Like the athlete who takes time to warm up and flex his or her muscles before engaging in a strenuous activity, you can flex your brain cells with a few basic wordplay exercises to warm up your mental engine. Words are fun; they expand your mind. Pick up your dictionary and select five words you don’t know. Commit their definitions to memory and write five sentences using them in different ways. See if you can recite their definitions from memory the next day. And then learn five more. If you’re not in the habit of using your mind this way, acquiring a new vocabulary can be a challenge. However, practice makes perfect, and as you persevere, you’ll soon discover that the task of committing words to memory will become increasingly easier to achieve and more satisfying.