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rhuAs you know, yesterday's New York Times crossword puzzle was by me. This was my first solo byline, and only my second appearance in the Times crossword, so I'm very excited about it. I've gotten a lot of questions about it, which I thought I'd answer in a blog post.
(SPOILERS BELOW!!!!)
The process:
Several of my friends have asked about the process. It's really quite simple. Unlike other editors who have an interactive process, Will does this the old-fashioned way:
The constructor thinks of a theme.
The constructor works out the placement of the theme entries and the black squares.
The constructor figures out what other words (the "fill") can go in the remaining spaces to make a puzzle that's fun and the right level of challenge.
The constructor writes clues for all these words.
The constructor prints all this out, following the formatting instructions on the New York Times specification sheet.
The constructor puts the printout in an envelope, affixes postage, and mails it to Will at the New York Times.
The constructor hopes.
At some point in the future, depending on his schedule, Will reviews the submissions and sends an email back to the constructor. Given the vast number of submissions he gets, most of the time the email is a polite rejection, often with an encouraging note about what parts Will liked and what specific areas were insufficient to meet his standards.
Once a puzzle is accepted, the constructor waits. Patiently. In my case, it was over three years between when I got the email from Will (actually, from Paula on Will's behalf) saying that my puzzle had been accepted for "a Tuesday", and when it ran yesterday.
Meanwhile, Will is editing. You'll see later in this post what that meant for my puzzle. But once Will has accepted the puzzle, he owns it. The constructor doesn't get to participate in the editing process, so until I got my paper yesterday morning, I had no idea how much of my original clues remained -- or even if my fill had gotten changed.
And, yes, the constructor gets paid. In exchange for which the constructor assigns to the the New York Times all rights to the puzzle, in all media, in perpetuity. (So no, I can't send you a copy.)
Notes on the theme:
Interestingly, a lot of people didn't pick up on all the parts of my puzzle's theme.
For those who didn't do the puzzle, the theme was a variation on the old AEIOU vowel-progression. Each answer was a two-word phrase in which both words begin with B and the second letter was A, then E, then I, O, and U. That is:
BANK BALANCE
BEER BELLY
BIG BIRD
BOOM BOXES
BURNING BUSH
and then, as a wink to the "sometimes" nature of Y, and as a way of provding closure to the solving experience, the final across entry was BYE.
In reading the comments on the various crossword blogs, I realized that some people missed the vowel progression part, and thought that any two-word phrase in which both words began with B was the theme. Others noticed the vowel progression at the beginning of each answer, but didn't notice that it was doubled in the second word. Of those solvers who noticed the presence of "BYE", some thought it was accidental and suggested that if I'd used BYEBYE it would have been better.
Notes on clues:
Will made two changes to the grid, so 4 words were completely different.
18 words were clued using a completely different sense. For example, I had clued ARCHER as {Actress Anne} while Will went with {William Tell, for one}.
38 clues were substantially reworded while keeping the same general idea. For example, I had clued MEOW as {Catnip, please?} while Will used {Feline's "feed me"}
12 clues were tweaked in minor ways. For example, I had clued SADE as {Marat's titular counterpart} while Will provided additional context with {Marat's counterpart in a Peter Weiss title}.
6 of my clues ran unmodified. Well, three of those had punctuation changed. But really, how many clues can there be for XING? {Ped ___}
By and large, Will's changes to the clues elevated my puzzle from "ok" to "lots of fun." He really has an amazing sense for how to strike just the right level of fun and challenge. At the same time, until I made my comparison chart, I thought that more of the clues that had run in the paper were my own --- he manages to make these edits and even wholesale changes while still keeping the voice of the constructor.
Of course, there are a few clues that I regret didn't make the cut. My original clue for BANK BALANCE was {You can draw on it}. For HAN, I had {Solo in a space opera}. And for A TOI, I had {The "your" de France}. Maybe these were too hard for a Tuesday, or maybe they just weren't as clever as I thought.
Words that had extra resonance:
I was particularly glad to be able to honor the Tuskegee AIRMEN in this puzzle.
ASIAGO cheese was featured in a coupon that was one of the original sample documents for the NuDoc Engine, which I worked on for over a decade at Bitstream/Pageflex. It was in the demo that Rick Mohr showed me at my original interview there.
I loved being able to cross IRAQ and QATAR at the Q, and I was glad to see that called out on the blogs. I was glad my "Amtrak Joe" clue survived. And I was glad that Will changed my HABIB clue to refer to Philip. (I had originally had that, and then figured a 1990s Superbowl winner would be more "hip" than a 1970s diplomat, even if I knew the latter and had to look up the former.)
