Flashy

The other day I spotted a new idea-ology product from Tim Holtz, a mini deck of flash cards:



I bought them because I love all things idea-ology, and I thought they might be useful as story prompts, too. The deck contains 72 1.5" X 2.5" cards with thematic words on both sides:



Each word could be a prompt on its own, but with 104 words to play with you can come up with an infinite number of combinations, too. Here are four I drew at random:



And here are the words that were on the back of those four:



I got them for $4.99, which makes them a very affordable mini deck of inspiration. I think they'd make an excellent stocking stuffer for a writer pal, too.

CPSpring

The March/April 2015 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors was so chock full of excellent new ideas for journaling and book making that I've already picked three to try out:

Modern cartes de visite by Gabriela Domville Dondisch: Back in the nineteenth century, people would mount small photos of themselves on cards and use them to share with friends and family or even use them as the next generation of calling cards. Gabriela's short article covers how to simply make some modern versions, which would be a very cool promo item for authors to hand out with their backlist, contact info, appearance schedule, etc. (theme your cards with your genre, and steampunk writers, this project was practically made for you guys.)

My Story to Tell by Kristen Robinson: if you've ever wanted to try to make a mixed-media book or journal, this is the project for you. The artist uses a lot of recycled materials and offers a very simple two-hole binding technique that anyone can manage.

Dip It! by Ann St. Martin Stout: You know those little sample jars of latex paint at the home improvement stores that always tempt you? Okay, maybe it's just me. Anyway, in this article Ann tells you how to use that paint to decorate the spine plus bind a small book, and uses this really cool marbling technique that is also practically a no-brainer.

At the end of the issue there are also five reader challenge winning projects that show you what you might sculpt out of old unwanted books, plus lots of other articles with fun ideas for your art. Definitely recommend checking out this issue.

Story Carding

Long before manga or anime there was Kamishibai, a form of Japanese storytelling with picture cards based on the same practice used by 12th century Buddhist monks who used picture scrolls to teach morality lessons. This is now a popular form of storytelling in schools on this side of the planet, and board versions of kamishibai are even employed by some corporations as a visual management tool.

Back in 2008 I came up with the idea to make character trading cards using Big Huge Labs photo trading card generator, and I've always been interested in cards like as a storytelling tool. If you take the kamishibai approach to creating cards for your story, and use a strong symbolic image, some titles and descriptive sentences, you could card every chapter like this:



Now to show you how that template works with a real story, here are two cards I've made for my NaNoWriMo 2014 novel:





I think this might work as well if not better than index cards, sticky notes or all the other ways we outline stories. You can also do these cards for scenes versus chapters. Also, you can use any card form you like; I just went with Big Huge Labs's card generator because it's easy and the results are attractive.

What do you think of the idea? Let me know in comments.

All the Answers

You never know what gems you'll find in your book store's discounted stock sections. At my local BAM they always have a pretty decent selection of mini boxed kits, usually discounted up to 75%. Rummage through these and you might find anything from Paris in a box to a little Zen garden for your desk.

I like to play with cards, so whenever I see a card deck of any kind it grabs my attention. Since I also have lots of questions, I definitely couldn't resist The Answer Deck, created and designed by Nicholas Zann.

The Answer Deck is a kind of alternative Tarot, with 73 illustrated divination cards that use concept words like Abundance, Challenge, Greed, Power, Truth, etc. Mixed among these are random characters (The Master, Dark Haired Woman, Friend, Hidden Enemy) and a few nouns (Battle, Journey, The Lesson.) The cards are all beautifully illustrated with graphic black and white images representing the corresponding words. According to the mini instruction booklet you ask a question, draw cards from the deck, arrange them on the included paper mat, and then interpret an answer* based on the layout and how they relate to each other (also briefly explained in the booklet.)

I paperclipped my mat to a piece of cardboard to keep it flat before I dealt a few layouts and ran some questions by it, and the answers were certainly entertaining. I'm either going to take over the world, become rich beyond my wildest dreams, or finally find the egg slicer my guy put away and subsequently forgot where he put it. If the fates are listening, I'd really like the egg slicer back now ((and click on any of the following images to view a larger version):



The really interesting thing about these cards for me was how well they might work as creative prompts. Simply shuffle the deck, deal out a couple of cards, and see what ideas they spark, which you can jot down like this:

Woman of the World - Scandal

Immediate thoughts: How do you take down a woman of the world? Scandal certainly does an excellent job, but if she is a woman of the world, why didn't she see it coming? Or maybe she became a woman of the world because of a scandal in her past, or she intends to cause one.


The Fool - Talent

Immediate thoughts: Talent and wisdom rarely go hand-in-hand. One is random, the other has to be earned (usually the hard way.) I also recalled something from a baseball documentary about a very talented player who still had to be actively discouraged from chasing after firetrucks.

Add more cards to what you deal out, and you can see story patterns beginning to emerge:



Faith - Clarity - Change - Fair/Gray Haired Man

Immediate thoughts: What we believe can change in an instant. One is never so adamantly confirmed in their beliefs as the moment just before they're ripped apart. Like believing you're done with love, and your life is so much better lived alone, and then that fair-haired guy with the amazing voice and gorgeous green eyes smiles at you . . . . well, we'll save the rest of that for the autobiography. You get the general idea.

I had such a blast playing with these cards that I went back and bought three more decks for a giveaway. If you'd like a chance to win one, in comments to this post tell us about an unconventional source of inspiration you've tried (or if you can't think of one, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Saturday, January 28, 2012. I'll choose three names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners The Answer Deck and a signed copy of my Kyndred novel Nightshine. This giveaway is open to anyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

*Please note that as with most mass-produced divination tools The Answer Deck is intended for entertainment purposes only.