Brain exercises for word nerds

Your friends won’t play Scrabble with you. You do the Sunday “NYT” crossword in ink. You read the dictionary for fun. Yeah, you’re a word nerd.

Exercising the “word part” of your brain contributes to better writing. Here are some exercises to get the word nerd in you worked out.

1. Read books on linguistics. Obtain an abridged copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which provides the history of words. Another good read? “Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable”, which provides the stories behind common English fables and folklore. Great beach reads for word nerds.

2. Do crossword puzzles. A fun way to increase your vocabulary. If you are an ESL writer who wants to expand your English vocabulary, crossword puzzles are either easy or very difficult. Choose the right level for your English knowledge and learn what an ewer or an aa is.

3. Play word games online. Yes, it’s a waste of time, but when you need a break, there are plenty of word games online. One, Word Battle, is a straightforward anagram game played tournament-style. The other is Just Words, a shorter version of the traditional Scrabble game played head-to-head, nerd to nerd.

4. Read other writers’ books on writing. Ray Bradbury’s “Zen and the Art of Writing” is uplifting, and you have to admit, the guy could write, so I listen to what he says. Many famous writers have written about the craft of creating words. Information and advice from successful authors make you a better writer.

5. Load up your RSS reader with writing blog posts. technorati.com is a blog search engine. Do a search for writing blogs, find bloggers you find helpful, click through the RSS feed, and your reader will announce new posts from good writers offering good information.

6. Post well-written pieces on discussion forums. See what others have to say about your writing. Members of writing groups are helpful and willing to provide constructive criticism, so use them as resources. And if you’re writing for writers, you’ll do just fine. Or, someone will tell you that it is not.

7. Write about writing. this is a perfect example. You do not work today. I’m bored. Write this down. But all the things in this little piece are things I’ve done for years. Works. And if you’re a true word nerd, it’s not work.

It’s fun.