Storyteller Deck #02: Genres, Themes & Objects

The Storyteller Decks are a series of physical cards to create flexible & modular creative writing prompts. Shuffle the cards, draw some at random, and start writing or telling your story!

Great for short stories, to flesh out novels and movie scripts, as a fun activity at home, and for teachers and students in the classroom.

The Storyteller Decks

There are four Storyteller Decks and this is Deck #2: Genres, Themes & Objects. Each deck gives you a fresh take on writing and storytelling prompts, and with this deck you can generate randomized prompts that give you a genre to base a story on, a story theme to write a story about (like jealousy or love), and an illustrated object (or several!) to incorporate in the story.

• Deck #1: Images & Questions for creating scenes and settings.
• Deck #2: Genres, Themes & Objects for setting the foundation of a story.
• Deck #3: Conflicts, Goals & Motivations to flesh out your characters.
• Deck #4: Characters, Objects & Situations for shortstories and plot.

What's in the Box?

This deck contains 90 cards:

• 16 primary genres like action, horror and romance
• 18 subgenres like western, pirate and time travel
• 36 written story themes
• 20 illustrated objects like a match or a soldier's helmet

How to Use This Deck

The cards can be used any way you like for inspiration and a range of creative storytelling exercises. They come with instructions printed on the box for a suggested exercise:

1. Shuffle the primary genres and subgenres into one deck, or two separate decks.
2. Shuffle the themes and objects into two separate decks.
3. Draw two genres (to create a genre combination), one theme and one object.
4. Write or tell your story!

Example: A time travel western about lost love featuring a surf board.**

With two genres, one object and one story theme there are 807.840 possible combinations for endless stories!

Other suggested exercises include drawing multiple objects (just objects) to incorporate in a story, looking through the genre cards to find interesting combinations, and using the theme cards to flesh out subplots and characters in a novel or movie script you're working on.

Why Use the Storyteller Decks?

Decks of cards are an innovative way of creating countless creative writing prompts. Whether you are a budding author, a seasoned novelist or a teacher or parent, these decks of cards offer a remarkable resource to spark your imagination and help you unlock the full potential of your creative writing.

Each card contains a prompt made up of words, images or illustrations that can be used to set the scene for a story, or to provide ideas for characters, settings and plotlines. They're great fun and can be used for oral storytelling too! With so many possibilities, you can let your creativity run free and create a unique story every time.

Who are the Storyteller Decks for?

The Storyteller Decks are great for writing short stories, fleshing out characters and plot in a longer story (like a novel or movie script), as a tool for teachers, and as a fun activity at home – with kids or by yourself. The feeling of physical cards is great and the randomly generated prompts are creative and inspiring, making the decks great for writers and storytellers of all ages!