Game On! Ten Awesome Word and Lit-Based Apps

The challenge here is this: you only have so many "swaps" (tile movements) per level. You earn more as you play, but only if you play skillfully. Run out of swaps too quickly, and you have to start all over. Fortunately, there are handy tricks you can implement during gameplay to increase the level of swaps you earn. And if you're completely stumped or devoid of decent tiles, there's an "Apocalypse Swap" which will wipe the board clean and give you all new tiles. You only get one per level, however, so use it wisely.

W.E.L.D.E.R. is super-addictive, but also educational. For instance, were it not for this game, I might never have learned that an isba is a Russian log hut. Download it for iOS and clear your schedule. The paid version will cost you $2.99, or you can get a free ad-supported version.

5. Exquisite Corpses with Documents 2 (Savy Soda)

Much to my dismay, there isn't a decent app out there that lets you do a written Exquisite Corpse (otherwise known as Consequences, an old Victorian parlour game), in which one person writes three or four lines of prose or poetry, folds the sheet back so only his or her last line is visible, then passes it to the next person, who writes three or four lines of their own based on the visible line, and so on until the "exquisite corpse" is complete. There's Exquisite.ly, a turn-based, link-to-Facebook-and-find-friends-to-play-with style app, or Pocket Bard, a turn-based game of the pass-the-iPhone-around-the-room variety, but both suffer from one critical flaw: the "page" does not fold over, so to speak, so the previous writer's entire entry to the collaborative story is visible to the next person in line. That would be like filling in a Mad Lib while you read the story—the point is spontaneity and randomness, and the aforementioned apps' developers don't seem to understand that.

Now I'm no fancy, big-city app developer, but I figured out a way to construct an exquisite corpse properly on your iPhone. To do it, you'll need Documents 2, a slick word processing app for iOS. Open up a new document and tap out your first three or four lines. Then, highlight all text but the last line of prose or poetry, tap the Font Color icon, and select the white color swatch. Now, when you pass the iPhone on to the next participant, they can only see the last line. Each person playing will repeat these steps until the phone makes it back around to the first player, who will then simply select all text and change the font color back to black. Voila!

I mentioned Documents 2 because it's the only app I could find that allowed you to change the font color within the document itself; furthermore, the document's margins are specifically designed to fit the iPhone's screen, so you don't have to worry about endless horizontal scrolling whilst hammering out a bit of nonsense with your friends. Any app that sports both of these features will work as well.

Documents 2 is free for iOS. Download it here.

6. Poetry Creator (Tiny Mobile)

Simply put, Poetry Creator gives you the gift of magnet poetry on your iPhone. There are some limitations to the words you can use before the dreaded necessity of in-app purchases arises, but as Orson Welles is reported to have said, "The absence of limitation is the enemy of art." So, rather than spending money straight away, exhaust the many avenues Poetry Creator offers you by tweaking the sliders in the "mix-tionary," changing the ratio of thes, ifs, ands, buts, and "Old School Words," etc. You also get 10 free word creation credits to say exactly what you need to say when the random generator fails you. After that, purchase away and expand your vocabulary.

Download Poetry Creator for iPhone here.

7. Thinkamingo Apps

These three apps from developer Thinkamingo skirt into productivity territory, as they are made to help writers come up with ideas for stories, but I find they are equally great for those unproductive times as well.

First up, there's Name Dice ($0, iOS, Android), which is exactly what it sounds like: two dice, one bearing a given name, the other a surname. You shake the phone to roll the dice (or just tap the screen), and a random name is generated. Simple stuff. I like to sit in my chair and mindlessly forge out names, not so much for use later in a story (its intended use), but rather just because I like seeing the different combinations of names the app generates. I'm weird like that. Deal with it.

In a similar vein, there's Story Dice ($1.99, iOS, Android), which sports an identical interface to the app above, except that instead of two dice you can use up to five, and instead of each die showing a name, it shows an icon or picture (a ghost, say, or a squirrel). It's a bit like a prompt generator, except that you decide what relationship (if any) exists between the ghost and the squirrel, and where the cheese, camera and masked man figure into things (see photo). Good for getting your creative juices flowing, or for making random shit up with a group of like-minded (read: nerdy) friends. (And for a more straightforward prompt app, check out Thinkamingo's Story Spark). 

Last but not least, if you're looking for a one-stop shop for name meanings, etymology, fashion, occupations, character archetypes, basic plot structures, and any other writerly thing you can think of, look no further than Lists for Writers ($2.99, iOS, Android). This is an awesome resource for just about any project you're working on; or, if you just want to sit around reading random factoids, it's great for that too.

8. Silly Stories Lite (Silton Solutions)

You may not be aware of this, but the official Mad Libs app is, er...It's complicated. Basically, it crashes before you can see the ridiculous literary concoction you and/or your friends have come up with. What are we to do on long road trips when there isn't a physical Mad Libs book to be had? 

Thankfully, there's Silly Stories, a knock off digital version of the famous word game that actually works. The interface is bare-bones, letting you get down to the business of making utter nonsense without distraction. Facebook/Twitter connectivity would be nice for sharing your tomfoolery with others, but you can easily copy and paste the story into a new post. 

Silly Stories Lite is free for iOS, though you can also get a $1.99 version with unlimited story templates, if you so choose.

9. Anagram Twist (OmNom Apps)

Another simple yet super addictive game, Anagram Twist requires you to find a set number of words from six seemingly random letter tiles—imagine Rosemary Woodhouse spelling out Steven Marcato from Roman Castavet, and you have a pretty good idea of the app's core gameplay. Even better, just check out the game's trailer: