Blog Post: What Wordle taught me about writing

[From Our Blog]

New blog post by Mel L – discussions in this thread, please
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I’ve been doing the daily Wordle puzzle since it started.

In case you missed it, Wordle is an online game that gives you six chances to guess a five-letter word. It was invented by Josh Wardle, a software developer, for his girlfriend who loved word games. Just for fun, so the story goes. Until he sold it to the New York Times.

At first it seemed harmless enough. On good days, when I got the word in three tries or less, I felt like a star. On bad days, when I struggled to get it in six, I expanded my vocabulary of four-letter words.

I soon tired of using tried-and-true start words like ‘adieu’ and ‘crane’ and went to sleep thinking of new words that might solve the puzzle in one go. And I did get better at it. I got ‘trope’ in two guesses. And one day I even got Wordle in one: ‘noise’.

Maybe that was when I began to realize that noise was exactly what the game was. A distraction, albeit a vaguely literary one. An addiction, however innocent, that came at a cost. Wordle got me out of bed each morning with a sense of purpose. Must do Wordle, I’d think, as I put on the kettle at 5:30. I’ve always been an early bird, but I used to spend my first waking moments writing, while my brain was fresh. Now, I was Wordling.

When I realized that I was obsessively counting letters in words instead of reading them, I decided it was time to break the habit. I went cold turkey for a few days. And once I stepped away from my morning crack, I realized that Wordle was a lot like writing:

• There are good days and bad days.
• Sometimes you need logic but sometimes it’s best to go with your gut.
• When you get stuck, set it aside. When you return to it, the answer may well be staring you in the face. Or not. You just have to keep going.
• The bot will beat you on logic and vocabulary every time, but it lacks one thing that we have: intuition. Which is why the world will always need writers.
• Above all, do it for the joy of it. Otherwise, what’s the point?

I still do Wordle when I have a spare few minutes. But not every day. And definitely not first thing.

Because ‘write’ is the best five-letter word of all.

How about you? Do you Wordle?
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By @Mel L
Get the discussion going – post your thoughts & comments in the thread below…

 

[Peyton Stafford]

New blog post by Mel L – discussions in this thread, please
---

I’ve been doing the daily Wordle puzzle since it started.

In case you missed it, Wordle is an online game that gives you six chances to guess a five-letter word. It was invented by Josh Wardle, a software developer, for his girlfriend who loved word games. Just for fun, so the story goes. Until he sold it to the New York Times.

At first it seemed harmless enough. On good days, when I got the word in three tries or less, I felt like a star. On bad days, when I struggled to get it in six, I expanded my vocabulary of four-letter words.

I soon tired of using tried-and-true start words like ‘adieu’ and ‘crane’ and went to sleep thinking of new words that might solve the puzzle in one go. And I did get better at it. I got ‘trope’ in two guesses. And one day I even got Wordle in one: ‘noise’.

Maybe that was when I began to realize that noise was exactly what the game was. A distraction, albeit a vaguely literary one. An addiction, however innocent, that came at a cost. Wordle got me out of bed each morning with a sense of purpose. Must do Wordle, I’d think, as I put on the kettle at 5:30. I’ve always been an early bird, but I used to spend my first waking moments writing, while my brain was fresh. Now, I was Wordling.

When I realized that I was obsessively counting letters in words instead of reading them, I decided it was time to break the habit. I went cold turkey for a few days. And once I stepped away from my morning crack, I realized that Wordle was a lot like writing:

• There are good days and bad days.
• Sometimes you need logic but sometimes it’s best to go with your gut.
• When you get stuck, set it aside. When you return to it, the answer may well be staring you in the face. Or not. You just have to keep going.
• The bot will beat you on logic and vocabulary every time, but it lacks one thing that we have: intuition. Which is why the world will always need writers.
• Above all, do it for the joy of it. Otherwise, what’s the point?

I still do Wordle when I have a spare few minutes. But not every day. And definitely not first thing.

Because ‘write’ is the best five-letter word of all.

How about you? Do you Wordle?
---

By @Mel L
Get the discussion going – post your thoughts & comments in the thread below…

I write every day from 0600 until 1000, except on weekends, which I take off, meaning 0600 to 0800, before family needs me. And to hell with Wordle and all the other social media mind-numbing cancers of the internet, snares for the literate just as Instagram is a trap for those who think in pictures. As for the NYT, I subscribed for decades but have abandoned them. Just more voices for revenge and idiocy. Sorry. This was a rant.

 

[Sedayne]

• There are good days and bad days.
• Sometimes you need logic but sometimes it’s best to go with your gut.
• When you get stuck, set it aside. When you return to it, the answer may well be staring you in the face. Or not. You just have to keep going.
• The bot will beat you on logic and vocabulary every time, but it lacks one thing that we have: intuition. Which is why the world will always need writers.
• Above all, do it for the joy of it. Otherwise, what’s the point?

I have never Wordled (if indeed the noun can be verbed), but I found this blog interesting - thanks @Mel L - because there are lots of things that I have heard of but don't really know what they are. I don't follow social media, and although I still watch Netflix, I gave up on real telly years ago. I keep up with the things I am interested in, but many trending aspects of culture, like Wordle, pass me by completely.
But I like the bullet point list here. It rings true for me. I'm not one for games and puzzles, but the problem-solving aspects of writing have me completely hooked.

 

[Mel L]

I write every day from 0600 until 1000, except on weekends, which I take off, meaning 0600 to 0800, before family needs me. And to hell with Wordle and all the other social media mind-numbing cancers of the internet, snares for the literate just as Instagram is a trap for those who think in pictures. As for the NYT, I subscribed for decades but have abandoned them. Just more voices for revenge and idiocy. Sorry. This was a rant.

Rant away, Peyton! Always glad to provoke a reaction even if it's, ahem, a little feisty.
I admire your discipline in sticking to such a strict writing schedule, and staying off social media has got to be a win. Not in my nature to be so structured but you do inspire me to do better. x

 

[Mel L]

I have never Wordled (if indeed the noun can be verbed), but I found this blog interesting - thanks @Mel L - because there are lots of things that I have heard of but don't really know what they are. I don't follow social media, and although I still watch Netflix, I gave up on real telly years ago. I keep up with the things I am interested in, but many trending aspects of culture, like Wordle, pass me by completely.
But I like the bullet point list here. It rings true for me. I'm not one for games and puzzles, but the problem-solving aspects of writing have me completely hooked.

Hey, Sedayne, I take a liberal approach to verbs so I may have invented that one. ;-)
Social media is a spectrum. I know people who stay off it completely (more power to them!) and others who seem to spend their lives on it. I'm somewhere in the middle, I guess. But a bit of a telly/Netflix addict too. I suppose it's a miracle I get any writing done at all, but I am working on getting more structured.
Glad the post resonated nonetheless. Like you, I do enjoy the problem-solving parts of writing (when not tearing my hair out) even if I'm naturally more of a 'pantser'.