But mostly I'm grateful that Will liked my idea and my grid enough to run this puzzle, and that so many people enjoyed it.
And now, back to thedrawing board graph paper pad.
(SPOILERS BELOW!!!!)
The process:
Several of my friends have asked about the process. It's really quite simple. Unlike other editors who have an interactive process, Will does this the old-fashioned way:
The constructor thinks of a theme.
The constructor works out the placement of the theme entries and the black squares.
The constructor figures out what other words (the "fill") can go in the remaining spaces to make a puzzle that's fun and the right level of challenge.
The constructor writes clues for all these words.
The constructor prints all this out, following the formatting instructions on the New York Times specification sheet.
The constructor puts the printout in an envelope, affixes postage, and mails it to Will at the New York Times.
The constructor hopes.
At some point in the future, depending on his schedule, Will reviews the submissions and sends an email back to the constructor. Given the vast number of submissions he gets, most of the time the email is a polite rejection, often with an encouraging note about what parts Will liked and what specific areas were insufficient to meet his standards.
Once a puzzle is accepted, the constructor waits. Patiently. In my case, it was over three years between when I got the email from Will (actually, from Paula on Will's behalf) saying that my puzzle had been accepted for "a Tuesday", and when it ran yesterday.
Meanwhile, Will is editing. You'll see later in this post what that meant for my puzzle. But once Will has accepted the puzzle, he owns it. The constructor doesn't get to participate in the editing process, so until I got my paper yesterday morning, I had no idea how much of my original clues remained -- or even if my fill had gotten changed.
And, yes, the constructor gets paid. In exchange for which the constructor assigns to the the New York Times all rights to the puzzle, in all media, in perpetuity. (So no, I can't send you a copy.)
Notes on the theme:
Interestingly, a lot of people didn't pick up on all the parts of my puzzle's theme.
For those who didn't do the puzzle, the theme was a variation on the old AEIOU vowel-progression. Each answer was a two-word phrase in which both words begin with B and the second letter was A, then E, then I, O, and U. That is:
BANK BALANCE
BEER BELLY
BIG BIRD
BOOM BOXES
BURNING BUSH
and then, as a wink to the "sometimes" nature of Y, and as a way of provding closure to the solving experience, the final across entry was BYE.
In reading the comments on the various crossword blogs, I realized that some people missed the vowel progression part, and thought that any two-word phrase in which both words began with B was the theme. Others noticed the vowel progression at the beginning of each answer, but didn't notice that it was doubled in the second word. Of those solvers who noticed the presence of "BYE", some thought it was accidental and suggested that if I'd used BYEBYE it would have been better.
Notes on clues:
Will made two changes to the grid, so 4 words were completely different.
18 words were clued using a completely different sense. For example, I had clued ARCHER as {Actress Anne} while Will went with {William Tell, for one}.
38 clues were substantially reworded while keeping the same general idea. For example, I had clued MEOW as {Catnip, please?} while Will used {Feline's "feed me"}
12 clues were tweaked in minor ways. For example, I had clued SADE as {Marat's titular counterpart} while Will provided additional context with {Marat's counterpart in a Peter Weiss title}.
6 of my clues ran unmodified. Well, three of those had punctuation changed. But really, how many clues can there be for XING? {Ped ___}
By and large, Will's changes to the clues elevated my puzzle from "ok" to "lots of fun." He really has an amazing sense for how to strike just the right level of fun and challenge. At the same time, until I made my comparison chart, I thought that more of the clues that had run in the paper were my own --- he manages to make these edits and even wholesale changes while still keeping the voice of the constructor.
Of course, there are a few clues that I regret didn't make the cut. My original clue for BANK BALANCE was {You can draw on it}. For HAN, I had {Solo in a space opera}. And for A TOI, I had {The "your" de France}. Maybe these were too hard for a Tuesday, or maybe they just weren't as clever as I thought.
Words that had extra resonance:
I was particularly glad to be able to honor the Tuskegee AIRMEN in this puzzle.
ASIAGO cheese was featured in a coupon that was one of the original sample documents for the NuDoc Engine, which I worked on for over a decade at Bitstream/Pageflex. It was in the demo that Rick Mohr showed me at my original interview there.
I loved being able to cross IRAQ and QATAR at the Q, and I was glad to see that called out on the blogs. I was glad my "Amtrak Joe" clue survived. And I was glad that Will changed my HABIB clue to refer to Philip. (I had originally had that, and then figured a 1990s Superbowl winner would be more "hip" than a 1970s diplomat, even if I knew the latter and had to look up the former.)
But mostly I'm grateful that Will liked my idea and my grid enough to run this puzzle, and that so many people enjoyed it.
And now, back to the