How to Make a Crossword Puzzle
Puzzle making
How to Make a Crossword Puzzle
In the final part of this series, the New York Times crossword editors reveal their process for evaluating and editing a puzzle submission.
DEB AMLEN: The hardest part of submitting your finished crossword puzzle to an editor is the waiting. Once you’ve kissed your work goodbye, time seems to tick by really slowly until you get that email. A rejection can be disappointing and is a sign to try again, but a “Yes!” is exhilarating.
For most people, the mysterious part is what happens to your puzzle once it’s in the hands of the editors. How do The New York Times editors, Will Shortz and Joel Fagliano, decide on which day of the week a puzzle should run? What changes, if any, do they make to your creation?
Today we pull back the curtain on their editorial process and look at how Mr. Shortz and Mr. Fagliano approach editing a crossword puzzle. While they typically examine the entire puzzle for editing, to keep this relatively short, they will zero in only on selected entries and clues from our crossword puzzle.
It’s important to remember that this puzzle was not meant to run in The New York Times, because by the time the series is over, you will have seen every aspect of it and the mystery will be gone. The editors are looking at the puzzle as an exercise to show you their process and to deliver on the promise from Part 4 that they do not, in fact, bite. If you would like to give it a try, however, the unedited puzzle is available on the web, in Across Lite and as a PDF.
We’ve also gathered the resources that were mentioned in this series — word lists, software, online resources, places to go for questions — into a single list and included it at the end to assist aspiring constructors.
The Envelope, Please
WILL SHORTZ: Typically, when we accept a puzzle, we file it for the day of the week for which we think it is most naturally suited. Monday has an easy theme with easy vocabulary. Thursday tends to have the trickiest themes. Tuesday and Wednesday are in the middle. Friday and Saturday are the hardest, and usually themeless. So we file the puzzles as appropriate. Then when we come to editing, we select a week’s worth of puzzles at a time, trying to vary the themes and the puzzle makers.
JOEL FAGLIANO: By varying the themes, what do we mean? Well, if Tuesday’s theme has circles, we might avoid a puzzle with circles on Monday and Wednesday. Or, to use this puzzle as an example, the theme involves puns, so we’d be unlikely to run more than one other puzzle during the same week with puns, if only for variety’s sake.
SHORTZ: I think of the Times crossword as being like a three-ring circus. What brings joy and awe is being surprised, and I like every day’s puzzle to have a little surprise.
A First Look at the Theme
SHORTZ: Well, when I first saw the theme, honestly, I wasn’t sure it was my cup of tea. But I’m liking the theme better now that I’ve seen the clues that Robyn Weintraub and Brad Wilber wrote to go with it. My least favorite of the theme entries is definitely MACBOOK AIR, because AIR is a rather unusual term for a song.
FAGLIANO: Yeah, what I think is done well in the theme is the parallelism. One thing we’re always looking for when we’re reviewing themes is whether or not the idea is handled throughout the puzzle in a consistent and clear way. And here, the synonyms are all placed as the last words, which allows the solver to have some expectation — O.K., the next theme answer is going to involve some synonym of “song” at the end and another word at the beginning.
One other asset of the theme is that they’ve placed their base phrases pretty far from the eventual things they’re cluing. For example, TENURE TRACK has nothing to do with a song, which is good.
SHORTZ: In an ideal puzzle, all the key words in the answer are not referred to in the clue. Here, PUZZLE PIECE is still about a PUZZLE, although here it’s changed a little from a jigsaw puzzle to a crossword, so there’s a little twist there. CALL NUMBER is maybe my favorite theme example, because both key words in the answer are used playfully in the clue.
FAGLIANO: Whereas MACBOOK and TENURE don’t change at all, for instance.
SHORTZ: I still sort of like the TENURE TRACK one, because it makes me smile. As Brad says, the fact that the clue gives a reason for the professor to make it his favorite song makes it amusing.
Moving On to the Fill
SHORTZ: If we like a theme well enough, then we look at the puzzle’s fill. We ask for submissions on paper rather than by email because it’s easier for us to examine the whole grid at once, and to mark up the manuscript with pluses, minuses and other comments. So as Joel and I look at this grid, we would just go row by row and column by column, checking the entries: CELT, EACH, MODS and the rest.
