#plot spread

[windvexer]

Theme and Action: a tarot method for brainstorming plots, setting, and characters

I find a lot of story brainstorming spreads to be clunky and rigid, so I did a little experimenting and came up with a method I like a lot. I haven't done a ton of testing yet but I thought I'd share what I have.

Basically, it's a two card draw from a deck split into majors and minors. Each draw always has one major card (theme) and one minor card (action).

When you have a question, like:

What are some ideas for the next scene?

Why would that character behave that way?

What's the defining characteristic of this vampire clan?

What do the people in this society fear most?

Why is this scene dragging?

What does this character need to feel more real?

You would draw one major card and one minor card!

Themes and Action; what it's about vs how it manifests

We could call these cards a bunch of different things depending on exactly how the question is framed, but Themes and Action are good enough.

Basically, the major arcana card gives subtext or context, and the minor arcana card provides specific incidents. Like this!:

"In my vampire setting, what is the most important thing in vampire culture?"

Theme: Death

Action: 10/Pentacles

Interpretation: (Theme) The most important thing in vampire culture is the process of dying and the equalizer of death itself. (Action) This has resulted in cultural rituals where death is treated as a sacred adoption or initiation into a new family/estate.

(I really drew this test spread and it really was death lol)

We can swap out the Action card to see a different outcome:

Theme: Death

Action: 5/Swords

Interpretation: (Theme) the most important thing in vampire culture is the process of dying and the equalizer of death itself. (Action) the horror of death and loss has never been overcome in this society, and it must be dealt with as an individual - because vampires process the pain of their own deaths by taking it out on each other.

Here's a different example. In an urban fantasy book where a witch solves ghost mysteries, pacing is dragging and we need our next scene to be exciting. But despite a foot chase after a suspected ghost poacher, the scene doesn't feel fast paced or exciting. The question is, "how do we spice this up?"

Theme: Hermit

Action: King of Cups

Interpretation: (Theme) instead of a crowded street, the character will be isolated and without normal support. (Action) she'll be trapped in a closed space with the story's main villain, who most closely connects with the King of Cups

Another swap, this time switching out the theme card:

Theme: Empress

Action: King of Cups

Interpretation: (Theme) the scene feels boring because it's action without development. Show the main character's personal development and give her a 'level up' moment. (Action) have the ghost poacher lead her to a premature showdown with the main villain, whom she faces bravely for the first time.

This is already long so I'm not going to go on and on with examples but so far I've found this method to be pretty versatile.

Try interpreting Theme and Action as literally as you can within the context of the story!

If you're writing a story about a flower princess who sleeps on a dewdrop in the mystical Gnarlwood Forest, the Sun card will mean one thing.

If you're writing a story about vampires, the Sun card probably means something very different.

Major arcanas can be literary themes, like the moon representing deceit within society, but they can also be literal; in a werewolf story, the Moon card might represent the celestial body that controls the lives of certain people.

The most important thing for me is to avoid interpreting the cards in a general self-help sense.

The cheerful villagers of prosperous Splitsky Castle are waiting for you to invent a festival so a mysterious stranger can come to town and get the plot going.

The question is, "what kind of festival gives me the right setup to pull off the plot point I want?"

The theme card is the Magician, so ideas for the festival could be:

A festival honoring magic users (if they exist in your setting)

A festival honoring the resourcefulness of the villagers

A festival of stage magic and trickery

The action card is the 6/Cups.

Probably, the festival is not about healing your inner child with Jungian shadow work. More contextual ideas might include:

A festival where children are chosen to be trained in magic

A festival celebrating teaching the next generation important skills

A festival meant to delight and entertain children with stage magic

Developing related factions or foils

Draw a major arcana card to identify a certain Theme, maybe along the lines of:

What do they hold to be sacred?

What do they not care about, or hate?

What is their most cherished virtue?

What is the defining feature of leadership?

When they sing about home, what is in their songs?

This theme will be the same for both entities.

