C.U.L.T.The Library · Kit

Storycraft Deck

A printable deck of cards. Cut them out and use them at the kitchen table to start a story with one card from each suit. The physical companion to The Library.

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PRINTABLE · AT-HOME · PARENT-FRIENDLY

Build a story at the table.

24 cards, 4 suits. Pick one from each to set the bones — character, want, problem, change — without typing anything. The cadet writes from there.

How to use the deck

  1. Print & cut. Print this page. Cut along card edges. (For a sturdier deck, glue them onto cardstock or index cards.)
  2. Sort by suit. Four suits: Character, Want, Problem, Change. Cadets stack each suit into its own pile.
  3. Draw one from each. Cadet picks (or randomly draws) one card from each pile. Now the story has its bones.
  4. Speak the story's setup out loud. "There's a [Character] who wants [Want], but [Problem], and by the end [Change]." That's your starting line.
  5. Write the page. Hand-write or use the Tell Your Story workshop online to capture it. Aim for a paragraph if 8–10, a full page if older.

Best for ages 8–13. Younger cadets play with a grown-up reading. Older cadets can run it themselves.

SUIT 01 · CHARACTER

Who the story is about

Pick a starting character. Specifics beat clichés — and the cadet can swap in a real name and details from there.

C1
CHARACTER

A kid who hated mornings

Started the day already wanting to give up. Specific kind of kid — tired in a way nobody talks about.

"Mara hated mornings."
C2
CHARACTER

A kid who calculated

Didn't run, didn't panic, didn't react fast. Thought first. The opposite of impulsive.

"He was a kid who calculated. So he calculated."
C3
CHARACTER

A kid the family forgot to listen to

Loud house. Lots of voices. This kid's didn't carry. Quiet doesn't mean nothing's there.

"In her house, you had to be the loudest to be heard. So nobody heard her."
C4
CHARACTER

A kid in a town that was mostly memory

A place that used to be something. The kid knows what it used to be from the people still there.

"The factory closed before he was born. Everyone still talked about it like it was last week."
C5
CHARACTER

A kid who kept a secret for someone else

Not their own. A trust. Heavy in a way they didn't expect.

"I told her I wouldn't tell, and then I had to live with what I knew."
C6
CHARACTER

A kid raised by their grandmother

Different rhythm. Different rules. The wisdom and the worry of a household built around someone older.

"My grandmother kept everything important in the same drawer."
SUIT 02 · WANT

What the character is reaching for

Pick the engine. The want is what makes the story go. Specific wants are easier to write than vague ones.

W1
WANT

To be seen by one specific person

Not the whole world. Not the class. One person. The teacher, the friend, the parent who hasn't really looked.

"I just wanted my dad to actually watch me play."
W2
WANT

To go somewhere they're not allowed

A room. A place across town. A door with a sign. The desire to know what's on the other side.

"The basement was off-limits. That made it a magnet."
W3
WANT

To prove something they can't say out loud

Quiet ambition. The thing the character would never claim to want but secretly does.

"I needed her to know I wasn't who she thought."
W4
WANT

To bring something back

A friendship. A family that broke. A version of themselves they used to be. Restoration is one of the oldest engines in fiction.

"It used to be different and I wanted it that way again."
W5
WANT

To say something they've never said

A line they've been carrying. To a parent, a friend, a grandparent. Releasing it is the whole story.

"I'd been holding the question for a year."
W6
WANT

To be alone, for once

Not lonely — alone. Quiet. Without the noise. The desire to hear themselves think.

"I just wanted one room with no voices in it."
SUIT 03 · PROBLEM

What stands in the way

The problem is the wall between the character and what they want. The bigger the wall, the more the story has to teach.

P1
PROBLEM

An adult who said no

Closed door. Not necessarily wrong — but final. Most kid-stories work an angle around a no.

"My mom said: not while I'm alive. So we waited."
P2
PROBLEM

A friend who turned

Not enemy — ex-friend. The before-and-after. Why is the unspoken question.

"She used to wave at me in the hallway. Then she stopped."
P3
PROBLEM

A version of themselves they don't trust

Internal problem. The character is their own wall. Hardest to write, most powerful when it lands.

"The problem wasn't the room. It was who I was in it."
P4
PROBLEM

Something missing they can't replace

A person who's gone. An object that broke. A time you can't get back. Loss is real fuel.

"After it broke, the rest of the room felt wrong."
P5
PROBLEM

A rule the world made up

Something everyone agrees on but the character can't accept. The crack in the consensus.

"Everyone said this was just how it worked. I didn't believe them."
P6
PROBLEM

Time running out

A deadline. A move-out. A goodbye. The clock is the engine; what they do with the remaining time is the story.

"Three more days. That's what they kept saying."
SUIT 04 · CHANGE

How they're different by the end

Without change, there's no story. Pick what shifts in your character — even a small one is enough to land a real piece.

CH1
CHANGE

They finally said it

The line they'd been carrying. They said it. The world doesn't change — they do.

"And I told her. And nothing else mattered after that."
CH2
CHANGE

They stopped trying

Letting go. Not as defeat — as decision. The character chooses to put the want down.

"By the end, I didn't need her to see me anymore."
CH3
CHANGE

They saw the other person clearly

The villain wasn't a villain. The friend was hurting. Empathy as climax.

"And then I saw what she was carrying, and the fight went out of me."
CH4
CHANGE

They started running — not for the bus

Took action they hadn't taken before. New behavior. The decision to be different.

"He decided two things. Two: not for the bus."
CH5
CHANGE

They forgave someone

The grown-up move. Hard to do. Powerful when a kid does it on the page.

"I didn't say it. But I stopped being angry, and that was the same thing."
CH6
CHANGE

They saw themselves clearly

The hardest realization — the character was part of the problem. And they know it now.

"It wasn't her. It had been me, and I just hadn't been ready to know that."