The Card Turning Game...
Feb. 23rd, 2006 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranThe Card Turning Game - How To Play...
Take an imaginary index card and try to write an opening on it that would make you (or an imaginary passerby) turn the card over to see what was on the other side. You can use real cards and real readers if you like, but I find they're not necessary.
It's interesting because it gives you a feel for the essence of a story situation or character. What is it about this situation over that situation that makes it compelling? Why do I care about reading about this character but not that one?
The game is obviously easiest to play with exciting scenes - battles and sex scenes for instance. And if your cliff-ledge and bedroom scenes (or bedroom and cliff-ledge scenes) aren't up to turning a card, then you've got a problem right away.
Slower introductions are increasingly more difficult. You can make them easier by adding in more interesting character or background, or you can try to figure out just how to make something slow and interesting. Can you make a committee meeting interesting *without* resorting to aliens or shapechangers? Can you turn a card with a long slow character description or a gentle tracking shot across a village?
It's also useful to look at your existing stories and look for potential card turning openings. The card openings themselves probably won't fit in the story, but it's often instructive to look at where the interest starts in your story. I couldn't turn a card at all with one of the alternative openings of the Silver Bowl, and that was a good clue that there wasn't actually a story there. For the Bear Story, the first turn of the card suggested starting three chapters in, and in a slightly different place than I'd imagined. For the Clay Boy Story, the card turning game gave a good clue about pacing - just about any scene from the start would turn a card as long as I kept it fast. The story didn't have enough depth to stand on depth alone.
Take an imaginary index card and try to write an opening on it that would make you (or an imaginary passerby) turn the card over to see what was on the other side. You can use real cards and real readers if you like, but I find they're not necessary.
It's interesting because it gives you a feel for the essence of a story situation or character. What is it about this situation over that situation that makes it compelling? Why do I care about reading about this character but not that one?
The game is obviously easiest to play with exciting scenes - battles and sex scenes for instance. And if your cliff-ledge and bedroom scenes (or bedroom and cliff-ledge scenes) aren't up to turning a card, then you've got a problem right away.
Slower introductions are increasingly more difficult. You can make them easier by adding in more interesting character or background, or you can try to figure out just how to make something slow and interesting. Can you make a committee meeting interesting *without* resorting to aliens or shapechangers? Can you turn a card with a long slow character description or a gentle tracking shot across a village?
It's also useful to look at your existing stories and look for potential card turning openings. The card openings themselves probably won't fit in the story, but it's often instructive to look at where the interest starts in your story. I couldn't turn a card at all with one of the alternative openings of the Silver Bowl, and that was a good clue that there wasn't actually a story there. For the Bear Story, the first turn of the card suggested starting three chapters in, and in a slightly different place than I'd imagined. For the Clay Boy Story, the card turning game gave a good clue about pacing - just about any scene from the start would turn a card as long as I kept it fast. The story didn't have enough depth to stand on depth alone.