Draw different minor arcana cards to show how each entity expresses that theme.

Conversely, work in the opposite direction: keep the minor arcana card for both entities, and swap out the theme card.

Finding Action cards when you know the Theme

Holding the deck so that it's facing you, thumb through the cards until you find the major arcana card that describes your theme. The most recent minor arcana card that was on top of it, even if separated by other majors, is the action card.

Reversals

I tend to read both cards as upright and reversed, and just apply whatever meanings are most relevant. In my experiments using reversals ended up being too finicky and specific, and limited my creativity.

Complex Concepts and Plots

For a complex reading, like plotting an entire novel or building an entire character, I have found more utility in doing many pair readings rather than doing one large spread with many pairs.

My tests so far have suggested that the most creative freedom is found in asking specific questions, like "what is this character's driving motivation," and "what is her quirky hobby," and "what makes her put up with her annoying best friend," rather than trying to build a giant spread that includes all of these things at once.

As a caveat, in plot spreads, I will sometimes put pairs down without returning them to the deck, and then connect Theme/Action pairs with single action cards to suggest events that connect the dots.

[phoenixcatch7]

It's always funny to me when in an lu fic the chain is offered bananas and don't accept them. Like, you're offering these high energy adventures free food?? Fruit they'll have never even heard of before??? A ridiculously expensive imported good at best?? AND it boosts your attack?

Not ONE of these idiots would ever turn down something new and interesting to eat at least once. They'd be all over those bananas and immediately get dubbed yiga and I'm honestly surprised no one has used it in a fic yet 🤭

[t00thpasteface]

quordle and i were spitballing about mulcahy getting caught by hollister with his tent door locked(!!) and having to come up with an excuse about why he was having alone time with the chief surgeon... i said it has the vibe of a teenage boy sneaking into his girlfriend's room even though her dad wants to kill him for being a sleaze

[my-coven-is-claudia]

after sleeping on the latest anniversary special i think i’m at peace with the whole bi-generation thing because it does something i don’t think it would’ve been able to do if it was executed in any other way. it allows the show to move the fuck on.

nuwho began with this mysterious sense that something bad happened. that this man, this alien, is filled with guilt and pain from something terrible. that theme of a horrible anguish being thinly veiled under a witty, dorky shield has been consistent throughout every incarnation of the doctor since. it’s a brilliant piece of characterisation but the doctor always being weighed down by this insurmountable grief i think was always going to hold the show back eventually. tragedy is inherent to doctor who but when does it become hard to believe that the main character is somehow able to continue on after everything they’ve gone through. what effect would this have on the audience, especially long-term fans? letting go of past companions and doctors is something that doctor who fans are notoriously bad at and i just wonder if it would become too much for the show to handle at one point. but now it won’t anymore.

bi-generation allows the doctor to heal from everything they’ve gone through whilst still being able to barrel into the next adventure. there’s a million theories on where 14 will end up but i think what matters the most is that the doctor is finally happy. not in a temporary, tenuous state of thrill that will only last until the start of the next episode or when the next threat appears around the corner but truly happy. unlike in previous versions of this story where the doctor gets an impossible happy ending which we never get to see onscreen (e.g. tentoo settling down with rose) we are actually going to witness 15 be joyful and alive, no longer held down by what’s come before. a fresh start almost. not to say that the time war or the flux were so horrific that the doctor never could’ve gotten over them but i don’t think the doctor healing would’ve been believable without him literally splitting in two, allowing him time to breathe and slow down as 14 whilst untethering him from the past and allowing him to fully spread his wings as 15. it’s not a perfect conclusion to this era (and discussions on whether bi-generation undermined ncuti’s entrance and role as THE doctor are completely valid) but i’m ultimately glad it happened

[emiplayzmc]

Okay so like

Glisten was a DHMIS OC before Dandy's World was a thing, right?

