Word Games

I was playing a game with my family last night called Bananagrams. It's basically Scrabble, but everyone gets their own personal little game and you race to see who can exhaust the supply of tiles first. The first person to run out first, wins.

As I struggled to form words out of the mass of mostly vowel tiles in front of me (a consonant every now and then really does help), my husband came up behind me and said, "Oh come on. You're a writer! You should know all the words!"

I laughed at the time, thinking he was right...I mean, I do spend most of my days doing nothing but stringing words together. But later on, I thought more about what he said. Sure, I know a lot of words. But it's not really the words that make the difference.

Working on a WIP is just like that darn game. I may be able to spell a dozen different words with the tiles I have....but if I can't connect them to the existing words on my board in the right way, it doesn't matter. They won't work. It doesn't matter how many words I know if I can't make them fit together in just the right way.

Sometimes I'll get a pile of tiles and whip out a mess of words so fast it makes the other players' heads spin. And sometimes I stare at the few piddly words I've created with no clue of what to add. Other times, I know I can create other words if I rearrange a few tiles, but there is one glorious word that I just can't stand to break apart - but eventually do for the sake of the game. Sometimes, most times, another player will beat me to the punch and win the game. But that doesn't mean the words I created weren't awesome and it certainly doesn't mean that I can't win the next game :)

I just have to keep at it, keep playing, keep forming the words until I find a batch that will get me through the finish line. And it happens. Not always and not quickly, but it happens :) You just can't give up.

And play Bananagrams if you get the chance - it's really an awesomely fun game if you're a word nerd like me :D