FAGLIANO: Yeah, so we look at all the Across answers first, and then all the Downs, making minus marks for answers we think are subpar, check marks for answers we like, exclamation points for “Wow!,” question marks for things to be looked up and sometimes written comments. When we’re done, this helps us to visualize potential issues: “O.K., there are a lot of minus marks in this one corner — this is an area that needs to be revised.” Or, “This crossing between two obscurish names — that’s going to be a problem. Let’s ask the constructor to look at that area again.”
SHORTZ: Exactly. So, let’s look at this grid [reads off the Across answers]. PEATS is an odd plural, but really, the Acrosses look great. Clean, clean, clean.
FAGLIANO: There’s nothing obscure, not too many proper names, everything seems fair for the solver.
SHORTZ: Looking Down … OIL FUTURES, well, I kind of like that. That’s got color. Also SLEAZEBALL, that’s great. Not the thing, but the answer! ANTE UP … wasn’t there another answer with UP in the puzzle? Yes, MEET UP. Some bloggers don’t like that. That doesn’t bother me, though. UP is an inconspicuous word.
And OLIVIA MUNN ... Well, I’m going to expose my ignorance, but I don’t know who she is.
FAGLIANO: She’s an actress. On “The Newsroom” and other things.
SHORTZ: Hmm, and next to it is DANA SCULLY. I do know her, of course, but it does bother me to have two long names running parallel to each other. That could be troublesome for some solvers.
FAGLIANO: Yeah, and there’s a third name to the right of it, Sissy SPACEK. In this case, we’d really need to check the crossings to make sure we’re not setting up solvers to get stuck. In that corner we have going Across: MODS, SLAP, GINA (that’s another name), VAC is kind of weird, and LIAISE. But everything else is so clean.
SHORTZ: It’s clean enough, and I think people should know enough of these proper names that they can figure this out.
FAGLIANO: One thing I’ll mention about our process of reviewing a grid is that if Will doesn’t know a proper name, but I do, then sometimes it can slip by. And the inverse is true — if I don’t know a proper name but Will does, then he can vouch for its legitimacy and maybe its worthiness for a puzzle. But if neither of us has heard of a name, that’s a bad sign. If it’s not in either of our overlapping spheres of knowledge, then perhaps that’s not something the average solver will know and not something we want to test them on.
SHORTZ: Yeah, and two other things. First, we should say our ages: You’re 25 and I’m 65. So we have a nice age range. But it’s not just a matter of whether we personally know something or not. We also have a good sense of what other people know and don’t know. So even if I know something, I might say: “Yeah, I know it, but, man, that’s obscure. Younger people are going to have trouble with that.” And you often say the same thing about stuff you know but think older solvers may struggle with. So it comes down to judgment, too.
Over all, the fill looks good to me. But I would want to clue the upper right of the grid on the easy side, for solvers who don’t know all those names.
On Which Day of the Week Should the Puzzle Run?
SHORTZ: So, this grid has 76 words. The maximum we allow typically in weekday Times crosswords is 78. It’s nice that the word count here is two under our maximum, which means the answers average a little longer than usual, allowing some interesting long answers like OIL FUTURES and HARD LENS. Something else I like about the grid: It has great flow. No corner or section is isolated from the rest, hanging on by a single square, say. Once you start solving, you can keep moving around the grid. If you get stuck, there are several ways to get unstuck.
FAGLIANO: One of the next steps we would take if we like the theme and fill, meaning we’re going to accept the puzzle, is to slot it on a day of the week. In this case, something that leaps out right away is that this one is probably not a Monday. The long theme entries have jokes and wordplay. Monday crosswords typically have more straightforward themes. It’s also probably not a Thursday, given the high-ish word count, only two below the maximum. Also, the theme doesn’t seem quite tricky enough for a Thursday — once you catch on, it’s the same wordplay repeated. In my opinion, it’s more like a Tuesday or Wednesday.
SHORTZ: Agreed. Out of all of the days of the week, Tuesday and Wednesday are the most interchangeable.
FAGLIANO: So, how would we go about deciding? One thing to push it more toward the Wednesday camp is the chunkiness of the lower-left and upper-right corners. Because they have those long Down answers going through everything, it would make for a bit harder solving, which suggests it’s more of a Wednesday than a Tuesday.
