Daily Inspiration Sunday Special

Welcome to October! Halloween! Friday the 13th! My birthday month! And we are off to a great start with the cards today!

I love when the Seven of Cups appears. We are sure to have a day of wonder and magic with this card. There is so much hope and blessings tied to the meaning of the Seven of Cups. There is also some wariness to it, though. We can dream big and let our minds go wild with expectations, but also stay aware and grounded. 

Prompt: I was struck with an idea, finally, for NaNoWriMo. I was concerned I would be flying blind on November first. But true to form my muses delivered a fully packaged idea a month before the big game. So what does this have to do with the prompt? 

The Well: Talk about your dreams. Do you have an idea or plan that you want to make reality? Tell someone! Be brave and share that dream with as many people as you can. Remember, it is the Emperor who holds the power to bring that Seven of Cups energy into reality! Tell someone who you see as a powerful leader or master of manifestation about what you desire. Most likely, today, they will use their power to help you! 

Be brave and dream big!

Full Patreon Post 

Czep

Sunday Special Daily Inspiration

Daily Inspiration is available to the public every Sunday! I hope you enjoy this taste of the magic and mayhem available to $1 tier patrons all week long.

We have all the Cups in the cards today! The Page of Cups gives us some lovely surprises and unexpected happiness. This card always brings a smile when I see it in a reading. No matter what else is going on, this whimsical youth brings an offering of simple joys. Be on the lookout for small blessings today!

In addition to the Page, the blessings continue with the Nine of Cups. The Nine of Cups reminds us to be aware of our worth and value our purpose. The woman in this card knows how far she has come and where her boundaries stand. She is no longer willing to accept just anyone into her emotional circle, and she is aware of how her own emotions affect others. 

With so many Cups in a reading, I expect this to be a Sunday full of emotions and connections. And probably wine.

Prompt: We recently dealt with how to develop emotional impact in a scene, as well as how to portray those emotions in writing. There is a much more in-depth post on this topic at the Writer's tier, but I'll share a taste here today. 

The previous week, we focused on headhopping and POV. This prepared us for adding the emotion to our POV character and the characters she perceives. Consider what your POV character sees, hears, and experiences with her other physical senses when it comes to the characters she is interacting with. How does she know what her costar is feeling if she can't get in their head? This is how you, as a writer, will create a more powerful emotional impact. The reader will experience the world as the POV character, rather than being 'told' how the characters are feeling. 

Movement: Let's stick to those emotions in our movement section. On stage, we are telling a story, whether through action, dialogue, or dance. In my shows, we focus on the action and dance. Mostly because we are low budget and mics are expensive. 

The big movements and choreography carry the plot, but it is the smaller moves, favoal expressions, and hand gestures that convey the emotion of a dance or scene. A well-timed wink at the audience, a flick of the wrist, or lock in a move can lift the audience into the spirit of the performance. 

In the same way POV puts the reader in the shoes of the character, nuance in form and face show rather than tell the story on stage. Next time you watch a performance, pay attention to which characters hold your attention. My guess, they will be the ones who pull their feelings to their very fingertips. Use this on your own and watch how your performance elevates.

Whatever you do today, put your heart into it!

For Daily Inspiration just like this check our my Patreon! See you Monday!

Czep

Sunday Special

Sunday inspiration is for everyone! 

Today is Sunday Madness at the House of Rainbows and Awesome! In honor of the open doors, Sunday inspiration will always be available to all patrons. So here's a taste of what you're missing during the week. 

It's a Knight of Swords sort of day at the studio today. We are going hard into rehearsals to prepare for our October 13th and December 2nd shows. 

The Knights are cards of youth, exuberant energy, and action! The Knight of Swords may be the pinnacle of this. He is an act first, ask questions later, sort of character. He is full of strong ideals and seemingly limitless motivation! His motto, let's do this!

Our other card today is the Ten of Cups. I can think of no better way to refer to this card than the Happily Ever After. This card always brings a smile to my face when I see it. On a day of rehearsals, tarot, and D&D, I know the power of this card is strong. 

Prompt: Show me the knights in your story! You don't have to be writing a fantasy or historical fiction to have a few knights in shining armor in your story. Who are the characters forever performing feats of heroism, welcomed or not? How do you show their heroics without simply telling the reader "he is a hero"? Show us a scene filled with action, energy, and unbridled strength of ideals, and you have shown us a hero.

Movement: Work it today! This one is specifically for my troupe today, but I'm sure some of you will gain from this, too. 

Give it your all today. Mentally, physically, emotionally, give whatever you do your all. Sweat through that workout and be present in that burning. Strive for the best in form and stamina. Dig deep for that desire to reach the next level of your achievements. 

In anything you do today, think of yourself as the Knight in a fairytale and strike forth with the power of your beliefs. 

Czep

Tarot Cafe - Suits and Symbols

In the Tarot, and in a standard deck of playing cards there are four suits in the Minor Arcana. In this session we will dive into some of the surface meanings and connections for each of these four suits.

