Can word games help relieve writers block?

What is writers block?

At its base level writers block is where you feel stuck, and are unable to write anything you feel is worthy or progressive, so you just don't write at all. This can be for a variety of reasons;

The common element is that each of these problems stems solely from you and your way of thinking - there is no physical problem and as such you can use the same tip that I use to tackle anxiety - Name it and Tame it.

In other words to overcome any problem you first must understand what is causing it. The odd thing just getting to the root of the problem is often enough to bat it out of the way and allow you to do what you need to do.

I have a whole 'nother article on how to overcome writers block but for now we're going to ask

Can playing word games fix your writers block?

I had a friend who worked on a chicken farm. He spent an awful lot of his day cleaning up the mess left by the feed falling off the conveyor belt that delivered it to the chickens. He spent so much time cleaning it up that he couldn't step back and say, 'If I just raised the height of these runners the feed wouldn't fall on the ground in the first place.' In other words he couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Sometimes that's what you need to do with your writing - step back, clear your mind, totally concentrate on something else, then go back and look at your story anew.

I've done this by building word games into my routine - I make myself a coffee and drink it while running a little plot review, just to familiarise myself with what I'm working on and work in any tweaks or twists I want to try. Then I'll do 4-500 words, either on the project or just freewriting, often using an app like The Most Dangerous Writing App to get things flowing.

Next I'll make myself another cup of coffee and clear my mind with some word games, effectively etcho-sketching it before I crack on with what I think of as The Main Business Of The Day.

Which word games work best to clear writers block?

In a word, Wordle

Wordle has been a runaway success thanks to it’s simplicity to learn, it’s uptake by celebrities, and ultimately it’s easy shareability across every social media platform. We all know that it’s creator, Josh Wardle, made it as a gift for his partner before the NY Times swooped in and scooped it up… And yes, I did wonder if Josh's partner got a share of the whopping 7-figure sum the NYT paid for it!

Games Like Wordle

Oscar Wilde said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and so it is that there is a slew of Wordle-like games flooding the net at the moment. Some of them are really very good however a number of them do pay homage to the second part of Oscars quote, ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness‘.

Here I’ll list every Wordle-like game I’ve found and let you decide which are keepers!

Worldle – Wordle with geography where you have to guess the country or territory based on its shape

Nerdle – a maths version of wordle because it’s just as fun playing with numbers as playing with letters

Absurdle – an adversarial version of Wordle where the game is actively trying to avoid giving you the answer

MyWordle – prefer to Make Your Own Wordle?

Crosswordle – guess the two crossing words in as few guesses as possible

Bikle – a weekly cycling-based wordle for the lycra brigade

Queerdle – surely not an LGBTQ wordle?? What a riot!

Squirdle – a pokemon wordle!

Lordle (of the Rings!)

Primel – a maths wordle with prime numbers

Lewdle – Rude words only for you of the extended vocabulary!

Star Wordle – rumour is this started a long time ago in a galaxy far away

Quordle – solving four words at once!

If I’ve missed any please do add them to my new writing forum so we can all have a go, and if you have any thoughts or insights or just want to share your writing routine please let us know on Just Write.