Your silhouette floats around the room
A summary of last night's Words & Friends and writing tasks to inspire your words
Hi! Welcome to another Good Egg Project newsletter!
Today’s newsletter title is borrowed from Silhouette by rei brown
Thanks so much to everyone who came to August_21 last night for our latest collaboration with Orémi. It was a quieter evening, but this made for a more intimate environment. Perfect for last night’s writing tasks.
In a slight deviation from our prompt format, I decided to share some writing aids* and games with our writers. Prompts are great. Often, they are low-pressure ways to explore specific topics with our words. But sometimes we need to take a different approach. We need something a little more randomised.
So, I chose three writing aids and techniques to use each game to support creative writing. We kicked things off with a collaborative exercise before moving on to some individual writing in the second half of the evening.
Everyone approached these tasks with openness and curiosity. It was lovely to see friendships start to seed and grow as each person got more absorbed in the worlds you created together. I was amazed by what everyone came up with in such a short time!
The group collaborations included stories about a demon who ran away to a Cornish B&B to escape a multi-level-marketing scheme and find friendship along the way; a time-travelling key that helps people to unlock their hope; and a story of celestial angels who learn to shift their perspectives and appreciate the worlds around them.
These stories show the power of collective imagination and group storytelling. I hope we can do more of it in the future.
*This post is not sponsored. These are just suggested writing aids and products that I use in my own writing practice.
Story games and writing aids
‘Develop ideas and stories for novels, movies, comic books, TV shows, games, and more. A powerful creative tool for professional storytellers.
The Narata deck contains 200 beautiful & professionally designed cards divided into 10 card categories: Character, Creature, Society, Goal, Activity, Situation, Event, Object, Location, Meta.’ - Narata Studio
Narata Storytelling Cards are a great tool if you’re stuck for ideas or in a creative block. The deck is huge and filled with illustrated cards that cover almost any situation, thing, place, person, or idea you can imagine. They also include words and associations for each prompt to help spark inspiration and build out your ideas.
The cards also come with a handy how-to guide to help you get started and build your confidence using the cards.
Check out the Narata Storytelling Cards website for more information or buy a deck through their shop
Throw the dice and tell your story using the illustrations on the faces of the dice. - Rory’s Story Cubes
I first came across Story Cubes when I was teaching English in Beijing. They are excellent tools for helping people of all ages to increase their vocabulary and to build their confidence when communicating in a second or other language.
I used Story Cubes with primary school students, Business English learners, creative writing students, and English as a Second Language (ESL) students before I started using them myself. We were able to tell stories individually and as groups, and I saw my students not only immerse themselves in their second or other language but also the joy of storytelling, both by themselves and with others.
By engaging in games like Story Cubes, we lower the pressure on perfectionism and allow ourselves to play, creating a more free-flowing storytelling experience. We’re able to make mistakes, to laugh together, to hook onto each other’s ideas, and to use them as a jumping off point until the next suggestion or idea arrives and carries us to the next part of the story.
Since I came back to the UK, I’ve been using Story Cubes myself when I feel stuck, but I don’t want or need something as hands-on as the Narata Cards. They help me to let go of hitting the perfect idea, sentence, execution, word, phrase, or whatever I happen to be stuck on that day. I get to refocus on making something new, which often informs or shifts my perspective of the things I’m consciously doing in my works in progress.
In short, sometimes writing is play. Story Cubes are a good reminder of that.
Learn more on the Rory’s Story Cubes website or buy some Story Cubes at Waterstones
Tarot Decks
Last night we were using the Star Spinner Tarot Deck by Trungles and produced by Chronicle Books. I’ve had this tarot deck for a few years now and used it as part of my (still unpublished) one poem a week horoscope project in 2022. My husband currently uses her during his role-playing games to guide his character. Tarot is very versatile.
I love this deck. It’s so pretty and was created by Trungles (aka Trung Lê Capecchi-Nguyễn), a Vietnamese American comic book artist and illustrator. Trungles’ deck is a modern, diverse, and inclusive deck with LGBTQ+ in mind. Traditional Tarot decks are 78 cards, this one contains 81 cards as it includes multiple Lovers cards to reflect a range of romantic relationships.
