Prompt Cards

Pick one powerful page from a book. Mark diction, imagery, syntax, and motifs, then connect them to theme and character. Offer a companion exercise for film lovers using a single scene's shots, blocking, and sound to do a parallel analysis.

Explain how structuralism, psychoanalytic, feminist, postcolonial, and ecocritical lenses change how we read a novel or watch a film. For each lens, provide 3 guiding questions and a quick case study from a popular title.

Design a fair-play mystery toolkit. Define 5 clue types, 3 red herring patterns, a suspect matrix template, and a reveal structure that feels earned. Finish with a one-page outline for an original whodunit pilot or novella.

Build a guided tour of sci-fi subgenres such as hard SF, space opera, cyberpunk, solarpunk, cli-fi, and time travel. Provide 2 film picks and 2 book picks per subgenre, plus a one-paragraph primer and a question to debate.

Create a trope and archetype map for fantasy across books and films. Define the mentor, chosen one, magic system rules, side-quest economy, and villain philosophies, then craft a subversion plan for each trope to inspire new stories.

Propose a 12-month challenge with monthly themes such as debut novels, translated fiction, essay collections, banned books, or novellas. Offer 3 suggestions per month and a reflection prompt that fits the theme.

Design a decision framework to prioritize a to-be-read pile. Gather inputs like length, difficulty, mood, author diversity, deadline pressure, and convert them into a simple scoring rubric and reading schedule for the next 8 weeks.

As a facilitator, create a 6-week book club plan around one title. Include weekly agenda, icebreakers, spoiler walls, character arcs to track, quotes to unpack, and a final meeting activity such as a mock jacket redesign or alternate ending workshop.

Take a novel you love and craft a studio-ready adaptation pitch. Provide a logline, theme, target audience, tonal comps, 10-episode or 2-hour structure beats, casting ideas, and what to cut or combine while honoring the core of the book.

Pick a noir classic and reverse-engineer its lighting. Identify key scenes, draw a simple lighting plan with sources and angles in words, note lens choices and contrast ratios if known, and suggest a low-budget way to recreate the look at home.

Design a thematic watchlist that traces the evolution of Japanese horror from folklore to digital-era hauntings. Include 8 films, signature motifs, cultural context, spoiler-light talking points, and a post-watch reflection prompt.

Curate a mini-course on slow cinema. Pick 5 films from different countries, summarize each film's premise, describe formal traits like long takes and ambient sound, and propose a viewing ritual and discussion questions to help first-time viewers engage without boredom.