#1: Themeless
As an avid yet amateur crossword fan (and word games in general), I’ve always wanted to try my hand at creating one of these peculiar puzzles myself. This is a feeling that grows and wanes as with most of my “obsessions” (I wouldn’t be surprised if I get sick of them in the next week) but has grown more strongly as of late. The idea of designing the grids and shaping them with words of your choosing, sometimes infusing wit and humour through the clues, that speaks to something or someone within me. Perhaps someone that wants to take this medium and say something with it.
And so I opened up an Excel spreadsheet to make one of these, excitedly setting the cells to squares, and creating a grid to start my crossword making journey (or “construction” as they call it in the biz) and…damn. It turns out that making crosswords isn’t as easy as just putting words into squares. There are some nuances in making crosswords that didn’t immediately come to me at first try (though to be fair, I really should’ve done more research instead of just going for it).
But after trying for a few days, after experimenting with different grid sizes, after mixing and mashing different words together, after experiencing intense disappointment at myself that I might not be able to do it after all, I finally managed to make one. A quick 5x5 puzzle that I’m quite proud of despite it’s slightly shabby construction.
I hope you enjoy and I’m always open to critiques so feel free to comment on how I can improve for my future constructions!
