Welcome to NaNoWriMo 2009!

Jumping right in to the experiment using Tarot as the main guide to, well, everything in the story.

We start out with the main characters, drawn from just the court cards of the Minor Arcana:

• Queen of Swords
• King of Spears (Wands)
• Knight of Shields (Pentacles)
• Page of Cups

Well, that's an interesting spread. One from each of the suits.

Because it fits my normal literary tastes, I'm going to use our Knight as the main character. Turning to the wonderful name generator over at Seventh Sanctum, we find that he is called Solomon Mercado. I think I can work with that.

I'm going to go and do the same for everyone else. I'm also going to do a single card draw for each from the rest of the deck that will come into play in a second. Note that I've also decided to set the story in a more contemporary time than the Arthurian cards project, so there's going to be some translation and twisting going on.

• Solomon Mercado (Knight of Shields) - Ten of Cups
• Titus Trent Nelson (Page of Cups) - Five of Cups (inverted)
• Mitchel Len Bender (King of Spears) - Seven of Spears
• Kristy Roth (Queen of Swords) - Seven of Cups (inverted)

That's a lot of cups showing up. Probably means there's going to be a lot of drama going on here... which is appropriate, seeing as how it's a novel and all. Probably some mystical stuff, too.

Now taking those cards into account. These are where our four characters start from--a certain point in their lives, if you will.

Solomon has just reached a wonderful plateau in his life. His career is going well: he just got a promotion and is lauded by his superiors and loved by those who work with and below him. He's about to ask his girlfriend to marry him and probably as an offer in on a house. He is living the dream. (I'm sure that will all be ruined by whatever problems prompt him to go on his quest.)

Titus, a new hire at Solomon's company (maybe?), just got back in touch with an old girlfriend from college. They've been talking for a bit online. He's kind of excited about this as he sees her as "the one who got away."

Mitchel is the head of the company. He's just lead a successful merger with what had been one of their lead competitors. Needless to say, there are still grumblings about how it's "Just not right" that the merger has happened, but Mitch has been able to make things go pretty smoothly, all things considered. There are rumors, though, that there's something else he's looking for... something that may or may not actually exist.

Kristy was a vice president before her company was takeno over by Mitchel's, now she's "just" the head of a division. She's been taking the apparent demotion is stride, though, as she knows why Mitch fought so hard for the merger. She knows what he's looking for and is determined to convince him that she's more than capable of helping him find it.

OK... no actual villains yet. I'm sure they'll come up eventually.

But, we've got a starting point, some names and faces and what seems to be a vaguely coherent plot shaping up.

Not bad for some randomly drawn cards, eh?

Now the actual overall arch, from a simple five card spread (after shuffling everything back together, of course):

• Eight of Shields (inverted)
• King of Cups
• Nine of Shields (inverted)
• Two of Cups
• Page of Cups

These will be the five sections of the story (which will have 30 chapters, so each section will have 6 chapters to it).

In the beginning, we learn of what this mysterious "quest object" may be. There is an underlying feeling of unease in some areas of the company, but rumors of something big on the horizon. Somewhere out there (probably a subsidiary or remaining rival) produces something that fuels the conspiracy theories. Has some bit of code, trade secret of design been leaked from the main offices or is something else going on?

Part Two looks like it will introduce someone new--someone who holds a key piece of information about what Mitch and Kristy are searching for.

Part Three: Everything goes to hell. Infighting ensues, betrayal and false promises are exposed, people turn their backs on one another. Shallow interests trump wisdom. (Seriously, this is the interpretation of the card, more or less straight... eerie, isn't it?)

Part Four: A time of reunion and strengthening bonds. Some romance, but, ultimately, a tragedey.

Part Five: Looks like Titus will be coming into his own in the home stretch. Interesting... can't wait to see how we get there.

And now, we'll hit the first actual chapter layout, using the Celtic Cross and Staff spread (note that the info at the link there is a little different from the method I use when I do readings for people, but for the purpose of the fiction experiment, it should serve pretty darn well.) We reshuffle the deck and get:

1. Page of Shields
2. Seven of Cups
3. Eight of Swords (inverted)
4. Queen of Cups (inverted)
5. The Magician
6. Two of Cups (inverted)
7. Three of Cups (inverted)
8. Knight of Spears
9. Three of Shields
10. The Fool (inverted)

At a quick first glance, it looks like we've got a pretty solid thread for a first chapter here. A few more potential characters, definitely some foreshadowing opportunities, and, smack dab in the middle (card 2), an indication of who the prime mover of the situation is--the card tied to Kristy and Mitch... that "mythical" something else they're looking for.

Now I just need to eke out some time to turn that spread into a narrative.