Most of us recognize the common suits in the Tarot as Swords, Wands or Rods, Cups or Chalices, and Coins or Pentacles (sometimes also called Discs). These four suits correspond with the playing card suits we are likely equally familiar with which are; Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds. Most of us take for granted the choice of these symbols, but there is a deeper meaning in the suits and the story each corresponds to.

For the purposes of brevity and basics, we will be focusing on the correspondences most common to the French, Italian, or Spanish. If you are interested and willing to do a bit of poking around you may also enjoy what you find in the Egyptian, Celtic, and various other histories. The playing card has traveled far, and seen much of history. We will likely revisit the suits again in the future and debate further the merits of each connection, but for now let’s try to keep it simple.

Want to learn more?

Just Write - Formatting

Tonight's class at Rio Vista is going to focus on manuscripts and formatting. That means this week's Patreon Post focuses on what even is proper formatting nowadays?

The difference between a manuscript and a book is similar to the difference between a writer and an author. A writer writes. An author publishes. A reasonable definition of a manuscript would be the text of your work before that text has been published in a completed book. Manuscripts become books once they are typeset and bound, or formatted as an ebook.

It is so important to note that all three are completely different formatting styles. We will touch on that later.

Agents, publishers, and even readers are looking for a well formatted manuscript. The writing may be stellar, but if the font, spacing, and style is a disaster, no one will want to look at the words on the page. A messy or poorly formatted manuscript, bad grammar, or poor font choice, are red flags to any reader which screams that this author does not want to put the time into their work as a professional.

When the industry still worked with paper, the manuscript was literally what you printed out. I am so grateful we have stepped into the future. I would much rather send a free PDF document than burn through 600 plus pages of paper every time I wanted to pitch my 180,000 word novel.

Today, the best practice is to make your digital manuscript as easy to access and read as possible. Don’t give anyone an instant reason to toss your file in the recycle bin.

Want to read more? 

Daily Inspiration

Daily Tarot Inspiration

I've been offering daily insights and inspiration to all tiers on my Patreon, and I've decided that Sundays are free days! 

Take this chance to check out what you're missing during the week!

How will you make the world more beautiful today?

When the Knight of Cups is revealed, we know it's going to be a beautiful day. The Knight of Cups is the biggest flirt you will chance to meet. He offers limitless compliments, gifts, and affection. 

But sometimes, it is all illusion. 

He doesn't mean to be fickle. He loves you. He just loves everyone else, too. 

The best way to give purpose to Knight of Cups energy is to share the love. Pairing this with the World card does just that. 

The World is a card of completion and connection. It puts us at the epicenter of our own blessing and the gifts the world has to offer. 

That said, how are you making the world a more beautiful place? Even if it is only for a moment and as fleeting as a shooting star.

Prompt: Did you think today's prompt would be anything besides world building? 

This is an invitation since that is another meaning behind the Knight of Cups. An invitation to revel in your created world. An expedition into the expansive and wondrous cities and homes your characters play in. 

Your world can be as much of a character as the actors who people it. Today, give it some time to shine. Take a tour and write deeply into all the sights, sounds, and smells your world has to offer.

Most of this revelry won't make it into final copy, but it will help solidify the places and spaces you are plotting in. And that's the magic of this exercise. You will discover the one or two sentences that boil down the multifaceted wonder that is your world and offer that to your reader.

Movement: Today's movement is about beauty and the body. I am not really a fan of exercise. I wasn't a picked first kid in gym class, and I am certainly not the first person you will see running for fun. But I appreciate my body and the gifts it provides. I want to enjoy quality of life well into old age. And I know this takes effort on my part. 

But the journey to a healthy body better not be dull.

I dance because I find beauty in the movement, not because I am thinking about all the muscles I am using and all the work I am doing. I sword fight for the same reason. I appreciate the geometry of the body as I square off with my opponent. And in yoga, I feel the same.

It has to be fun and beautiful! Or different and interesting. 

This brings me to my practice tonight. I'm on the path to my yoga certification, and I have to take a number of in studio classes in that time. I know I would be bored if every class were a basic how to. But the studio I attend offers ritual, visualization, and imagination in many of the classes. My mind is offered the opportunity to play while the body gets the work done. Everyone enjoys the experience!

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May your Sunday be filled with blessings and beauty!

Czep

Daily Inspiration

Daily Tarot Inspiration

Through discipline and hard work, we earn the success we deserve. Today's cards remind us that we reap what we sow. 

Dig deeper into the Chariot and the Nine of Pentacles in today's Patreon post. 

Prompt: How is your focus on writing? Are you writing for pleasure or publication? Both are valid! But, if your answer includes a desire to publish and profit (or at least not starve) through your writing, discipline is key. 

Writing is a job. Read that again. If you seek payment for your work, it takes work! My average writing day is about six hours. In those six hours, I am writing, editing, plotting, marketing, or researching. 

Discuss goal setting and tracking in today's Patreon post. 

Movement: Oh discipline is the keyword here too, fear not. What are your wellness goals? Are you just seeking to stay active? Maybe lose a few pounds or gain some muscles? Maybe you've had a medical wakeup call.

Full Patreon Post

Stay focused and stay motivated!

Czep