HC'ing that Glisten's 'teacher' role would've been something along the lines of friendship / fitting in for the gang? Something similar to a mix of the Love episode from the webseries and Jobs and Family from the TV show (Having a community of people who care about you + fitting into an environment or mold or dynamic) - a whole bunch of Yada Yada about 'this stuff makes you likeable and this stuff doesn't!!!' and 'look at all of MY friends, aren't I popular, isn't it fun being liked by people?? Don't you want to fit in with us??'

I'm uh. NOT REALLY GOOD WITH GORE PLACEMENT SO IDK WHERE IT WOULD FIT INTO THE EPISODE IF IT WOULD EXIST?? There's almost always some gore element to the episodes- But yeah basically he is the epitome of toxic friendships / being toxic to yourself by forcing yourself into a little perfect box so that others like you. And then a lot of his Oh Shoot™️ moment that most Teachers seem to have would be breaking down from that 'perfect little box' in front of the main cast.

Anywayyyys. Red Guy is unintentionally the most popular of the bunch, Duck is constantly peeved that people aren't 'respecting' him by being his friend and is trying to steal Red's thunder, and Yellow is just. Barely even trying to fit in the whole time, he mainly wants to do his own thing.

And then that probably gets him sucked into seeing Glisten's REALLY BAD Oh Shoot™️ mental break moment from questioning why and how Yellow is still perfectly happy doing his own thing and just liking his own little group of the ✨️Three Of Us✨️ instead of a huge group of 'friends,' and then questioning why he himself is even doing all of that acting for a group of people in the first place (maybe in the episode his group of 'friends' are the ones who get attached to Red and ditch him? As a show and tell for how these types of people are just. Awful. And they latch onto Red because he's the latest thing that's caught their eyes and Glisten is old news. Just a dusty mirror. And for the rest of the episode after this happens, he's trying to get himself back to being the star of the show and potentially attempting to recruit Yellow to help him do it).

Anyways there's some brainrot for all of us fine Dandy's World / Don't Hug Me I'm Scared fans on this fine Thursday the 12th, because I have been thinking about this non-stop since I found out about this fact.

^ Art from Qwel about what Glisten would've looked like in DHMIS. Put him with the butterfly and the lamp in the Skittles Squad /lh /silly. Would've loved to know what he would've been as a teacher if he'd have stayed on the DHMIS OC route.

[raayllum]

me staring at myself in the mirror like "we already got a hostage exchange last season where callum helped the villain and did dark magic in order to save rayla (as predicted) AND we got the irony of him literally freeing rayla while symbolically chaining himself, they're not going to do all that TWICE" to try and talk myself out of straightforward CHET

only for the demons in my ear to whisper "but what if she gets hurt in the possession fight and he still needs to save her, and/or the cube and his love for rayla makes him take a risk with the quasar diamonds just for the sake of her family and her ultimate happiness" and well. Now we're talking

[denieatsart]

Summer and his dad , from a rp on discord ! Summer's always been quite adventurous .

OCs and au by me Wings of Fire by Tui T Sutherland

@starswirly @petrockenthusiast [ hi Pebble you keep getting sneak peeks before i post them on discord /silly ] and ,,, idk if anyone else in the rp has tumblr SOBBING

[mqole]

i'm 70 hours into octopath 2 and this is my main takeaway atm (id in alt)

[sonik-kun]

"Jiang Cheng would have been involved in the attack on the Burial Mounds even without the death of sister"

For context, this all takes place AFTER JZX was killed. From JC's pov that was all 100% WWX's fault (bear in mind, WWX does have some culpability with his death. He lost control because of his unrestrained resentment for JZX. Sooo).

Was JC not supposed to do anything? Just sit there and twiddle his thumbs? Object to the siege entirely, perhaps? How do you think that would have looked to the rest of the CW? It would have been very suspicious if he didn't take part in eliminating a potential threat to the CW. Especially when said threat was once a part of his sect and KILLED his brother in law. Wouldn't they think it is strange that he refused to take part and get revenge on behalf of his sister??

