How Bananagrams Helped Me As A Writer

How Bananagrams Helped Me As A Writer
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
L Berg

Bananagrams is the one game where as a writer I feel like I have a significant advantage, and my family and friends scorn me for it. I hardly ever get to play. But recently we did, and afterwards, as I was editing some writing, I realized that a lot of the techniques I use in Bananagrams are the same skills that have helped me to become a better writer, specifically a better editor of my writing.

For those who’ve never played, Bananagrams is a game made up of Scrabble-like pieces, with competitors racing against each other to be the fastest at creating words with their given letters. You don’t get points for the length of your words or the letters you use, nor how many words you create. It’s all about finishing first, making sure all your words are Webster-dictionary approved. A key difference from Scrabble (besides the racing part) is that with Bananagrams you can constantly rearrange the words in front of you. Nothing is permanent. “Home” can become “homey,” “rapid” with a letter change becomes “drape.” Simple, right? But if you become too attached to a certain word to change it, perhaps because you are very proud you thought of it (such as “vixen” or “lucid”), you will lose the game. It’s all about flexibility.

Writers often say editing is their least favorite part of the writing process. Author Anne Lamott sums it up in the title of her essay “Shitty First Drafts.” Writers will be the first to admit that rough drafts don’t look too pretty. But, writers can also be very stubborn about changing things. I’ve spent a half hour trying to get a clunky phrase like “tongue-in-cheek” to work, when really I should’ve deleted it in the first five minutes. I’ve struggled over sentences that for reasons I can’t identify just sound awkward. Sometimes I have a eureka moment and realize the second half of the sentence/paragraph/paper should go to the front or I magically delete a few words and voila! I have a crisp clean draft. But that is a rarity at best.

Editing require flexibility, among other things, and writers don’t always find that easy. We like our pet phrases, like “rendezvous” and “colloquial.” We like to think we at least got this sentence or this paragraph right on the first try. Sometimes it can be hard to take a editor’s or professor’s changes, even if you silently acknowledge it sounds better. While editing is much more than sentence structure — it’s being aware of your audience, voice, overall flow of the piece, and making sure you’re content is clear and concise, to name a few — you may find a couple rounds of Bananagrams will help you to think creatively, and even find editing a bit more fun. But don’t get your hopes up on that last part.

*Note: I was in no way paid by Bananagrams to promote their game through this article. You can basically do the same thing with Scrabble pieces. Or cut out letters on pieces of cardboard. Your choice.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot