You can read one card as a past, present and future story, and the picture itself gives you a way in. Many Rider-Waite-Smith scenes have a clear sense of movement: in the Six of Swords the boat is leaving rough water behind (past), crossing now (present) and heading toward calmer water (future). Cards with figures walking, looking back or reaching, like the Eight of Cups or the Page of Wands, are especially good for this. Treat the result as one narrative thread, not three separate predictions, and keep the language tentative about the future. If you want firmer answers, drawing two more cards is a good choice, as already suggested, and you can use the single card story as a warm-up before laying them out. A nice study exercise is to pick one card each day and write three sentences about where it came from, where it is, and where it is heading, then compare with the traditional meaning.

Your three approaches are a good framework, and the Seven of Swords is a great test case. Traditionally the figure sneaks away from a camp carrying five swords while two stay behind, so the card is about strategy, stealth and incomplete plans. As advice, I find it helps to ask which side of the card the situation needs: act independently and think ahead, or stop dodging and be honest. A useful habit is to check the neighbouring cards and the position's wording, because a card of caution next to something open and cooperative, like the Three of Cups, nudges toward the straightforward reading. For study, try writing a short "gift" and "warning" line for every card that feels negative, such as Seven of Swords: gift is resourcefulness, warning is self-deception. Most so-called negative cards carry both, and the advice position is often asking you to use the gift while watching for the shadow.