SHORTZ: Right. Also, the theme is playful. It involves puns. So it’s just a little harder to solve than a typical Tuesday theme.
Digging Into the Clues
FAGLIANO: Now that we’ve selected the week’s worth of puzzles, we’ll usually do one more scan of the grid, to see if there are any last little tweaks we want to do to the fill. But at this point, the fill is usually all squared away, so we’ll start to edit the clues.
SHORTZ: Often we’ll edit the theme clues first, because those are the most important ones. Then we’ll return to the top.
We ask constructors to send us manuscripts with the clues typed on the left, double spaced, with the answer words on the far right. This is for our convenience when editing. We’ll go through the clues one by one.
The most important thing is accuracy. It doesn’t matter how interesting, clever or colorful a clue is if it’s wrong. So anything we aren’t 100 percent certain of, we will verify. My desk is surrounded by reference books, which we regularly use. Of course, nowadays virtually all information is online, so we use the internet, too.
Besides accuracy, we edit clues for the level of difficulty appropriate to the day of the week on which the puzzle will appear, then for colorfulness, freshness, sense of fun — all the things that make for a good crossword.
FAGLIANO: We’re going to go through Robyn and Brad’s selected clues from Part 4 and make some comments about things we might change, as well as things we think they did a good job on, to give insights into how we edit a puzzle.
SHORTZ: On average, I should say, about half of the clues are changed in the editing process. The number can be as low as 5 percent, for someone who writes terrific clues, up to 90 percent to 95 percent, for someone who has a great theme and grid but isn’t necessarily an experienced clue writer.
Brad and Robyn write that the goal is to set the solver up for success, but that’s only partly true. It depends on the solver’s level. A Monday solver probably isn’t going to finish a Wednesday puzzle. And a Wednesday-only solver probably can’t finish a Friday or Saturday. So we’re not trying to give everyone success. We’re trying to give everyone a fair chance at success.
They also mention the importance of brevity in clues, and I agree. Partly it’s for reasons of space on the printed page, which is limited. But even online, where space is not a real consideration, it’s still nicer to have generally shorter clues. It’s like that old saying from “Hamlet”: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” I think that applies to crossword clues as well.
On writing fresh clues
SHORTZ: One thing I’d like to emphasize is how important it is for constructors to write original clues. There have been some noted constructors we’ve noticed who have taken most or all of their clues from a database. That turns me off. Part of the process of making a great crossword is writing original clues. Some of the clues, of course, may repeat old ones. There are only so many ways to clue certain words. But I’d like constructors to make an honest effort to write original clues. That makes for more interesting solving.
Regarding the use of clue archives, such as at XWord Info … when Joel and I work, we use databases very rarely and only as a last resort. I prefer not to see what I or anybody else has written for a clue before. It gives my imagination freer rein.
FAGLIANO: In my experience as a constructor, using a database can become almost a crutch. You can rationalize, “Why think of a new clue when I can go see the angles other people have taken on the answer?” So I try not to do that.
When editing a clue we want to change, Will and I will sit in silence until one of us proposes something — or multiple things — and wait to gauge the other person’s reaction. The other person may revise a suggestion or suggest something completely different. We’ll go back and forth until we get a clue we both like.
On repeating words in the grid and the clues
FAGLIANO: Another thing Brad and Robyn addressed is not repeating words that appear in the clues and the grid. They say it’s O.K. for articles and connector words, like THE and AND, to be repeated. Otherwise, they say any sort of word overlap between a clue and the grid is a no-go.
Every constructor and editor has his or her own style, but Will and I have a different standard. Our basic rule is that no answer in its entirety should be repeated as a clue, and no clue in its entirety should be repeated as an answer. But if just part of a clue appears as part of an answer, we usually don’t mind.
For example, if a clue were “Ice cream,” and ICE was also an answer on its own in the grid, we’d avoid that. But if a clue said “Eat some ice cream,” and there was also ICE SKATING in the grid, that would be fine. We don’t see how that hurts the puzzle.
