Introducing S.O.C.K-in-a-box

This week saw the launch of a project I have been developing over the past few years. Starting life as a class activity I use when visiting schools, "S.O.C.K-in-a-box" (originally called "Brain-in-a-box") is an inventive classroom resource that encourages creativity through the building of story outlines from a deck of 140 cards.
The name-change was for a number of reasons. Firstly, Brain-in-a-box sounds kind of gruesome.
Secondly, S.O.C.K is  an abbreviation of Story Outline Construction Kit - which is exactly what the tool is.
Thirdly, S.O.C.K-in-a-box is a metaphor for creativity, playing dress-up and make-believe, The box illustration gives a vital clue to this concept.

Imagine, as a child, coming across an old dusty trunk in the attic. You open the trunk and find it full of oddments, bric-a-brac, junk....and an odd sock
(so THAT's where all the odd socks go!). You pull out the sock and what do you do? Immediately make a sock-puppet, that's what! You have created a character and a scenario, something to react to, possibly a setting, some form of conflict your sock character is facing. You are story-telling as its most basic form. Now, what else is in the trunk...
This is the very foundation of S.O.C.K-in-a-box. Pulling a random sock (or a sword, a crown or a rocket ship for that matter) from a box of miscellany is a metaphor for drawing an idea from your brain, toying with it, developing it, combining it with other ideas, to create a story. And guess what? That's exactly what writers do.

iS.O.C.K-in-a-box is essentially an ENORMOUS dusty old trunk simply crammed with characters, places, time periods, objects, emotions, plot devices and themes, that can be combined to produce virtually limitless possibilities. Even by laying out just six cards (one card drawn at random from each of the six card categories) you will have created one of
5.9 BILLION possible outcomes of story outline.
Now tell me that's not cool.

S.O.C.K-in-a-box is now available to buy from the Resource Store.

NOTE TO TEACHERS: If you are interested in inviting me to your school for a S.O.C.K demonstration, please do get in touch.