Writing Tools: Writer Emergency Pack
I’ve accumulated a large collection of card-based writing tools, each of which is useful to different parts of my writing process. So I’ve decided to do a series of posts about the various decks I own and how I use them in my writing.
It’s been a while since I’ve added a new deck to my collection, but I recently got the Writer Emergency Pack XL, which is a very targeted deck meant to help you get unstuck while writing, particularly when you don’t know what should happen next. Each card in the deck presents you with a drawing, a title, and a short question on the front. On the back of each card, you get a slightly more detailed explanation of the card’s title, along with some additional questions and three things to try. The creator of the deck, John August, suggests that in addition to the writing on each card, you can also use the illustration as a potential prompt or way to get your story unstuck.
My experience with this deck is that it feels more applicable to plotting or outlining longer fiction. If you get bogged down in an outline and need to figure out what comes next, the ideas here could certainly present options. I think some of the options could be used for short fiction as well, but you almost need to plan the story around the text on the card, rather than try to use it to get unstuck. By and large, the ideas are large enough that they seem like if you tacked one on to a short story, you might wind up writing a longer story than you’d wanted to. But if you have an idea for a main character and no story to put them in, then you could use one of the cards as a prompt for what the story could be about.
The Writer Emergency Pack XL cards are a little larger than a standard index card size, and they come in a nice, solid box to protect them. As a Kickstarter backer, I opted for the dark version of the cards, so my deck and box look a little different from the one pictured here. The text is on the smaller side on the backs of the cards, which may be difficult for some readers with vision impairments. (This may be less of an issue with the light versions of the cards.)
In summary, use Writer Emergency Pack XL for: getting unstuck, outlining, or framing a short story!
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