I tried it. I got hooked. And now I'm behind on the crosswords because I'm spending my puzzle time on this new game.
Spelling Bee is deceptively simple. There are 7 letters in a honeycomb and the goal is to make as many words as you can out of them. With a few caveats. All the words must contain the center letter. No names. No jargon/obscure words. No adult words. There might be a few other rules, but I can't think of them at the moment.
There are points. One point for four letter words. For words of more than 4 letters, you get one point per letter. The pangram--the word that uses every letter in the puzzle at least once--nets extra points. There are different levels. I used to think Genius was the best, but I discovered if I get every word in the puzzle, there's a new level. Queen Bee.
I love words and readers have large vocabularies. And I've always been a voracious reader. Before I started writing, I used to read a book a day. Reaching Genius on most days was pretty normal. Not always, of course. And sometimes I didn't have the time to try, but usually.
Queen Bee, however, is another matter. Now that I discovered it, I want to reach it every day. The problem is that there seem to always be words in the puzzle that I've never heard of before. Some of them I get through just punching in letter combinations. Some of them I do some online searches for.
And then I discovered #spellingbee Twitter.
I haven't been on Twitter for years. It stresses me out and I already have issues with anxiety. But Spelling Bee Twitter is fun. And everyone is willing to offer hints when someone else is struggling with a word. I love how helpful everyone is.
So if you have the NYT Crossword app, check out Spelling Bee. It's addictive fun!
