Goal, Motivation, Conflict (Tarot Spread for Writers)

Hedera

Participating in the writer's group being born here is tempting (us blockheads certainly seem to have taken over this humble spread-thread!), but I'm not going to.
The whole tarot-aeclectic thing is still pretty new to me, and I don't want the sense of frustration and hopelessness I feel regarding my writing at the moment bleeding into this place.

Ya'll start without me, I might join you at a later date!

In fact, after this post, I think I'm going to gently extract myself from this thread....

I think it's mainly the depression I'm suffering from that is causing the block. Life block indeed!
I've been having depressive periods all through my life, and usually I was able to get some living and writing done in between them, but this one is particularly nasty.
It interferes with everything I do and (used to) love. Having virtually no emotions is a big handicap; I usually do my best writing when I'm angry or dissatisfied about something, although the story that comes out of that might well be really happy and sweet! (well..... In the beginning, anyway...:D )

Also, this time the depression is playing havoc with my ability to concentrate. I lose my way in the middle of sentences, in the middle of words sometimes, both when listening/speaking and when writing/reading.
It's *incredibly* debilitating sometimes. It takes me twice as long (or longer) to type a paragraph. I find it almost impossible to read a decent book, because I just lose the plot, and I can't picture anything.

I feel like a painter who has suddenly gone blind.

Therapy and medication help with some day-to-day living, but so for have had no effect in this area.

But, so far every depression has passed, and so, I hope, will this one. I just hope I'll still have a braincel or two left when it does! ;)

Yes, like many here I am a very verbal person, and now that tool has been taken away from me.
I'm not that visual, though; my imagination works more on my sense of touch and smell.

I think it might be time to stop trying to get a grip on my language skills for a while, and like Truthsayer and Firemaiden do some other creative things, more than I have done so far.
More hands-on stuff, I think. Not just drawing, that may be too close to writing, but maybe painting or sculpting.

It has been great to read all of your stories here, Red Emma, Truthsayer, Firemaiden.
It has given me some sense of companionship, and I feel more incouraged and inspired to try some new things.

Time to get out of my head and into my hands!
 

Alissa

I've been lurking this thread and today ...

:eek: WOW~! :eek:

I'm agog~! It's amazing to hear acting and writing being compared to each other on this forum, because on Friday, after meditating, I had these thoughts *about acting and writing*, which I journalled about :

"One thing that came to me, while drifting afterwards, was "why I'm so drawn to acting." Acting, like writing, requires the ability to split focus. You have to consciously create an interior world that is complete for you in your head, even while the other side of you remembers your blocking, your technical stuff.

Jacque was talking about this at one point rehearsing. In her head, she was totally in the scene she was describing in the interior world of Zelda at that moment, "and then Jacque the Actress stepped in and I kept thinking "Wait, aren't I supposed to be sitting in the chair for this line still?"

This is the splitting of focus that I like. When novel writing, I split focus all the time. Called it "tuning in to the tv" in my head. I could walk in that room, see if the TV was on, and if so ... sit down and take notation.

Splittling focus is required daily when we meditate, connect, or try to maintain a spiritual awareness throughout our every day responsibilities. We are always spiritual creatures. We have to split our focus, with one eye focussed inwards as my Faeries put it."


****** I'm just kind of freaking out to hear the synchronicity of it, and also really enjoying hearing other writer's talking about how they approach their craft.

So, to throw into the discussion mix, how does your own spiritual focus help you when you write, or does it?
 

Red Emma

Tarot for writers

Sunday afternoon, 5/18/03

I hesitate a bit to join the discussion today. I'm major depressed, and sometimes things come spilling out that would be better in a private journal. But. If you'll forgive me if I get testy (or worse), I'll give it a try.

I want to work with the group which is coming into being. Maybe I'll even get back to morning pages, although I have a major problem there. Because of hypoglycemia I have to eat immediately when I get up. By the time I fix the appropriate breakfast and sit down to eat, my husband's brought the morning newspaper in. So I check it out to see what's going on in my commuinity.

By that time all that good just-waked-up-connection with my inner space is major gone. Of course one way to cure that is to ignore the paper until later, but as Himself reads it he comments about it. And we have to argue a bit. Well. There you are.

I'll just have to work on this. On the whole he's a very cooperative guy. We have to see what can come about.

Damn, Hedra's right. Depression doesn't lend itself to concentrating for very long. Just go ahead and put it together, I'll join in as I can.

