You have already learned about using the tarot cards to dissolve and push through writer’s blocks. You also just read about using the tarot to create outlines and manuscripts for novels or fully creative pieces. We will now talk about how to use tarot to create outlines and manuscripts for nonfiction pieces you want to write. However, you know that nonfiction pieces can easily become dry and boring if there is no creativity added. Therefore, if you are writing a true story about impactful something, you will need to add some creativity to it, and you need to embellish it somewhat.

What Is Creative Nonfiction?

Creative nonfiction sounds like an oxymoron. How can you possibly add creativity and made-up stories to a true story or any non-fictional piece? Well, who says that nonfiction has to be dry and boring and lack any creativity? That would not engage any readers if you were to do that. That is why it really is critical for any writer who wants to write nonfiction to add creativity to it. Creative nonfiction is also known as literary or narrative nonfiction.

When you think of creative nonfiction, you can think of personal essays, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, and journalism. Have you ever read an essay that kept your attention throughout the entire piece? If that is the case, then that means there was a fair amount of creativity in it. Otherwise, it would be dry, and you would fall asleep after reading a few paragraphs.

And if you were to write a nonfiction piece without using any creativity at all, then you wouldn’t need the tarot to help you out with structuring it and knowing exactly how to write the piece. What would be the point of that? You will, however, successfully bore your readers to tears. Therefore, you see how essential it is to add your creative touch to true stories you write.

Before going into the tarot tips, before you write your creative nonfiction piece, you will want to make sure what you are writing about is factual and accurate. However, it is not the end of the world if you cannot verify something you want to write about. You don’t want to make it more complicated than it has to be so that you can add more fiction to the story. With that being said, you must use fake names for the experiences of real people who you are writing about.

Otherwise, you can expect to have a lawsuit. Therefore, if you are writing an autobiography and want to add someone with whom you had a negative experience, you definitely must use a completely fake name. In fact, you do not want to use a name that sounds like their real name. Adding fictional sections about your experiences with them as well is completely fine to do.

It is also highly recommended to write about yourself in the third-person when writing an essay or an autobiography. Play around with different perspectives. You may even adopt a new perspective on the experiences you had by utilizing this technique anyway. You also want to pay attention to your feelings as you write about the piece because it will influence and shape the manuscript’s writing tone.

You don’t have to write about aspects of your life in creative nonfiction pieces. You can write about a location where you spent a lot of your life. You can write about your experiences in that general location, in addition to the type of people you interacted with, as well as events that took place there where you attended.

You can also write about an event that profoundly affected you and why it was so memorable to you. It could be a national holiday, a Christmas gathering, a birthday party, and so on. Or, you can write about a piece of art such as poetry, wall art, music, or anything that has an impact on you and why.

There really are so many things you can do with creative nonfiction. Now, you have ideas on what to write about. This is where the tarot cards will come in. If you are writing an autobiography, for instance, you can use a similar guideline for writing fiction when it comes to brainstorming your outline:

1. The aspect of your personality you want to focus on
2. The aspect of the personalities of those who you were mostly involved with (you can choose as many cards as you choose, which depends on how many people you want to write about)
3. The location of where the story takes place
4. The main purpose of you writing your piece
5. The main plot
6. The climax
7. The ending

For instance, say you grew up having undiagnosed ADHD since you had trouble focusing at school. And as a result, you were viciously bullied. That had a traumatic impact on you, and you were given the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome. However, with therapy, you have been able to work through it, and you are now in a position to help others. This is why you are writing this autobiography.

This is your true story, but you have to embellish it and add some fiction to it as well. As tempted as you may be to do this, you cannot use your bullies’ real names! Chances are they won’t even remember who you are but will see their name in your book, and they will sue you and will have the right to do so. So let’s now pull some cards to help you narrow down your outline.

