Here are a few things that I do every day to stay sharp while I am promoting my middle grade holiday book.
And they’re all in the New Your Times games app.
This is not an advertisement, I receive no compensation for this. I don’t even get my news from the New York Times, but I pay about $40 a year for this app because it’s filled with puzzles to keep my brain sharp on a daily basis and stave off lazy writer syndrome.
I start with Wordle — my starter word is always something that has to do with the beach. Right now I’m using “sunny” even though I know it’s probably not a high-performing Wordle starter word.
Once I get the Wordle (and I always get the Wordle lol), I go to Spelling Bee. My rule here is that I must lead off with a five-letter word. Four-letter words are too easy, so once I enter a five-letter word, then it’s a free-for-all, and I try to get as many as I can until I achieve a level of “Nice.”
Then I’ll open Connections, which is a super fun puzzle game that really challenges the brain. I’ll give it two shuffles before I get into it. Sometimes this puzzle game is really tough and I don’t always get it.
Then it’s over to Strands. Strands is like the word search you see on children’s menus at restaurants, but there is always a theme and the words never overlap. It’s fun to try and identify the primary “spangram” to decode the rest of the puzzle and anticipate what the rest of the words are.
Then at night I’ll sometimes do a crossword puzzle with my best gal.
Again, I’m not selling anything here, but I think it’s super important to stay sharp. Word puzzle games are great for that.
So tell me what you do to stay sharp in the comments, on TikTok, or shoot me a message.
And as always, keep writing!
