BookLife

Games are a great resource for writers.  They encourage creativity, playfulness, collaboration, the navigation of rules, and much more. 

When I saw James Lowder’s two wonderful anthologies, Hobby Games: The 100 Best and Family Games: The 100 Best, I grabbed them as resources for potential use in my writing classes and for my personal development as a writer.  In each anthology, Lowder gathers 100 essays about 100 games written by 100 game writers.  All manner of games are covered.  Each essay sings the praises of a particular game.

As I read the anthologies, I giddily made notes – notes about teaching, notes about writing, notes about games to buy.  And I figured it might be fun to ask the contributors to talk about what gaming has taught them about writing and creativity. 

Throughout October and November, you’ll hear from more than a dozen game designers/writers.

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Jeremy L. C. Jones is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher.  He is the staff Interviewer for Clarkesworld Magazine and a frequent contributor to Kobold Quarterly.  He teaches at Wofford College and Montessori Academy in Spartanburg, SC.  He is also the director of Shared Worlds, a creative writing and world-building camp for teenagers that he and Jeff VanderMeer designed in 2006.