Before you begin
Introduction — Give a Relationship Question a Specific Task
A relationship question may contain an invitation, an unconfirmed time, an expectation, and a private explanation of all three. Handing the whole bundle to a few cards can produce an absorbing story while leaving its sources unclear. This book works through smaller tasks. Ten layouts assign ordered work to each position so that a record can return to an event, personal expression, and actual information.
These are not stages of romantic development. You need not complete them in order. They measure no compatibility, discover no secret willingness, and guarantee no relationship result. Select for one ordinary arrangement, read only the first two free chapters if useful, or work entirely without cards. Every position has a direct writing task. Imagery is optional material for personal association, not evidence for facts, consent, or future results.
Chapters one and two establish scope and the factual header. Chapters three through eleven introduce layouts one through nine. Chapters twelve through fourteen examine image ownership, differences positions cannot resolve, and repeating questions. Chapter fifteen introduces layout ten; chapter sixteen concerns selection and revision. Four appendices offer a task reference, blank and filled records, question rewrites, and an optional practice schedule. The first two chapters are complete exercises rather than sales summaries with essential steps removed.
All people, messages, images, and events in teaching examples are fictional. Nora and Eli, Priya and Sam, and Luca and Mae appear in independent branches. One chapter's assumption does not establish the next chapter's event or supply a client testimonial. Sam uses they/them in English. Hypothetical images are not actual draws and require no particular deck. Practice durations bound a piece of work; they forecast no reply or change.
Start with a factual header outside the cards: date, event, source, actual participation scope, and present task. Attribute personal associations separately. Preserve differences among drafted, sent, answered, willing to consider, and accepted. Formal, safety, or professional matters need suitable real channels and abilities. The book replaces none of those judgments and requires no contact, continued discussion, or disclosure of private notes.
The intended product is a page that shows what you are doing now. It may retain blanks, refusals, or conditions currently unresolved, then close when the task ends. A completed page need not give a relationship its ending. As author, Xiyue Sansan, I offer limited, optional ways to organize attention. Whether to use, adapt, or omit them belongs to your actual task and circumstances.