The Storymatic –
I’m a sucker for a box of cards with meditations, writing prompts, etc. This one
has 500 cards divided into two categories: gold ones to create a story character
and copper ones to add a story element – an object that gets things going or a
situation. There’s an instruction booklet I’ve never read that tells how to use the
cards for writing and for games.
I bought this around the time of 2015 NaNoWriMo. I have more fun if I don’t plan,
so on Nov 1 I pulled two gold cards and one copper. Before me lay “nudist,”
“person frequently mistaken for a movie star,” and “the worst storm in 50 years.”
And so began the only novel draft I’ve ever completed for NaNo.
I free-wrote a hell of a mess, not knowing where I was going until several days in
when I panic-settled on romance because it was a familiar structure. I pretty
much write everything from a place of anxiety. It ended up 53,000 words of a
story I kind of like. I’ve never done anything with it. Once it’s cleaned up – a big job
– I might have a novella or a long short story.
Anyway, the rush of it came from freewriting off those three cards. Plunging into
an abyss that was a hurricane hitting Pensacola Beach with these two characters.
I hope to go back to it one day, if I ever finish this ^@^%$@%! other thing that
needs to be edited through a couple more drafts.
But the main point, if you’re still reading this, is: Try this! If you throw yourself in
by freewriting, it’s so much fun.
