A Review Of The WordSmith Deck – 150 Writing / Journalling Prompts
Please note that the WordSmith Deck reviewed below is now discontinued. I have found an alternative product that will serve a similar, arguably better purpose, so all of the links that used to take you to the WordSmith Deck now take you to a book called “5,000 WRITING PROMPTS: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More“. Apologies for this, but it is out of my control.
I’ve mentioned the WordSmith Deck several times before (e.g. here), but now that I’ve used all 150 of the prompts that are included, I thought I’d write a more complete review of this product.
What Is The WordSmith Deck?
So, first of all, what is it?
Well, according to their website, it is a “deck of 150 writing prompts designed to inspire journaling, cure writer’s block, and put you back in control of your creativity.”
The image above shows you what you receive, which is 150 cards, each of which has a writing or journalling prompt on it, two other cards, one of which explains the colour-coding (which I’ll get to in a moment), with the other providing a few brief notes on how they suggest you use this deck.
The cards come in an attractive and sturdy (so far) box, to keep everything looking pristine.
It seems as though there are two sizes of card – original and expanded.
I bought the expanded version, and those are fine. I cannot talk about the original size, because I am not sure what the difference is, but one of the images on their site shows you how the two boxes look, side by side.
The card whose face is displayed above is the one I just mentioned, the one that explains what the colours mean.
Each of the 150 cards is assigned to one of the following six categories:
- Education (Green)
- Life (Grey)
- Random (Yellow)
- Relationships (Orange)
- Self (Dark Blue)
- World (Light Blue)
Their website encourages you to use these cards as journal prompts, or to help work through writer’s block.
How I Use The WordSmith Deck
Journalling is something I mention quite a bit on this site, and while it’s not something I would once have ever considered, I have found it to be an interesting and revealing exercise.
In fact, prior to the past 150 days, I have journalled only once in my life – when I was on vacation in 2004 and I spent the first two days documenting everything I felt about the situation I was in, and getting all of those thoughts down on paper (well, computer), was incredibly therapeutic to me and is probably the one thing that set me on a path to recovery from my deep depression and out of my first marriage. (You can read more about what helped me get better here.)
When I bought my WordSmith Deck, I’d already been using the 750 Words site to do some free-writing each day, my goal being to get back into creative writing again, so I thought I’d swap over to doing some journalling instead.
I cannot remember what prompted this, or even where I came across the WordSmith Deck in the first place, but I’m glad I did.
My approach to using these cards has been simple: pick any card I’ve not yet used, each day, and answer the prompt, using at least 750 words to do so (because that’s the requirement of the 750 Words site).
After I use a card, I put it back in the box, but turned around and at the back of the stack, so that I don’t select it again.
So, what sort of prompts are they?
Well, while I do have a complete list of all 150 of them, it would not be fair to the company who make this deck to reveal them, but what I will do is show you one sample prompt from each of the six categories:
- Education: Which of your talents can you trace back to growing up?
- Life: How do you define success, and how will you know when you have it?
- Random: When you feel bored, where does your brain wander to?
- Relationships: Describe the attributes required for true friendship. Who in your life has these?
- Self: What is the dominant emotion in your life right now? How can you use this emotion to improve your life?
- World: Write down 10 things for your bucket list.
Note that the five links above will take you to articles I wrote on this site that are based on those specific prompts.
Lessons Learned
Having used all 150 of these prompts, what have I learned about myself?
Well, first and foremost, I think it’s highlighted just now non-normal I am in many respects.
For example, there are prompts relating to being present at historic moments or meeting people / characters, and while I accept that many people consider such questions, they are meaningless to me.
I have lived outside normal society, almost as a recluse, for so long now (13 years and counting) that I have no idea what life in the “real world” is like any longer.
But even before then, back in England when I had a regular job and a regular life in general, I still didn’t feel like I fitted in – I rarely watched the TV shows that many people did, and I wasn’t interested in many of the topics of conversation that were common (e.g. sports, the news, cars, babies, family).
So the more I answered these prompts, the more I found myself taking an angle that I’m sure is non-standard.
As another example, today’s prompt (the 150th and final one) was asking what event had the greatest impact on the world, and I’m guessing (because I have no data to support it) that most people would have chosen something from the history books (e.g. the founding of the USA, World War II, the invention of the car, maybe even the invention of the wheel for those who choose to go further back in time) – but not me.
The first thought that came to mind was the mass extinction event (or series of events) that led to the demise of the dinosaurs.
Am I weird?
Probably, not that I mind.
