plates, I had a really crazy idea – and I’ve learned to run with those without much hesitation because usually my intuition is pretty spot on. So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to an experiment…blog a book!  

Over on Instagram this past weekend I shared my secret project that I’m working on – Tarot Spreads for Writers – another crazy idea I decided to run with and have been working on since February. People seemed interested so I thought, why not share some of what I’m working on while also using my own spreads to create a short story here, in real time?!?!  

The goal is to have a 5,000-7,500 word short story written using my own tarot spreads within six weeks. The finished project will then be available as a PDF download (with a fun cover and copies of the spreads that I’m sharing) to my newsletter list — so sign up now!!  AND, for some extra fun, I’ll be having my Instagram followers help me choose names, plot points, and other things over on my stories so make sure you are also following me over there so you can help me out along the way! 

Characters

 This isn’t so much a formal spread as it’s more about pulling two tarot cards – one for my protagonist and one for my antagonist. But first, let me share a little about how I use tarot cards in my writing. I pull the cards and try to use my intuition and storytelling to figure out what the cards mean. Basically, I ask a lot of WHAT type questions. 

For example, what is the page of cups doing right now? What was she doing 5 minutes ago? What is she doing after this? Why is she holding that cup? What does that cup contain? 

Note: If you are completely new to tarot and don’t already own a deck, you can get a few apps that help you pull cards and use those to follow along. It’s cheaper than an actual deck and you get to see if you like the artwork before purchasing. If you want to learn more about tarot in general, I’m going to suggest Biddy Tarot’s site and books!! She’s amazing and her site is how I started learning more about the amazing world of Tarot. 

Protagonist – Page of Cups

 A young woman, emotional and extroverted, who is very into the beach and the sun and the surf. A true California girl, she loves to rollerblade in her pink skates and sand volleyball is the best exercise ever! She hates when people assume she’s vapid or stupid because of her blonde hair and slight Valley Girl speak, but she actually loves to read and is #1 in her school’s debate team. She has a very open mind and is extremely curious about the world around her. 

Antagonist – Wheel of Fortune

 Luck, circle of life, cycles, or a turning point. Rules and regulations – old world vs. new. I feel like the creatures around the edges are writing down people’s stories, keeping track and watching who does what – keeping score perhaps? I feel like this will be an antagonistic force rather than an actual person (but I might be surprised later when I do the 3-card beginning/middle/end spread). Another way of looking at this card is Karma or what goes around, comes around. It can also remind you to remember that miracles happen and bad luck can quickly turn to good with the right attitude. 

What’s Next

 What do you see in the cards? I’ll be sharing these thoughts on Instagram this weekend and asking for a name for my main character so follow me over there and let me know your thoughts! 

Next week I’ll be doing the basic 3-card Beginning – Middle – End spread to get a really simple outline and will announce the name that was picked this weekend. I’m super excited to share not only these spreads with you, but also my process and my story. 

If you’re a writer (or just looking for a fun challenge) and decide to do these spreads with me to come up with your own story, I would love to see it or hear about it. Please comment down below!!!  

Check out Week 2 – Let’s Start With a Simple Outline HERE

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How I Use Pinterest To Create Mood Boards For My Novels

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

As you know, my current work in progress has gone on quite a journey from short story to a novel about Leo dealing with his famous father to a novel about his sister, Etta, and NOW about two young High School juniors, Etta and Gina, dealing with their own ups and downs of family, school, and life. 

Along this very long, multiple year journey, I’ve lost my way and lost my passion a few times, but I feel like I’ve gotten back into a really good place and actually am excited to start this next round of edits and fixing things.  BUT I was also looking for a fun distraction between finishing up some new chapters and re-reading the novel so I turned to Pinterest.

Pinterest? Yup…I love creating mood boards for my novels and I realized that I had never changed the one for this book to reflect my new point of view character and her interests in the book.  Head here to see the full board if you’d like to see some elements of my book: St. Louis, High School, the violin, the musical Grease, and baseball – student athletes and the Cardinals!   

Basically, how I make a mood board is I start thinking about my novel as a whole and then think about each character and start putting in topics that relate to them and find images that I like.  

So, for example, baseball girls in high school and then softball because it’s hard to find girls playing baseball (which is a huge part of my novel).  For Gina – my new POV character, I started searching for theatre spaces, auditioning for theatre, and high school musicals but that didn’t yield too much so I went with the specific show she’s auditioning for in my book – Grease – and I found a ton of stuff!

I also like to describe my characters and find a few pictures for each of them.  I still have a few characters to add to my board but I have Etta and her family and Gina and her twin brother Carl added but still need their cousin Libby and all the parents for that side.  When I describe my characters I usually put in things like: short brown hair slightly nerdy teen boy and then scroll until I find one that I like, or that I think looks like what I have in my head when I write.

After creating my full mood board this past week, I decided to go one extra step and create an aesthetic over in Canva — what do you think? 

 

 

I think it captures the new novel perfectly and I can’t wait for you guys to read it!  I’m really hoping it will be ready by next Spring but we shall see what my editor thinks after I turn in the next round of edits in early September.

So…as a reader, do you like these sneak peeks into my author process? What else are you curious about? Do you want to see my outline? My editing notes or what I do digital vs by hand?  

Let me know and I’ll make sure I incorporate some of that into my blog posts moving forward.

 

 

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