Best wishes,

Red Emma
 

Moongold

I have to write a lot for work. Technical stuff, policies and so on. I work with some people who have a passion to correct. I think I'll write a book with that title: The Passion to Correct.I think this is what people do when they have no natural authority. They sit down and correct.

There is another group of folk as well. These are the ones who grow up to be public servants where output is measured by wordiness. They do not know what simplicity means. The more convoluted you can make a task sound the more important it is. Yeh....this is feeling good so far.

I find it had to relax my mind. I'm a little bit like an old car. I have to crank myself up and just sit down and do it in the end because I have to deliver. I am not sure this is good for creative people, mind, but it works for me.

I sit down and write for 10 minutes then get up and walk around. And then I write again and do the same thing. It works as a breakthrough for me. Often I forget that I can't do it and do it. Somehow it works. I leave the work for a while then go back and read it through , I was going to say correct but no I mean EDIT :joke: Sometimes edit means a complete rewrite but I get it done. Chariot is my Personality/Soul card.

I am just starting to write creatively. I take photographs and then go home and write about them. Anything that comes into my mind....stream of consciousness. Sometimes it is stream of constipation but I do it anyway. I leave it...... I think some of this work is good. It's only a personal journey but I am getting immersed in the act of creation and find myself sometimes thinking of little else.

Hedera, my heart and mind go out to you. Thomas Moore in Care of the Soul wrote great stuff about Depression. Depression can simply be a way that the Soul defines what it needs, and it can be a springboard for creativity and insight.

Blessings
 

Hedera

Thank you, Moongold...:)

My personality and soul card (both) are the Chariot, too, which so far has seemed a bit odd (then again, that might just be because I find it hard to identify with the moustachio'd men usually depicted on that card ;) ).

Actually, I'm afraid I am a Corrector.... and I have to work really hard not to read my own writing in that mode while writing it (afterwards it's fine, it helps me to polish and fine-tune).

Feeling particularly fragmented this morning, so I'm not sure I make much sense.

I used to work with an egg-timer for a while: set it for 10 minutes, or 20, and just work for that period of time, write, no matter what. It worked for a while.

I'll check out the book by Moore - I misread the title first as 'Car of the Soul' , which sounds like something that would be great for us Chariots!
Springboard sounds good, although this particular depression seems so high I'm afraid to jump off! :D
 

truthsayer

i checked with solandia about the possibility of starting at writers' group at AT. before she can make a decision, she wants to know what kind of topics will we discuss and how will it relate to tarot.

my thoughts are that we are linked by a common interest in tarot. there's using tarot to get story, journal, or poetry ideas. there's using tarot and writing to explore spirituality. there's plain using writing to explore one's spirituality. there's discussion of published books that use tarot in context of the story. there's using tarot spreads to create stories with the use of tarot. using tarot to break creative barriers to writing.

any other ideas so i can report back to solandia? are we serious about starting such a group? please don't say you are unless you mean to put in the time to make the group work. my time is limited, too but i would make time to work on my writing with others who want to work on theirs. working with others helps me fight my inner writing blocks.
 

Red Emma

Tarot for writers

Moongold said:
I work with some people who have a passion to correct.

Moongold, when I wrote pamphlets, newspaper/magazine articles, etc. for public relations clients, I would deliberately leave one or two errors in the material. It gave them a chance to correct stuff and show their PR person she didn't know everything. It also meant that when they corrected my deliberate errors, they left all that "good literature" alone...or at least I called it good literature with tongue-in-cheek.

It was much less frustrating than giving them the chance to mess up my sentence structure, etc. which some of them would do if they couldn't find any real errors. Major frustrating.
 

ArwenNightstar

Re: Spread for writers

Red Emma said:
Night Star, I've been dabbling in aroma therapy for a while. The results are fascinating. I'm continually amazed at the knowlege and skills which were "junked" when healers were burned as witches.

I'm not familiar with citrine and lemon grass oil. What is their effect?

Grin, do call me Arwen. :)

Citrine is a stone that is known for breaking writer's block. One of its nicknames is actually the writer's stone.

Lemongrass oil, to me, is a brain opener. I use it when I am feeling blah.
 

firemaiden

ArwenNightstar said:
It is based on Deb Dixon (http://www.gryphonbooks.com)'s book _GMC_.

ArwenNightstar, what is the title of Deb Dixon's book, and where on the website is it listed. I cannot find what you were referring to, and would like to, it interests me. :(
 

ArwenNightstar

bump for Artemis Sands

Here you go, Artemis!