Seeking the wisdom of the cosmos for character development
The magickal writing tool I keep by my side
Happy Wednesday! In today’s letter, you’ll learn about…
🪐 Using astrology for character development
✨ The magickal writing tool I keep by my side
🪐 Using astrology for character development
Characters are the heart and soul of our stories. However, not everyone enjoys dedicating time to developing them. And I get it. It’s work. Focusing on that next plot twist is much more interesting and fun.
But it’s worth remembering that once we have a fully fleshed out character, the rest of the story comes more easily. Characters with depth right from the beginning will tell you how they respond to challenges and opportunities, making them more authentic, believable and, most importantly, relatable.
There are a lot of tools out there to help you with character development, but my favorites are astrology, and of course, tarot. Why? Because both are effective and thorough.
I figured y’all might be tired of me talking about using tarot for your characters. So I’m switching it up today by talking about astrology.
Crash course in astrology
The astrological wheel (aka, the cosmos) is made up of twelve signs, which correspond to twelve constellations:
Aries the Ram
Taurus the Bull
Gemini the Twins
Cancer the Crab
Leo the Lion
Virgo the Maiden
Libra the Scales
Scorpio the Scorpion
Sagittarius the Archer
Capricorn the Sea-Goat
Aquarius the Water Bearer
Pisces the Fishes
Next are the planets. The planets move through the twelve signs as they make their orbits. The “planets” are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Technically, the Sun and Moon are luminaries, but everyone refers to them as planets in astrology to make it easier to understand. After all, astrology is already complex!
Each planet has its own personality as I call it. For example, the Sun (the center of our galaxy) represents our ego and how we shine in the world, while Jupiter (as a gas giant) represents the places in life one expands within. I always think of Jupiter as the benevolent king.
Lastly, we have the twelve houses. The houses are the twelve slices of the astrological wheel representing different areas of life:
First house - awareness of self
Second house - personal resources
Third house - immediate environment
Fourth house - inner world
Fifth house - personal creativity
Sixth house - daily life
Seventh house - awareness of others
Eighth house - shared resources
Ninth house - expanded horizons
Tenth house - outer world
Eleventh house - group contribution
Twelfth house - spiritual life
Astrology is an ancient art, a language of symbols, with threads that weave together into a cohesive story.
Creating a complex character
Astrology is a great tool for mapping out complex characters. Nobody wants a one-sided protagonist. That’s boring and unrealistic. We want our main characters to be compelling, have a purpose, feel relatable and have depth.
As squishy human beans, we all have each of the twelve signs and all the planets in our birth charts, making us complex creatures. So why not create a birth chart for your protagonist, too? Their birth chart will hold a wealth of details you can use to design them.
There are tons of free tools for generating a birth chart. All you need is a date, time and a location. Astro.com is a website I reference often.
Not feeling the first attempt? Simply input a new set of birth details and see what you get. As astrology becomes less “woo woo” and more mainstream, there is an ever-increasing number of resources from a variety of voices available at your disposal.
Give it a go and let me know how you get on!
✨ The magickal writing tool I keep by my side
The tool in my writing arsenal that gets used daily is my writer’s journal. This thing is pure magick.
Often, when people hear the word “journal,” they tend to think of a dear diary-type situation. Yes, this is one form of journaling, but it’s not what I’m referring to. This journal is not a place for recording daily thoughts and feelings about my everyday life. That stuff goes in my Book of Everything.
My writer’s journal is a sacred space dedicated to my personal writing projects. My Book of Everything tends to fill up quickly, so it’s more convenient and resourceful for me to keep this journal separate. If you don’t already have a writer’s journal in your writing toolkit, I highly encourage getting one. It’s a useful tool for all writers, at any stage in their writing journey.
Before you even ask, yes, you can do this digitally. Personally, I think keeping a physical journal is way better, but I also acknowledge that we live in a digital age and not everybody likes to have piles of notebooks everywhere.
To be fair, I gave keeping a digital writer’s journal an honest try a few years back and hated it. It was so boring! I need my stickers and washi tape and different colored pens. I need to interact with what I’m writing in a creative way. It’s how I retain and integrate information.
Piles of notebooks are part of my aesthetic and will always be my go-to. Besides, they look so comforting when they’re all plump and full and stacked on my desk or whatever nook and cranny I see them in.
I’m not picky about notebook brands, but dotted and numbered pages, and an index in the front are non-negotiable for me because, well, priorities.
Organization makes my soul happy, so my writer’s journal, like my Book of Everything, is very organized. I have yet to try a notebook with grid paper… not really sure if I want to. I’ve also become smitten with B5-sized notebooks. For ages, I was using A5 notebooks and decided to give the larger size a try. Life-changing! A lot more room for stickers and doodles. I will never go back to A5.
How I use my writer’s journal everyday
For daily processing: At the end of each workday, I process what I’ve worked on. Sometimes I add stickers and sometimes I don’t. Depends on how the day went. The main thing is spending a few minutes jotting down what I did on the project(s) I’m currently working on and a few notes on whatever I need to do next. If a task felt particularly challenging, I will also write my thoughts about it and how I might support myself better the next day when I come back to it.
This magickal journal lives on my desk while I’m working. I tend to work in bursts, so having it within reach works best for me. This keeps me from getting up and interrupting my flow. I also keep a cheap notepad on my desk for when my mom-brain takes over. When stuff like “add laundry detergent to the shopping list” or “pick up package from the post office” pops into my head, I simply write it on the notepad and keep it moving.
For research: I do a ton of research, not only for my own writing projects but for my client work, too. In truth, this is where having a digital journal would be more practical because you can copy and paste links, quotes, resources, etc. and build a bibliography or reference list. Very handy for worldbuilding.
Since completing my paralegal degree, I haven’t written anything that needed a bibliography, but if I ever needed a place to keep these types of resources for a project, I would use Scrivener.
Learning + improving my craft: Writing and editing are two different crafts and studying both is something I consistently make time for. Whenever I take a course or attend a workshop or conference about writing and/or editing, I take notes in my writer’s journal. This also includes what I learn from reading craft books and reference books.
For editing specifically, I keep notes on the things I’m always looking up in CMOS and the AP Stylebook for easy access (like when to use lay and lie lol). I have the physical reference books in my collection as well as access to the online versions. But sometimes it’s easier and faster to flip to that section in my journal since it lives on my desk.
Inspiration: I also write inspirational quotes by others and my own sayings and musings in my journal. On the days when I need a mental boost, I love finding random nuggets of wisdom and inspiration as I’m flipping through my journal looking for bits of information.
My writer’s journal is essentially my magickal reference book. The contents of this notebook are used every day. When I’ve filled a journal, I will archive it and begin a new one. I’ve built quite a collection of writer’s journals I can go back to and reference at any time.
Do you have a writer’s journal? What are your thoughts on using astrology for character development?
Next time on From the Desk of a Book Druid: Writing + Mysticism…
On the last Wednesday of this month, From the Desk of a Book Druid subscribers will get exclusive missive on…
🧜♀️ Using the Wounded Healer to create your protagonist and antagonist
📖 Frameworks to know them inside and out
🍞 Bonus: Kitchen witchery - Bewitched banana bread recipe
Yours in magick and mysticism,
Lakeisha xo