My Little Project: Making an Olympic Chart Crossword
So, the other day, I got this idea stuck in my head. With all the buzz about the Olympics that happens every few years, I thought, why not mix it up a bit? I decided I wanted to make one of those crossword puzzles, but themed completely around the Olympics – you know, the sports, the history, the symbols. Seemed like a fun little challenge to keep my brain busy.
First thing I did was just grab a notebook and pen. I started brainstorming. Just writing down any word that popped into my head related to the Olympics. It started simple:
- Medal (Gold, Silver, Bronze, obviously)
- Torch
- Rings
- Flame
- Athlete
- Stadium
Then I dug a bit deeper, thinking about specific stuff. Sports like Swimming, Archery, Fencing. Host cities came to mind too – Tokyo, Paris, Athens. I even jotted down some famous athlete names, but figured that might make it too hard, so I stuck mostly to general terms and sports.
Okay, list in hand, the next step was actually building the grid. This was tougher than I thought. I used some graph paper, the kind with little squares. I tried to get the longer words in first, like GYMNASTICS or MARATHON, placing them either across or down. Then, I tried fitting shorter words around them, making sure they intersected correctly. Lots of erasing happened here! Sometimes a word fit perfectly in one direction but messed up three others. It’s like a little logic puzzle just making the grid.
Once I had a grid that looked okay – not too many blank squares, words connected nicely – I started writing the clues. This part was actually quite enjoyable. I tried to make them a bit clever, but not so obscure that nobody could guess them. For RINGS, I wrote something like “The five colourful symbols of the Games”. For TORCH, maybe “Carried by runners to light the cauldron”. I numbered the grid squares where each word started, and then made two lists: ‘Across’ and ‘Down’, matching the numbers to my clues.
I didn’t use any fancy software or online tools, just pencil and paper. Felt more hands-on that way. It took a good couple of hours, sketching, erasing, thinking, writing. Finding words that fit specific letter patterns was the biggest headache. You need a five-letter word starting with ‘T’ and ending with ‘H’? Sometimes you just draw a blank.
Finally, I had a finished crossword puzzle on my graph paper. Looked pretty decent, if I say so myself. It wasn’t massive, maybe 15×15 squares, with about 20-25 words packed in there. Felt quite satisfying to have actually created this little thing from scratch, just based on an idea.
It was a neat way to spend some time, engaging with the whole Olympic theme in a different way than just watching. Might even try making another one sometime, maybe focusing on just the Winter Games next time.