“Say” clues and question mark clues
SHORTZ: Robyn and Brad make a good point that clues shouldn’t have too many waffle words. It’s O.K. to use qualifiers like “perhaps,” “maybe” and “say,” once in a while, but if they’re used too much, a frustrated solver may think, “Just tell me what the damn thing means!”
FAGLIANO: And I would extend that same sentiment to question mark clues. When done well, a clue with a question mark or a joke can brighten a whole corner of a puzzle. But if every single clue is trying to mislead you, even on a Friday or Saturday, that can become annoying. So even on our hardest puzzles, we try to provide plenty of straight definitions for the solver to work with.
Fill-in-the-blank clues
SHORTZ: Fill-in-the-blank clues should be used sparingly, and they should be interesting. “___ circus” really is not an interesting clue. Also, Joel and I are not big fans of clues like “Circus opener?’ (38A) for FLEA. First, it’s just so easy to write clues like this, so when they’re done, they should be clever. This one is not particularly clever, because what could possibly be an opener for a circus? It’s not like “Can opener?,” which is a thing.
FAGLIANO: Exactly. The best examples of this sort of clue are ones where the resulting phrases are familiar and in the language, and so become their own bit of wordplay. Here it feels like the clue is uninterestingly obtuse. Also, FLEA is a perfectly interesting word on its own, so we’d probably want to clue it straight.
On the consistency between clues and answers
SHORTZ: At 47D, the clue was “You’re pulling my leg, right?” for the answer C’MON. The problem here is that the clue is in the form of a question, while the answer is a statement. I’d probably rephrase the clue to be in the form of a statement as well.
On brand names
SHORTZ: At 1D, the clue is “Sleeveless Victoria’s Secret purchase, informally.” Well, I have no problem with commercial names in puzzles, but I don’t include them gratuitously. In this case, there’s no strong reason to mention Victoria’s Secret. I’d probably change the clue to “Sleeveless women’s undergarment, informally.”
Ac-cen-tu-ate the Positive?
SHORTZ: Brad mentions a desire to avoid evoking anything grim. My feeling is that the crossword should reflect everything in life, and not everything in life is peaches and cream. While I wouldn’t want a whole puzzle theme that’s depressing, a single downbeat word here and there is fine.
FAGLIANO: Particularly in the case of the word SERF, where the fact that there aren’t likely to be any serfs doing our crossword, it’s hard to imagine someone taking personal offense at this. That being said, crosswords should entertain and uplift, and generally speaking a light tone in cluing is desirable. If there was the answer MURDER, for example, we might clue it as “Group of crows,” rather than taking any of the other numerous more grisly ways to clue it.
SHORTZ: Or even “Topic for Agatha Christie.” Often putting something in a fictional context can lighten it.
And That’s a Wrap
SHORTZ: On the whole, Joel and I like this puzzle. We think it’s been a good exercise. And we hope the above comments give both solvers and constructors some insights into our editing process.
Resources for Constructors
Venues With Open Submission Policies
The New York Times (Editors: Will Shortz and Joel Fagliano)
The Los Angeles Times (Editor: Rich Norris)
The Wall Street Journal (Editor: Mike Shenk)
Fireball Puzzles (Editor: Peter Gordon)
Chronicle for Higher Education (Editor: Brad Wilber)
Puzzle Society (Editor: David Steinberg)
Constructing Software
Crossword Compiler for Windows
Phil by Keiran King (free)
Crossword Maker for Cruciverbalists (for iPhone/iPad)
Online Resources for Finding Words and Phrases
XWordInfo.com (The Finder page)
Word Lists (May require a donation)
Places to Ask Questions and Get to Know Other Constructors
Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory on Facebook
Crossword Blogs and Columns
Wordplay (The New York Times crossword column)
Diary of a Crossword Fiend (Discusses multiple puzzles)
Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle
Horace and Frances Discuss The New York Times Crossword Puzzle
The Puzzle Society Crossword Crossing
Will Shortz has been the Times crossword editor since 1993. He is also the puzzlemaster for NPR's “Weekend Edition” and founder/director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Joel Fagliano is the digital puzzles editor at The New York Times, author of the daily mini crossword and an editorial assistant to Will Shortz. He has a hard time believing they pay him to do this, too.
Artwork by Elena Xausa
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