1. The aspect of your personality you want to focus on – Queen of Cups
2. The aspect of the personalities of those who you were mostly involved with – The Devil (the worst bully)
3. The location of where the story takes place – Ace of Swords
4. The main purpose of you writing your piece – Nine of Wands
5. The main plot – The Star
6. The climax – The High Priestess
7. The ending – The Moon

Those are the random cards you picked for helping you brainstorm for the outline you want to create. Even though this is a true story you are writing about, you need some inspiration to make it enticing by adding some creative touches to it. That is why you need to use the cards.

The main story is about you talking about your experiences with being bullied throughout school. And you ended up with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Still, you were able to work through it, and you are now able to help others who may be experiencing the same – or also are suffering from the effects of bullying.

The card you chose for the aspect you want to focus on yourself is the Queen of Cups. How do you relate to this card, and how was it relevant to you being a target for bullying? I also want to make it clear that you being bullied was not at all your fault. You did not do anything to cause it. But this card will give you insight into why you may have been bullied. The Queen of Cups is nurturing, caring, loving, and just plain nice. Were you so nice that you did not set boundaries? Does that resonate? Because if it does, you can add that to the outline. But remember, again, that was not your fault, it just was bad luck, and bullies prey on that kind of thing.

If you decide to pull any cards for the main aspects of your involved personalities, you can, and you don’t have to if you don’t feel that is necessary. But let’s say you decided to pull one card that represents the bully. You pulled the Devil; the Devil is obsessed and is only into material things. The bully was obsessed with making your life a living hell and got others to join in. You can pull cards that represent their main personality aspects as well if you choose.

The next card rules the location of where the story took place. This is also optional because if you want to use the real place where it happened, you can. But if you want to choose a fictional place, then go for it. The Ace of Swords is the one you had chosen for that. Any air sign would be associated with this card. Let’s go with Libra, and Libra rules Canada. Therefore, it can be in any Canadian large city such as Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, or Toronto. You can pull additional cards if you decide you want to narrow that down even further.

The next card would be important for you to pull because it represents your purpose for writing your piece. You may have your purpose figured out already. However, you may need to hone it down, and the cards can help you do that. Your message for writing this story is to encourage victims of bullying never to give up.

And ironically, you pull the Nine of Wands, which brings that message out anyway. But it also adds to it that it will take a lot of perseverance and energy to keep going. You can focus on how hard it was for you to endure the bullying and how difficult it was to heal. But you were determined to do it! Determination to keep going despite obstacles and hardships is what this card is about. That would be the purpose to really emphasize.

The next card would represent the main plot. Again, you pretty much know what the main plot is since you are writing a true story. But once again, you need to hone it down somewhat. You pulled the Star, which represents hope and faith. You were going through a difficult time, and it was traumatic, but within you had a grain of hope, which is why you kept going. You will want to add that to your outline as well.

Then you have the climax, which is the highest point of the story. What was the breaking point that caused you to get the help you needed? You may already know this as well. Perhaps you were tired of underachieving, and your breaking point was when you passed a good work opportunity because you did not feel like you were worthy of it, for example. How can the card add something to that? You pulled the High Priestess. That is your intuition and psychic ability.

Deep down, you knew in your subconscious those taunting voices from the bullies hindered your ability to be successful. You finally realized this; you can become somewhat fictional and talk about a dream you had about a psychic taking you to your subconscious by telling you that you will never get far in life until you work with the demons you have within. That is how you could tie this card to the climax of the story. That led to your turning point to finally go for therapy.

Then finally, there is the ending. You pulled the Moon card. The Moon is all about confusion, fear, and not knowing what is hidden. You obviously are doing well since you can write about your traumatic experience to help others. But you still have hidden worries; you still have fears, you still don’t have it all figured out. And you can add that there because you want to make it clear that you will be healing potentially for life for these reasons. You will be in therapy, potentially for life.

Therefore, that is how the cards can help you set up an outline for a creative nonfiction book you plan to write. Again, you know the story, and you know the plot, and you know the ending. But the cards will help you figure out what to focus on most and how to organize it the best.

And it really does not matter what type of nonfiction book you are writing. You can always use the cards if you are facing blocks or need some more creative ideas.