Metaphorical cards and story
In narrative work a person speaks about themselves through a story about someone else: the difficult part is easier to say, and a familiar turn of the plot is easier to notice. Cards give that work the thing it usually lacks, a foothold for imagination. Below: a twenty-minute practice, the deck for it and what the method does not do.
Why a story works better than a report
Asked to describe their situation directly, most people produce the ready version, the one they have rehearsed a hundred times. That version is not a lie, but it does not move either: it already knows who is right, what gets in the way and how it ends.
A story about someone else lifts that limit. About him you can say "he had wanted to leave for a long time but stayed every time", and it is a plot rather than a confession. It may become a confession later, if the person chooses to connect it. This is why narrative work avoids the question "is this about you?": the question closes exactly the space the work was opening.
The card matters where imagination stalls. Inventing a story from nothing is hard for almost everyone, adults especially: an inner editor turns up and demands that it come out well. The picture removes that: the plot is not invented, it is noticed in what already lies in front of you.
The practice: a story in three cards
Twenty minutes, three cards drawn blind. The positions set the place in the plot, not the meaning, and that distinction is the whole point: meaning appears in your telling.
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1
First card: how it began
Describe what you see and say one sentence about the character: who they are and where they stand at the start. A name and an age are not needed, "a person who" is enough.
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2
Second card: what happened
An event or an obstacle. Do not explain why it happened, just say what did. Explanation is already interpretation and it can wait.
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3
Third card: how it ended
Any ending, open ones included. If the card does not make an ending, say so: "the story stops here". That is a result too.
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4
One question afterwards
What in this story is familiar. Not "is it about me", but familiar: recognition is gentler than identification and more precise.
A ready sequence of questions is in the timeline technique: it separates yesterday, today and tomorrow, which is the frame of any story. For more cards, see layouts by card count.
Which deck fits
Narrative work needs a deck with a scene on the card rather than a single object or a face.
- The Open Door – the most fairytale-like of ours: 90 cards of archetypal images, doors, roads and transformations
- Urban Myth – 108 modern scenes: the same story, but about adult life without magic
- Crosspoint – 78 scenes of the road: forks, thresholds and shores, that is, ready turns of a plot
What it is not
Three things people most often assume about narrative card work, wrongly.
Not interpreting folk tales
We are not unpacking traditional plots or looking for which archetype stands behind which. The work is with the story you made up, here and now.
Not diagnosis
No conclusion about a person follows from their story. A bleak ending speaks about the mood today, not about a personality and not about the future.
Not only for children
The method came from work with children, but it gives an adult the same thing: a way to say the difficult part not about oneself. Our platform is for adults.
When to stop
A story can come very close, and that is both its strength and its risk.
If breathing gets harder along the way, or the story clearly stops being about the character, the practice stops. Not finishing is a normal choice, not a failed exercise.
Working alone does not suit an acute state, the first days after a hard event, or thoughts of self-harm. In detail on the page about the limits of the method.
FAQ
What is storytelling with metaphorical cards?
How many cards does a story need?
Which deck is best for a story?
Do I have to connect the story to myself?
Does the method suit work with a child?
Build a story from cards
Next: 14 techniques with step-by-step questions, how to read a card, The Open Door deck, the limits of the method.