CROSSWORDS: Authoring: References

General | AI | Clues | Courses | Cryptics | Diversity | Editors |
File Formats | Fill, Dict., Word Lists | Grids | Publishing |
Rules, Publishing Specs. | Themeless | Themes | Tools, Resources


General

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Clues

Courses

Cryptics

Diversity

shortz
Will Shortz by Tim Pierce,
CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons
;
Will Shortz at the third annual
Boston Crossword Puzzle
Tournament,
held April 23, 2011 at the
Harvard Univ. Science Center.

Editors

File Formats

Fill, Dict., Word Lists

Grids

Publishing

Rules, Publishing Specs.

Themeless

Themes

  • Constructing Analysis #1: Stuffed with Ambition! 10/13/2021
  • Why the LA Times Won't Accept Your Three-Entry Theme
    (and Why You Should Make the Puzzle Anyways)
    8/11/2021
  • NYT Wordplay series: How to Make a Crossword Puzzle: Part 1
    two NYT constructors, Ben Tausig and Finn Vigeland, demystify the process of developing a theme set; 4/11/2018
  • It Themes Somehow Familiar
    how could two crossword constructors come up with puzzles that are almost exactly alike?
    BRAVE NEW WORLD, INTRAVENOUS DRIP, CONTRAVENE, COBRA VENOM; Slate/ 11/27/2009
  • Ten bullshit themes
    1. the stepquote; 2. Deletion themes that don't make new words;
    3. Anagrams of some other entry plus the word ANAGRAM;
    4. Randomly circled letters that spell out some kind of word;
    5. Random phrases plus entry that's clued {Word that can precede/follow the beginnings/ends of W-, X-, Y, and Z-Across};
    6. The same word used as the clue for all the theme entries but in different sense;
    equally offending is the one where the clues are gradual beheadings/curtailments/adding a letter;
    7. First-words-are-synonyms puzzles; any puzzle whose theme is colors, rhymes, rhymes involving colors,
    celebrity's first and last name whose last name is the first of another celebrity;
    8. Phrases that contain some repeated two- or three-letter element in the middle of them spanning a word break;
    9. The "curriculum vitae" with entry that is clued {Subject of the puzzle};
    10. The clue would be something like {Three dogs} and the answer would be a random list; BEQ; 5/6/2009
  • Cruciverb: Advice on Themes; Theme Entries;
    Quote Themes; Theme Types; Theme Advice for Novices

Tools, Resources