{"id":5495,"date":"2019-02-14T10:18:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T15:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/?p=5495"},"modified":"2019-02-14T10:18:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T15:18:45","slug":"puzzles-and-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/writing\/puzzles-and-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Puzzles and Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-5496\" src=\"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw-450x450.jpg\" alt=\"jigsaw pieces on a table\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw-450x450.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw-250x250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw-144x144.jpg 144w, https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jigsaw.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The minute satisfaction of fitting the grooves of a jigsaw puzzle piece into place is just enough to make a person want to do it again, over and over. The process is an ongoing tease, where each section of completion presents another void that needs to be attacked. It\u2019s equally absorbing and frivolous, a perfect indulgence when I can spare the time.<\/p>\n<p>My family is big on puzzles and games of all sorts. I\u2019m especially fond of jigsaws, crosswords, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/puzzles\/kenken\">KenKens<\/a>. My family routinely plays <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dominion_(card_game)\"><em>Dominion<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pandemic_(board_game)\"><em>Pandemic<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/scrabble.hasbro.com\/en-us\"><em>Scrabble<\/em><\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Splendor_(game)\"><em>Splendor<\/em><\/a> when we\u2019re together. In the past two weeks, I\u2019ve played <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboardgamefamily.com\/2016\/12\/codenames-pictures-board-game-review\/\"><em>Codenames: Pictures<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fryxgames.se\/games\/terraforming-mars\/\"><em>Terraforming Mars<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/stonemaiergames.com\/games\/scythe\/\"><em>Scythe<\/em><\/a> for the first time, and I\u2019ve enjoyed them all. It\u2019s interesting, of course, to see how people\u2019s personalities come out during a game, and it\u2019s nice to share the time together, but also, honestly, I like playing for the game&#8217;s sake. I like to try to win, but I don\u2019t mind too much if I don\u2019t. As my son says I once taught him when he played soccer in Kindergarten, \u201cThe players who have the most fun are the real winners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, writing a novel is a game. I make up the rules, cut the pieces, design the board, and tally the points. I\u2019m at a stage with my latest draft when I\u2019m once again going over the story line-by-line, trying to deepen the discoveries and push the characters to reveal more of themselves. Each edit gives me one of those tiny moments of satisfaction and leads me ahead to the next problem. I dare to say that this book, like a very large jigsaw, is gradually coming together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The minute satisfaction of fitting the grooves of a jigsaw puzzle piece into place is just enough to make a person want to do it again, over and over. The process is an ongoing tease, where each section of completion presents another void that needs to be attacked. It\u2019s equally absorbing and frivolous, a perfect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[912,1035,913],"class_list":["post-5495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-games","tag-kenken","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5498,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495\/revisions\/5498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}