Writing Prompts Book Ring Project

Ignite your imagination; exercise your writing skills!

By Maria Chatzi

Learn how to create this one-of-a-kind 'secret decoder' writing prompts book ring featuring both letter and word pages to inspire word associations for your writing practice.

Instructions:

fig 1
(steps 1-3)

Step 1: Fold the white paper strip back and forth, like an accordion. If after the last fold you’re last page is a bit longer than the rest of them, trim it to the right size. The folds have now formed your mini book’s pages (front and back sides too).

Important to remember: Once your strip is folded you can do any trimming only lengthwise, or else you’ll end up destroying the accordion fold.

Step 2: To continue, spread your accordion fold open again, on its one side. Take your pen and write two letters (one on top, the other on the lower part) on each of the pages, as shown in fig 1, till you’ve filled all the pages.

Note: Leave the first page blank — this is going to be the front cover of your mini book.

Step 3: Glue the square scrap piece of dark colored craft paper on the first page of your accordion book, to make a hard cover. Wait for the glue to dry.

fig 2
(step 4)

Step 4: After the glue has dried, turn the accordion strip over to its back side. Spread it open again and take your pen. Write a “thing” or “idea” or “abstract” word on each folded page, as shown in fig 2 — DO NOT write “place” words here.

Step 5: When you’ve finished writing these words, take the white satin ribbon, fold it in half (to find its middle) and glue it on the back page of your accordion book.

Step 6: Wait for the glue to dry and then apply glue on the back cover of your mini book and press it gently onto the metal ring base. Use a clothes pin to hold it in place till the glue hardens completely.

For steps 5 and 6, see figs 3 & 4 (below).

figs 3 & 4 (steps 5-6)

Step 7: Finally, tie the white satin ribbon into a small bow on one side of your book. See fig 5.

Tip: The side of the ring on which the bow you make will appear depends on whether you have glued the satin ribbon lengthwise or widthwise, in relation to the accordion strip. Either way, it looks pretty.

Trim the ribbon, if necessary, but keep in mind that it needs to be long enough for you to untie and tie it many times into a bow, when opening and closing the accordion book.

fig 5 (step 7)

Your Writing Prompts Book Ring is ready to wear on your finger or give as a friendship gift to that special friend who enjoys writing stories.

How to use your writing prompts book ring

Your book ring’s letter and word prompts will lead you to find answers to the questions: Who? Where? What?. Think of story elements: Protagonist, Setting, Problem.

Pick any “letter page” and its corresponding “word page”. You could follow the page order from the first to the last page of your book ring, or mix and match front and back pages (picking them in random).

The “letter page”

The top letter stands for your protagonists job or his obsession (a passion) — For example, the letter R could be “Radiologist” or “Rockhound”, G could be “Gatekeeper” or “Ghost Hunter”.

If you need fresh ideas do an online search for job guides, where you could browse occupations from A-Z.

The bottom letter stands for a place. This could be the initial of a town(or city) or a country name, but it could also be a physical place (real or imaginative) — For example, the letter N could be Naples, or Norway, or Neverland.

On the web, there are directories of cities, towns, and regions worldwide, as well as lists of chartography and map terms.

The “word page”

The words stand for the main problem your protagonist has to deal with — For example, “stone” could be a stone staircase that keeps appearing on the hero’s path whenever he’s got to face his fears. Or, it could be a stolen pocket-size stone statue he wants to get rid of.

The word associations and the combinations to be made with the writing prompts in this book ring are enough to ignite your imagination and help you exercise your writing skills daily for a whole year.

Happy writing! •

© 2014 Maria Chatzi. All rights reserved.

8/9/14