I think my unusual perspectives on the world stem from a few potential causes, including the fact I am on the low end of the autism spectrum (I suppose that’s what they’d call high-functioning) and possibly the fact I have aphantasia (i.e. the inability to consciously picture anything in my mind, which I suspect causes more problems than might at first be apparent), as well as, of course, my early childhood, which likely affects us all in ways we may never fully comprehend.
But not only have I realized just how weird I might be, it’s also made me think a lot about what’s on my mind, my life in total, and maybe why I think the way I do – and that’s why journalling can be so beneficial. (If you have nobody you can talk to, to act as the proverbial sounding board, then writing things down in a journal can be the next best thing.)
How Else Can You Use The WordSmith Deck?
It’s worth pointing out that the way I have used this deck (i.e. to find out more about myself) is certainly not the only way you could benefit from it.
For example:
- For those who are brave enough, this could be a great way to get to know a new partner. (While we did not do this per se, my late wife and I, after meeting over the Internet back in 2004, did spend anywhere from 4 -12 hours per day, seven days a week, talking via Skype, so there’s very little we didn’t discuss and learn about each other before I moved to the USA almost a year later and married her.)
- At least one person who wrote a review of this deck on the company’s website said they used it more like a drinking game, as a way to get to know more about your friends.
And as I mentioned earlier, they also say you could use this deck as a way to get over a case of writer’s block.
I haven’t used the cards for this purpose, so cannot really comment, but since one approach to dealing with this perennial problem is just to write, anything, so you can get into the right frame of mind, I can see how it may be helpful.
What Don’t I Like About The WordSmith Deck?
If there’s one thing I am not keen on, and it really is only a minor quibble, it’s the quality of the cards themselves.
I’m not saying they are shoddy or paper-thin – they’re not, they are sturdy and well made, but I think it’s the finish that is the problem.
However, my long years as an amateur magician have maybe left me spoiled because I am comparing these to regular playing cards, and while they talk about shuffling the cards so you can choose one at random, I found it really difficult to try to shuffle them.
I actually even found it hard to separate them.
In the end, though, it wasn’t a problem because I simply chose a card at random from the unused portion of the box, trying to select a prompt from a different category than the day before.
When the deck arrives, the cards are grouped into categories, so you’ll get all the cards from one category, followed by all the cards from another category, and so on.
My original plan had been to remove all of the cards and then shuffle them, so I could take a random card off the top of the deck each day, but my Plan B worked out just fine.
What’s Next?
Well, they encourage you to re-use the cards, but to come up with different answers if you’ve already answered that prompt previously.
While some of these prompts were easy to answer, because the topics are on my mind constantly already, some have taken some real thought (e.g. list 50 things that…), so trying to find a different set of 50 things would be more than challenging, since finding the first 50 things was tough enough.
I can see the benefit of re-using the cards, though, because as we age, we grow and we change our minds – at least, I hope we do, because if you still hold all the same opinions and beliefs when you’re 60 as you did when you were 20, then maybe you’ve wasted your life – and therefore our answers to these questions may be different too.
I know that if I had worked through this deck 20 years ago, which would be before I moved to the USA to start a new life, my answers to a lot of the prompts would be totally different.
That being said, I may go back and re-answer selected cards, but I doubt I’ll use all 150 of them again – at least, not for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion
Even if you’ve never considered journalling, I think you’ll find a lot of benefit in using these prompts.
Whether you choose to write down your answers (either on a computer, as I did, or in a paper journal), or whether you simply want to use them as conversation starters, I think you’ll learn a lot about yourself (and others), and some of these prompts may even get you closer to the important questions of life, such as who you really are, what matters to you, what your principles and morals are, and what you decide your purpose in life should be (because I don’t think for one second it’s pre-ordained by anybody or anything else). and this a subject I’ve already written about here.
In summary then, I can highly recommend not only this set of 150 writing prompts, but journalling in general. Like I said, I didn’t expect to ever be saying that, but there you go – I’ve grown and/or changed.
And don’t forget that while these cards are great, you don’t, of course, have to buy them because you can find writing and journalling prompts all over the Internet.
For me, I like the fact that this is a tangible product – it makes it all more real, and because I keep the deck next to where I work, it’s a physical reminder to do my daily journalling.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that the company who makes this deck also have a variety of other Discovery Decks (e.g. Icebreaker, Intimacy, Little Talk), as they call them, all of which I think may be worth checking out, and I might even buy them myself if I thought they would be relevant, but since I live a reclusive and unusual life, I doubt that would be the case.
Additional Resources
These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:
Please note that the WordSmith Deck reviewed below is now discontinued. I have found an alternative product that will serve a similar, arguably better purpose, so all of the links that used to take you to the WordSmith Deck now take you to a book called “5,000 WRITING PROMPTS: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More“. Apologies for this, but it is out of my control.
