Link! The In-Between Cards - Instructions

Welcome! Below are the full instructions for the single cards PDF package.

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How to use our Link! The In-Between Cards 

Each card features two scenarios. The first describes a situation that happens to a character. The second describes a future scenario that results from that initial situation.

The idea is that the initial situation causes an event – or a set of events – to happen, which leads to the future scenario. Think of it like a chain reaction or domino effect.

The task? You come up with what happens in between these two scenarios that links them together. How does the initial situation eventually cause the future scenario?

For instance: If the first scenario is “Elaine steps on a piece of gum” and the final scenario is “Elaine causes a minor car accident” – you have to come up with an idea for how the gum-stepping event led to the minor accident.

A simple answer: Maybe Elaine didn’t notice the gum, got into her car, and the gum that was on her shoe got stuck to the pedal of the car, causing her to try to scrape it off while driving and in that moment of distraction she rear ended the car in front of her.

A more elaborate answer: Maybe the gum-stepping led Elaine into a cafe where she got a napkin to take the gum off her shoe and while there she got a cup of coffee and a slice of banana cake and as she left the cafe she ate a piece of her banana cake and she started choking on it and as she’s waving her hands to signal she’s choking she distracted a driver on the road who could see she was in trouble and in that moment of distraction the driver rear ended the car in front of him. (Elaine survives, by the way.)

An answer that takes years to unfold: Maybe while at that cafe she met her future husband who she discovered one night was an alien and when he threatened to take her to his mothership Elaine grabbed her keys, got in their car and while speeding away she saw
the mothership in her rear-view mirror, but so did the car in front of her, and the driver in the car in front of her slammed on his brakes causing Elaine to crash into him. (Elaine is taken to the mothership where, by the way, she ends up finding her best life.)

How elaborate you get with the linking events is entirely up to your imagination.

Just keep in mind these guidelines:

    • The initial situation is the start of what happens – it is not part of an existing storyline. Meaning, if not for the initial event, the events you come up with would not happen.
    • You can make your in-between events simple or elaborate. It can be a single linking event or multiple cause-and-effect events. The in-between events can happen in the moment or take years to unfold. They can be realistic or outlandish, even magical – but try not to overly rely on magical elements.
    • Feel free to embellish the initial event to have your linking events make more sense.

How to present your answers: 

    • You can write your linking events (paragraph, bullets, use of arrows), talk about them/ present them verbally, sketch them in a diagram – or all of the above.
    • If you want, you can also create a story (written, comic strip style, storyboards) out of the events, or just add an update to give some information about what ultimately happened to your character or characters as was done in the sample answers.

About our Think Like a Storyteller series

This multi-faceted series seeks to build imagination, critical thinking, strategic thinking, problem-solving, lateral thinking and idea generation through different aspects of storytelling. You can view our items at FuriousThink.com.

What to know about this PDF package

Our Link! The In-Between Cards package comes with two PDFs.

This PDF features 4 cards per page and is intended for printing. The pages can be printed on standard letter size paper (8.5” x 11”). Once printed, you can cut the pages into cards if you choose. For sturdier cards, you may want to print on cardstock.

There is also a PDF containing single page cards/slides that can be easily viewed on devices. There are 88 cards in total in each PDF.