I first used Tarot for writing during a workshop at Argonaut Books with Amelia Amber-Lee, who works as The Carnelian Keep. Amelia took us through using Tarot for storytelling and plotting stories.
We began with one card draws and teasing out stories from single cards using their images and associations to kick start our work. We then worked through ten-card draw to create a more complex narrative by specifying which cards represented things like the protagonist, the main plot, the story arc, and the protagonist’s motivation.
The workshop helped me understand how to use the deck to find small details and flesh out characters. And Amelia also taught us how to use Tarot to paint the bigger picture of the story.
You can buy the Star Spinner Tarot Deck in Edinburgh at our bookshops and witch crafts shops, including Argonaut Books, Portal Leith, and Wheel of Fate.
What we got up to last night
Task 1: Collaborative writing
This task can be done in groups of 2-6 people (possibly larger groups, but then you have more cards or dice to work with)
Narata and Tarot Cards
Each person should draw a card from the deck of Narata cards or Tarot cards
Lay the cards face up on the table in the order you picked them
Look at the cards together, and talk about associations you have with the images
Try to pick out a main character, story ideas, plot points, and worldbuilding ideas from the images. You can also use the prompts on the Narata cards or consult the Tarot deck’s guidebook for further inspiration
Plot out your story together. You can use any story structure you prefer, but if you’d like some ideas for basic story structures, you can find a guide here
Start writing. You can each write a sentence, one after the other. You could note down key moments and progressions, and try group storytelling. You could make your story into a poem. Whatever works best for you as a group.
Story Cubes
Each person takes a dice and rolls it
Look at the pictures on the dice and discuss your associations for each image
During your discussion, try to pick out a main character, story ideas, plot points, and worldbuilding ideas from the images on the dice
Plot out your story together. You can use any story structure you prefer, but if you’d like some ideas for basic story structures, you can find a guide here
Start writing. You can each write a sentence, one after the other. You could note down key moments and progressions, and try group storytelling. You could make your story into a poem. Whatever works best for you as a group.
Task 2: Individual writing
Narata and Tarot Cards
Draw three cards from your deck of Narata cards or Tarot cards, keep the cards face down
Lay them on the table face down, then turn them over one by one. Take a moment to look at each card in detail before turning over the next one. Make notes of the things that stand out and the associations they bring up for you
Take a look at your notes and highlight things that stand out to you, including main characters, plot points, story ideas, worldbuilding, etc
Write a quick outline for your story. Try to keep these notes to one sentence max - I recommend giving yourself at least 5 minutes but no more than 10 minutes
Start writing. If you’re not sure what form your story will take or if you’re aiming for a specific word count or genre, here’s a guide to short story forms and another guide to fiction word lengths
Story Cubes
Roll three dice, take a moment to look at each picture in turn before moving on to the next dice. Make notes of the things that stand out and the associations they bring up for you
Take a look at your notes and highlight things that stand out to you, including main characters, plot points, story ideas, worldbuilding, etc
Write a quick outline for your story. Try to keep these notes to one sentence max - I recommend giving yourself at least 5 minutes but no more than 10 minutes
Start writing. If you’re not sure what form your story will take or if you’re aiming for a specific word count or genre, here’s a guide to short story forms and another guide to fiction word lengths
Stretch task
Add more dice or cards to make your stories more complex. You can associate each extra card or dice with a specific story aspect to create a bigger challenge or to deepen your story idea.
Thanks for reading!
That’s all from me today, folks! I hope you have a great week writing. I’ll be back in your inboxes next week with more community events and open calls.
In case you missed it, you can find this week’s community events round-up and open calls for writers and writing in this post. There’s lots of cool stuff going on this week, including open mics aplenty tonight, Wednesday, May 14, storytelling with Seanchoíche tomorrow, Thursday, May 15, at Leith Arches, readings in the garden over in Glasgow on Friday, May 16, and much more.
If you’d like to do some more writing in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be at Lost in Leith on Tuesday, May 27, for the next Chicken Coop Writing Group. We’ll be writing, book swapping, and sharing our work with each other from 6-8.30 pm, so come along to join our curious, creative, and kind community of writers and get your words on paper!
Until next week, take care of each other,
Naomi
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