The Tarot Method

Just the mention of the word "tarot" might make some readers turn away. It's one of those mystical things associated with psychics and gypsies and all that. Let's set aside the debate about whether the cards can tell the future and such. In this post, I'd rather present them as an author's tool.

Every tarot card has a significant amount of symbolism behind it. The name is just a label, and to understand it you have to know a little bit about the picture on the card, the history of the card, and its place in the set. What I'm getting at is, the cards are complex, and they're not always what meets the eye--much like a good character.

So, the tarot method is this: for each main/major character, choose a tarot card that sounds like him or her. Assign that card to the character. Now, whether you know the cards or not, look into the meaning of the card, and apply that meaning to the character.

For example, I might look through the names of cards and say, "Well, Lina certainly acts like (and is sometimes referred to as) a queen. She must be The Empress!" But I know that The Empress is actually a motherly, nurturing figure--nothing like Lina at all! Could that be a hidden side of her that gives her a bit more dimension? Certainly. Bam, character development.

I have 11 major characters, and I assigned them each two cards, one at random, the other through my choice. That leaves me with a lot to consider, perfect for expanding on what's already a complicated story--I have to keep this up for a whole trilogy, after all!

Exploring Characters

So what exactly can you expect from the second edition of The Third Face? I kind of hinted that I want it to be longer, but besides that there's really been little about the actual content of this update.

First and foremost, I want to take a look at each of my characters. Some of them have had plenty of time in the limelight, and others didn't appear at all until the last few chapters. It seemed as if I did that with no rhyme or reason other than what made sense with the flow of the story.

But the book could grow significantly if I gave all those other characters their own sides of the story, in full. I mean, there's been a lot of just vaguely mentioning what people were up to, and that kind of continued in The Demon's Guardian, admittedly. I don't think that's really necessary, because there's definitely a lot of room for expansion with such a short book!

Not only do I want to spend more time on each character, I want to add some smaller things to help them come alive. What's the character's worst fear? Does he or she have a nervous tic? What foods do they like best? I won't just add these things in for their own sake, but when I get the chance I'd like to demonstrate some of them over the course of the trilogy.

There's one other way I want to expand on my characters, but I think that one deserves its own entry, so check back in about a week for that!