Novels with Friends.

I am constantly looking for new ways to be inspired. I probably shouldn’t be; what I should be doing is focusing more on the projects that have already been inspired into creation, but there’s a part of me that always wants to be working on something else new and interesting. I find challenges or games to be particularly helpful in this respect. Hunter commented briefly over here about an A to Z short story contests and so guess who, right away, picked up on the idea and started writing “Anarchist Love Letter” to be her letter A?

Now, I haven’t quite gotten to the point of trying to do a lipogram for every letter in the alphabet, but I have conceived of an interesting new little writing game that should be interesting once I get the time to actually give it a whirl. Even better than giving me a challenge and a construction around which to base my writing, it satiates my obsession for App Games. Due to my obsession with Words with Friends, I’m not creating a game I like to call Novels with Friends, although Short Stories are allowed, too.

Basically, you take one of those finished Words with Friends games (which is like Scrabble, for those of you unfamiliar) and you make a list of all the words that were used. Then, write a story incorporating every word at least once. My roommate suggested that most of the words should have something to do with the piece itself and I think the Nightmare Round could involve writing a piece based on a game that’s not finished, so that you don’t know what words might come next.

I have the day off today, so I think I’m going to get started on one today and see how it goes. It was just a random thought that I figured could be a neat idea, and, even better, if you’re playing with another writer, you both can write a story with the same words, and compare how different they are.

What do you think? Do you have an fun writer games that gets you inspired, or challenges that test your ability but really get your brain going? Or do you just mostly prefer to free-write, feeling that games and challenges get too gimmicky or constricting? How about anyone who’d like to challenge me to some Words with Friends?

My username is, unsurprisingly, lsengler. And I better get to loving the word qi because that’s used an awful lot…

qui: noun, a variant of chi, (in Oriental medicine, martial arts, etc) vital energy believed to circulate round the body in currents

I think I could be okay with that.

Also, a big giant welcome and thank you to Mazhar, my newest subscriber! Welcome aboard!