Tag Archive for: Wordle

The Games People Play & the Value of Improvisation

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Donnell Ann BellBy Donnell Ann Bell

For a while now, Lois Winston, Stiletto Gang member and critique partner, and I have been sharing our Wordle and Connections results. Typically, we have no problem with Wordle. (We’re pretty adept at words.) However, when it comes to Connections, it’s a glorious day when I get all four rows right, and there are times I lose altogether. My husband, who is a linear thinker, gave up on Connections completely. He continues to work the New York Times crossword puzzles and Sudoku. My son and daughter, ages 38 and 41, work Wordle and Connections with us and we compare results. It’s a terrific way to hear from your adult kids each day.

I work Connections because, even if I bomb, I like to see where the editor was going with the clues. It’s educational, right?

Know something else that’s educational? Improvisation.

Have you ever watched the game show Whose Line is it Anyway? The program ran for twenty-two seasons, beginning in 2013, ending in 2024. In each episode, these talented comedians and actors, featuring Drew Carey, Aisha N. Tyler, Ryan Lee Style, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, musicians Laura Hall and Linda Taylor, along with other guest stars, performed and excelled at Improvisation.

Acting as host, Carey, and later Tyler, gave the crew a scenario in which they were required to act out skits for points. Other times they were tasked with putting lyrics to music. The show, performed in front of a live audience (who often got into the act), was a hit because the members were so outrageously funny and the cast so good at thinking off the cuff and ad-libbing.

 

Years ago, I belonged to Toastmasters and reached the level of Competent Communicator. During meetings there is a section called Table Topics. Table Topics was created to help members get comfortable with public speaking. Members are given an unrehearsed topic and must discuss it in front of others for two minutes. As an introvert, I found Table Topics unbelievably hard, which is no doubt why I was so impressed with Whose Line is it Anyway?

As a writer, I love improvisation, especially when I have time to sit back and think about it. I ran a group a while back in which I would assign five random words and the start of a sentence. I took the words from the Merriam-Webster Deluxe Dictionary and the start of a sentence from a book off the shelf.

The instructions for my game were simple. Create a paragraph or two using the five random words. Participants were free to start with the sentence or further inside their narrative.

I think those who participated found the game fun and muse-inspiring. Several wrote exceptional paragraphs; some created short stories.

Would you like an example? Would you like to play a game?

Here’s how it works:

Finish this sentence:  Nothing explained the. . .

Five Random Words:

Damage

Firepit

Mirror

Plumbing

Stretch

Do you enjoy playing games? Love a challenge?  Be sure to comment here about the games you play. Feel free to work my improv and send it to me at www.donnellannbell.net/contact If I get enough responses, I’ll post three submissions on my next Stiletto Gang blog date, and with your permission, cite you as the author. For purposes of this contest, let’s keep the length to 250 words.

Happy thinking outside the box!

About the Author:  Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.

 

 

 

Do You Wordle?

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By Lois Winston

A few years ago, I got hooked on crossword puzzles. I attribute this addiction to my dear friend Janice. She passed away in 2019 after an eight-month battle with Stage 4 cancer. I spent much of that time taking her to doctor appointments and chemo treatments and visiting with her during several hospitalizations. Janice always carried around crossword puzzles. As a retired R.N., she knew the importance of keeping her mind sharp, and she did so by exercising her brain in two ways: She was a voracious reader of mysteries and romances and a diehard crossword puzzle fan.

Having sat with her during hours of chemo, I know how difficult it is to concentrate on a book during these sessions, given the constant chatter from fifteen other chemo patients, their accompanying friends or family members, the nursing staff, and a TV always blaring in the background. So Janice passed the time working crossword puzzles when she tired of conversation.

I worked my first crossword puzzle after returning from her memorial service. It had been an extremely emotional day, especially since, as her oldest friend, I was one of the speakers. Perhaps she was somehow sending me a subliminal message from Heaven that day. She had always believed in angels, ghosts, and premonitions. I’ve always pooh-poohed the supernatural. Was this her way of telling me she was right, and I was wrong? Maybe. Because ever since that day, I’ve worked the online crossword puzzle in my daily newspaper as a way of honoring her memory and our lifelong friendship.

A few months ago, that newspaper purchased Wordle. I’d heard about Wordle, but I’m not someone who spends time playing games on my phone or computer. I have books to write, and contrary to my reluctant amateur sleuth’s hopes, I have no intention of refraining from dumping dead bodies at her feet.

I also have a staggering number of unread books piling up on my bookshelves and in my Kindle. I’ll need to live well past the century mark before I get to them all. And yet, I keep buying more books! Then there’s life in general, including family responsibilities, and of course, the need to sleep at least several hours a night.

Yet, there it was—Wordle, the word game taking the world by storm. Wordle beckoned like a Siren. Of course, I got hooked. I even learned a secret for helping solve the puzzle in the allotted six attempts: always begin with “adieu.” The word contains all but one of the five vowels. My next word will always include a word using the green letters from “adieu,” plus an “o.”

My mornings now begin with a cup of coffee, the daily crossword puzzle, and the daily Wordle. How about you? Do you start your day with a word puzzle, work one while taking a break, or reward yourself with one at the end of the day?

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Her latest book in the series is Guilty as Framed, currently available for pre-order. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.