I haven’t sold any puzzles recently, but I’ve written numerous crossword puzzles, and I’ve sold some to the New York Times, to USA Today, to Newsday, to Games World of Puzzles, and to Dell. I’m not nearly good enough a constructor to make a lot of money at it (few people are; even the better publications only pay about $75.00 per puzzle, so a constructor would have to churn out a LOT of puzzles every day, just to live in poverty!)- for me, the occasional check in the mail was just pizza and movie money. Still, it was always a thrill to see my name in (tiny!) print in the New York Times.
I did learn a few things from the experience: for starters, while I worked VERY hard to avoid standard “crosswordese” (ADIT, ESNE, etc.), it’s almost impossible NOT to use at least a few of them in every puzzle. If you’ve ever played Scrabble, you probably know what it’s like toward the end of the game, when the board is filling up and you’re stuck with a bunch of E’s, L’s, N’s and T’s that you have to get rid of? Well, that’s pretty much the situation a constructor is faced with. You’re constantly finding yourself in a corner where it seems as if ERNE and ESNE are the only “words” you can make fit.
Apparently, we alrady have a real pro for “ask the _” questions, but I’d be happy to offer whatever info I can, as well.
This thread prompted me to go looking for a good on-line introduction to cryptics – especially for Yanks used to the more straightforward NY Times puzzles (and who, like me, are totally confused by the kinds of clues Morse was always trying to solve on tv).
I’m a loyalist to the “Games” name; when Games World of Crosswords became “Collector’s Crosswords,” I did not renew.
Which crossword puzzles do you like best?
Puzzles with odd shaped diagrams, the “New Wave” puzzles from the eighties, just about anything Henry Hook does.
Ink or pencil?
Mechanical Pencil.
Where/when do you like to do crossword puzzles?
Whenever the mood strikes me.
What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete?
I try to finish one puzzle before starting another. I don’t try very hard, however.
Your favorite crossword puzzle word?
Ort is a classic.
Do you cheat?
The constructors use reference books to create the puzzles; I use reference books to solve them. But only as a last resort. And I will not peek at the answer key until I am completely stumped.
Yeah, that’s about it, Voyager. It’s always been a minority market, and there just wasn’t the demand. If you’re looking for a collection, though, I strongly recommend this. While looking for that link, I also noticed they have two more books coming out later this spring. On my ottoman as we speak is the collection of the little puzzles the New Yorker was running for a while (voila), for which Henry and Emily were writing as “Monica Zook.” These puzzles are okay – a good intro for those who are curious, actually, since they’re small, and nice “quickies” for those of us with a tad more experience.
Astorian – I’m thinking we may have met, if you go to Stamford, though I didn’t this year (for the first year in ten).
The Man Who – World of Crosswords didn’t become Collector’s – World of Crosswords was discontinued, and subscribers were offered Collector’s since there’s no all-crosswords book from Games. They are edited by different people – I oversee Collector’s and usually edit some or all of it. It’s a good magazine – though YM obviously does V.
1. Which crossword puzzles do you like best?New York Times Thursday and Friday are about my speed. I’ve been getting better - I almost always get Friday and now get Saturday at least sometimes. Sunday is long, but often it isn’t particularly hard. WSJ’s is good, too.
**2. Ink or pencil? ** Ink, except for WSJ, which I subscribe to on-line only and do using their pop-up.
3. Where/when do you like to do crossword puzzles? Lunch. We have a group that do them in the office and compare notes afterwards.
4. What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete? Usually get it all, except Saturday NYTimes, which ranges from 33-100%.
5. Your favorite crossword puzzle word? I don’t like “crossword puzzle words,” to me they’re a form of cheating on the part of the maker. The perfect crossword puzzle relies on the cleverness of the clues, not the obscureness of the answers.
6. Do you cheat? When desperate, I’ll look something up.
7. Favorite crossword pun question(s)/answer(s). A recent Saturday puzzle had a great one: The puzzle had a directional theme; one answer each incorporated “northern,” “eastern,” “western,” and “southern.” What was incredibly cool and clever was that the answers were written in the appropriate direction. Drove me batty: I knew one of the answers was “Western Electric,” and it took forever to figure out that it should be written in a western direction - i.e., right to left. Likewise, the “down” answer “Northern Pacific” was written northerly, or bottom to top.
Which crossword puzzles do you like best?
The one I’m currently working on
Ink or pencil?
Pencil
Where/when do you like to do crossword puzzles?
I always do puzzles on airplanes, especially on those 10+ hour Trans-Atlantic flights. Since I don’t fly much lately, I’ve been doing them mostly at work.
What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete?
95-100%
Your favorite crossword puzzle word?
I don’t really have one. “Elan” is okay, I guess.
Do you cheat?
Yes. I have been known to use a dictionary when I’m truly stumped. A few days ago, in fact, I was explaining (justifying?) this to a friend: I don’t do crosswords to prove how smart I am. I do them because they’re fun, and because I usually learn something in the process. If I look up a word I don’t know, then I’ve just expanded my vocabulary. Where’s the harm in that?
Favorite crossword pun question(s)/answer(s).
I’m sure I’ve encountered better, but the cutest one I can think of off the top of my head is: web site (5 letters).
I DID go to Stamford regularly during the 1990s, but haven’t gone at all since I got married four years ago. I’d love to go again, but it just never seems to be the best use of my time and money. In any case, I was the rookie (C division) champion my first year, but somehow, I kept slipping farther back in the rankings each year, rather than improving!
Perhaps that’s why I took the “if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em” approach, and started writing puzzles. And since I got to meet several of the top editors there, I was able to get some of them to check out my work and critique it.
To my amazement, all of them were remarkably nice, especially Will Shortz and Stan Newman. I say “remarkably” because no editor at ANY publication is ever enthusiastic about getting unsolicited work from amateurs, but the editors I approached were all very willing to look at my work and (most importantly) to give very detailed, specific analysis of what they liked and what they hated.
What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete?
Your favorite crossword puzzle word?
Do you cheat?
Favorite crossword pun question(s)/answer(s).
**
I usually do the ones in our local paper. I do sometimes buy crossword books from the grocery store though, and save them for rainy days.
Ink
When my SO is watching television I’m not particularly interested in. This time of year, while drinking cocoa before bedtime.
100% of the local paper, and usually around 50 - 75% of the more difficult book ones.
Ort was the first word that came to mind, but I’ll add epee.
I don’t cheat in the local paper (the answers aren’t available until the next day anyhow). In the books, I always do as much as I can, then try once more before I finally look it up. I don’t usually fill in the squares after I’ve looked though.
I can’t think of one at the moment, but admit to feeling clever when I figure one out.
Thanks, **twickster47 **, but been there, solved that :). I do recommend the Cox and Rathvon book. I subscribe to the New Yorker, so I got those puzzles when they first came out. I used them to teach my daughter how to solve cryptics, since she could solve a fair proportion of the clues.
I’m frustrated by puzzles from England - there are too many local references for me to be able to complete them. I’m just not going to memorize the full set of rugby teams. And yes, I do own Chambers.
Voyager: Yeah, I did them the first time around too, and it turns out I don’t remember them well enough for that to matter. Thrilled to hear about the Cox and Rathvon collections coming out – since I skipped Stamford this year, I hadn’t heard about them.