If he did object or refused to take part, the rest of the CW would have grown even more suspicious of him. And the Jiang sect would have had a huuuuuuge target on their backs next. Especially giving how power hungry the Jins were becoming.

It was a very difficult situation he was put in. Not one he could easily talk his way out of. We've seen him try to numerous times even before things escalated to vouch for WWX and even once for the Wen siblings. And we all saw how that went down. Do you seriously think he could talk his way out of this one? After a sect heir had been slaughtered by his former SiC? Come on now.

All of this is why we see JC desparing so much because he is watching his brother spiral and spiral, and all he can do is watch on helplessly, for it is beyond his power to save him.

WWX kept so much from JC. He sided with the sect that almost wiped out his own and then goes on to inadvertently kill his brother in law. How do you think that must have looked to JC? How JC must have felt?? Let's be real here and look at things from his pov. Because I feel as though some of yall are failing to do so.

To JC, WWX had become unhinged and out of control. But even after the death of JZX, JC still seemed to desperately hold onto hope for his brother. He exclaims when he's holding his dying sister in his arms, "I thought you said you could control it?!"

That says to me that JC had faith in his brother that he could fix all this up until JYL was caught up in it all.

If you look at things from JC's pov, you'll see how bad things looked for WWX. How culpable he appeared throughout it all. And when you take that into consideration and realise that JC doesn't have all the information we as the reader are privileged to have, we can easily see why he came to such a conclusion.

It was either WWX or the lives of hundreds in his sect. JC chose to protect the many. And that doesn't make him a terrible person. Nor does it make him a terrible brother. He did all he could for WWX. But to him, WWX had made his bed, and so he should lay in it.

[theodosiani]

Ghilan'nain, abundantly aware of her own mortality in the face of her archdemon's death, decides to endeavor into an experiment. She and Elgar'nan have their eyes upon Rook and the others, have witnessed the fragment of Mythal within the crossroads. Heard of Solas' actions in absorbing the one gamboling about Thedas, playing with mortals. It was an idea, of course she didn't want to die to accomplish it, but she is more creative than Mythal in such ways.

She experiments briefly on prisoners and followers, learning how to rip a soul apart but keep the body alive, then the mind, the power couldn't quite be salvaged. Yes, a fraction exists and can be strengthened to a degree but never to it's former glory. At least not working on the shortened timeframe with which she is faced.

Had she more time she is convinced she could do it, split herself in twain and stay glorious. Had she the resources of their golden age perhaps she could even do so on her accelerated timescale. Alas, instead she has the blight and her da'fen. Not the perfect vessel, she would have preferred to create one from scratch, but time is of the essence. Besides, if she dies this way it means in some small way she will enjoy seeing the sorrow stretch across Fen'harel's face when he is reunited with sweet little Sulhan'harel and senses her lurking in the girl's very marrow.

She's already grafted a bit of her own flesh into the girl, isolated carefully with her magic within the fine limb. It will make for a smoother latch, Ghilan'nain hypothesizes this is the reason for the witch of the wilds' many daughters. Perfect donors, so to speak their flesh ready to absorb the power and their lives molded to make them worthy.

She cannot make little Sulhan'harel worthy, but she has thought all along that the child shows promise. She could have made a fine evanuris of the arts, no match for June and his creations or Sylaise and her architecture but they had always lacked a creature of music. Perhaps she was insufficient for the role now, but Ghilan'nain firmly believes she could have molded her, guided her to a place alongside herself and Elgar'nan. Lesser of course, but still beside them, a family.

Ghilan'nain removes a splinter of herself, she is not so arrogant as to believe she can get away with finishing rebuilding their new empire at half strength. No, not with sweet Razikale so violently taken from her, the time to enthrall another dragon, to raise an archdemon is not possible. So instead she takes the smallest fraction of her power, or herself and slips it into Sulhan'harel.

