Buzzword Writing Guidelines

Core Philosophy

In order to learn how to write Buzzwords, it's imperative to understand the purpose of the Buzzwords. We've deduced that the core philosophy for Buzzwords is to prevent the guess words from being trivial, and give the user a challenge, without stifling fun. So what is fun?

1. Having to think (some) is fun. This applies to giver and the guesser.
2. References are fun. They should be encouraged.
3. Getting buzzed out of no where is fun!
4. Seeing a variety of words is fun. They should not know what to expect next.

Writing the Buzzwords

Taking to heart the core philosophy allows for us to come up with some rules.

• Avoid limiting pop culture references. Only restrict if it trivializes the word. (Rule 2)
• Avoid sweeping words or general words. If we are consistent with this, they will have to stop to make sure "like" or "as" or "the" aren't on the card. Here are some examples: "wear" or "say" or "orange." Do not use these unless it trivializes the word like with a pumpkin. Unless you put orange and vegetable on there (avoid categories) it's trivial. (Rules 1, 3, and 4)
• Avoid broad categories like "movie" or "job". These are just not interesting, and they don't narrow down the solutions too much, anyway. They give the guessers some direction, which can be crucial. (Rule 1)
• Do not go overboard including buzzwords that describe guess words that are SIMILAR TO but NOT the guessword. For example "Duckling" should not include "goose" as describing the duckling as "not a goose" should be a viable strategy. The only exception is when the word is trivialized as with "Up" and "Down". (Rule 1)
• You can use the buzzwords as hints. For example, for "Gold Medal" I put "bronze" but I left off "silver." The astute giver will notice this, and they can use this to their advantage.