How I card a story.

So, carding is when you write down the story beats of your film, play, novel, on individual pieces of card. Then you lay them out flat in front of you. Or pin them on boards. Large boards. 

If you are in a writers’ room, you can then write things on cards and argue about where they go. If you are not, you can argue about it in your head.

It is better to use actual cards, not paper. A lot of people use index cards. Here are some scientific reasons I have just made up to back this up. 

Index cards are good because they are small, sturdy and look neat. You can shuffle them like a pack of cards. When you write on one, it makes you feel like your words mean something. 

It is better than writing on pieces of paper torn into squares with a ruler which are all different shapes. Such fuzzy edges are disrespectful to the effort you are putting into the creation of a new piece of work. 

Paper is too light, the little paper squares can walk across the table by themselves and they just don’t stay put. And if you’re doing it on a board, they can’t put up with the amount of drawing pin action a showrunner will put them through. Showrunners will grip them tightly behind their backs when they get frustrated and it gives them something to look at when they don't want to talk to the other writers.

You can Blu Tak them to the wall. But. Pins are better, because you don’t want to  be picking your third act off the floor because someone opens a door at the wrong time.

The cards are for writing the story beats. Distinct moments which move a story forward. But. Use them in a way that suits you. Fragments of scenes, random ideas, info on characters. The cards also have a back.  

But the cards are small, and so this will make you boil everything down like a little whisky distillery.

Here is something useful that David Greig said to me once. He carries a little tin box full of cards around with him, like a tiny filing cabinet. I wrote a blog post about some of David's approaches to writing here.

Anyway, he said – you don’t have to start at the start. If you start working on something. You can start anywhere you like, with any scene you like. You can bounce about, and then you can shuffle your cards about. 

And yes. You can do it on a computer. But there’s something about the physical act, the moving the cards which I THINK seems to work better than a computer screen. Screens are so small. They give you a false sense of security. When you see a metre of bare wall, you know your second act isn’t cooking yet. 

There are lots of story forms to explore which can help in the carding process. Robert McKee lists a good number of story shapes, Mamet’s ‘Thesis – Antithesis – Synthesis’. The Hero’s Journey, Blake Synder’s ‘Best Sheet’. It can all help. 

But back to the cards. Buy a pen to write with, so you see what you have written from a little distance. Don’t use a pencil. That way bad backs lie. 

A pack of index cards elicits the same response in writers as meat powder did for Pavlov’s dog. The cards are powerful. The cards are a difficult master. They are small but they contain entire worlds.

The cards are. Our friend. 

END.