The girl barely fights her, knowing her place and succumbing so well. It is a shame that Solas got to her first, she would have made a fine priestess. So loyal and full of devotion wasted on shemlen lost beyond the wretched veil and Fen'harel. She does not question when Ghilan'nain pushes the idol into her hands, a fragment of her own creativity and love. It will take well to Sulhan'harel's demeanor, she thinks that giving the girl much else will crack her mind and she'll be useless then.

Sweet, gentle Suhlan'harel now her little locket, no matter how the dread wolf leads his merry band of fools he will not be rid of her. Not unless he has the drive to murder his own daughter--She has not quite decided whether she believes he won't but the pain it will bring him if he does? Well, she will watch it through young, green eyes.

[vinlynce]

part 1 of however many Canary in a Coal Mine info posts!!! This one is mainly focusing on mechanical stuff and design notes with some misc musing

[theproblemcallednight]

hello jjk fandom. i have come from the wild lands of the bsd fandom.

i've come a bit late, but with precious goods.

while u all were crying over gojo, i have done research and revieved him

you see, bram from bsd gained his lowerr half while gojo lost his. but bram gained his lower half bc a sword was pulled out of him. and i stuck that sword into gojo (id in alt from @/zukkaoru so ty to them :D)

so here u are.

never stop believing

never give up

its never gojover

[waspgrave]

As a big fan of spoilers, talk about spoilers all you want. Even spoil yourself for the entire game if you’d like!! but holy shit people need to start posting those achievement pics under readmores bc sometimes spoiler tags don’t work!! Your excitement for theorizing spoiled the endings for some people !

[katboykirby]

Thank you for your post about Obey me and how it’s not ending there’s been so much misinformation going around it’s been messing with my head. Especially on TikTok. Practically every OM related thing I’ve been seeing is videos with thousands of likes saying it’s all ending when that’s not true.

That's exactly why I made my post (both here and on Twitter) because I was getting exhausted of the misinformation, too.

I'm not saying that people can't be disappointed about the story wrapping up in Nightbringer, but it honestly feels like 99% of OM fans just...straight up didn't read Solmare's announcement at all. They specifically and clearly stated MULTIPLE times that Obey Me isn't ending, and that they will be continuing the series with all new OM projects coming out next year.

Not only that, but they've made multiple follow-up announcements since then where they've further confirmed that the series is continuing. Just the other day they posted about Character Birthday celebrations continuing on from the games as Web Videos you can watch for free on YouTube. Plus the voice actors have all had to come out and reaffirm that OM isn't ending.

And yet everyone is still spreading misinformation about OM being "cancelled" or "over" or "dead" and it's frustrating beyond belief. Yesterday I saw a post on Twitter from someone who was trying to sell their entire OM merch collection "because the games are shutting down and [I'm] trying to move on" which is kind of heartbreaking? Not to mention all the fans who have been talking about deleting their OM fics and taking down all of their OM art.

It kind of drives me crazy. The people spreading this blatant misinfo are tangibly harming the fandom.

Tbh it also makes me question a lot of these fans' takes on the games in general...because why would I trust your analysis of the storytelling and writing in either of the games when you've demonstrated that you're literally incapable of reading a small handful of extremely clearly-worded sentences in a Twitter post?

[softcthulhuwu]

from what I've observed it seems to be a fairly common practice in star trek fanworks when writing about navigating the galaxy, some people tend to apply a grid system and talk in terms of a "galactic north/south/east/west", which I'll agree makes a deal of narrative sense as the way star trek ships work in the fiction is more akin to naval ships than actual spacecraft.

However, I propose an alternative and think it'd be more sensible (and funnier) if United Earth era Starfleet decided to adopt the system from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels for mapping the galaxy since it too is a disc, and then come the Federation years everyone else just kinda got stuck with it.

Farewell, galactic north, now Hubward, Rimward, Turnwise, and Widdershins are the official nomenclature of interstellar navigation and cartography!

[venstm]

I want to talk about kayn.

kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn kayn