My husband and I play tag all the time at social events. We play what we call party tag!
We noticed one time that we tend to socialize together as a couple at parties and picnics and with the same people, the ones we already know. So we came up with a little game to keep us physically and socially moving through a party. It also makes parties a bit sillier.
How to play Party Tag.
Rule number 1: It is kinda like fight club in that the first rule is you don’t talk about tag. Players can’t tell anyone outside of the playing group that they are playing tag. Which gets interesting as you don’t want to seem rude to other guests or the other players.
Rule number 2: Well, that’s about where the resemblance ends. So number 2 is -- No cheating!
Rule Number 3: Players come up with a term or gesture that when you walk up to your opponent signifies that they have been tagged. I generally use the term “Hey hon” and touch them on the arm. Though, once I played with twin teenage girls and it was the V8 slap to the forehead. Yeah, try explaining that to people without telling them you are playing tag. And yes, I had a huge headache at the end of the party, but it was a lot of fun to play with them.
Rule Number 4: Once tagged, the new “It” has to wait about 30 seconds to give the other player time to make a graceful exit and move on.
Rule Number 5: If you are “It” you try to unobtrusively tag your opponent, but if someone walks across your path you have to stop and speak with them.
Rule Number 6: If you are not “It” you try to unobtrusively avoid “It”.
The person not “It” at the end of the party is the winner!
How wonderful is it that you shared such a personal aspect with us! I love how you used a game to meet new people, and create relationships. I will have to let you know how the game goes for me!
ReplyDeleteHey Lynn,
ReplyDeleteYou had me at "Fight Club"! I love how you used that as a reference as their are many unspoken rules in games when I was young. You truly laid out all of the rules in this How-To in a very quirky way. I connected to you as the author when you said how you usually say "hey hon" when you would tag someone. I need to incorporate more of that into my writing...Great Job!
This seems like so much fun! While I don’t have a husband I will definitely have to try this with my brother at the next family gathering we are at!
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion I have is to maybe split up the rules of the game and the how to. Keep to rules things you can not do (i.e. cheat or not inform outsiders of the game) while the how to is more of how the game is actually played.
This is what I’m looking for in a how-to. There’s step-by-step instruction. There’s a strong sense of direction. You lead us. It’s also very much you.
ReplyDeleteThe devil’s advocate assignment encouraged you to experiment, draft, and discover new thoughts and ideas. Your multiple devils or trolls added to this wonderful journey you started with the word “play.”
Ideas aren’t useful if they don’t apply to the real world, but just as your ideas have the devil’s advocate in them, they also have that necessary logic.
Writing a set of instructions is a form of application. If you can write out a logical method for realizing an idea—then you’ve successfully applied it to reality.
A set of instructions also shares your thought process with your readers. It’s another example of clarity in good writing, which we spoke about at the beginning.
Just as you question our common take on exercise, you are practical about what could be better. You’re looking for an honest answer. That’s logical.
Look at how a simple, numbered, step-by-step approach improved everyone’s sentences and structure during this module. There’s much less clutter and much less hesitation in this type of writing because steps take action.
Once you come up with a better idea, and can explain and share it, then you have to convince your audience it's a better way too. That takes even more logic.
I don’t ask you to write a set of instructions for a new idea because that would be too difficult the first time around. Instead, I ask you to create instructions for a simpler task. Your party game is practice for inserting more clarity and logic into all of your writing.
Good writing instructs the reader how to follow your train of thought to your conclusions. If you think of everything you write as a set of instructions, it reminds you to remember the reader.
Yours is more than a simple set of instructions because it also has that devil in it. It’s very much you. You don’t even need the Fight Club reference because it’s a little too cliché.
You want us to think about health in a new way. And @DottyStripes? She, like many people in her industry, want to come up with a better car. And @JohnnyBrady? He wants to share his life experience to amuse, entertain, and inspire us.
Those are all forms of instruction. Even Johnny has to work on his delivery, clarity, and logic in addition to his storytelling. It’s also part of comedy, and fiction, and journalism too.
Think about how hard it is to get you to change your exercise habits, or buy into a new technology, or read a new book. Changing the audience’s mind and behavior is intimidating—a big challenge to writing.
Yet also look at how much work you’ve produced in this short time span. Little by little, writing builds in response to missions of any size, especially when you think in drafts.
This tension, between the devil’s advocate and the real world, is the tension between your imagination and your internal editor. Good writing is an equal partnership between the two.
When you think and write with both minds, it's a tremendous asset. You already do.