More than a clue
By Raymond Simon
Editing crosswords is one of my most enjoyable tasks at Games World of Puzzles magazine. Although solvers rarely think of editors, we play a large role in this pastime.
Margaret Farrar, who edited the New York Times puzzle from 1942 to 1968, is undoubtedly the most influential crossword editor. She codified standards that crossword creators, called “constructors,” still follow. Thanks to her, there are no one- or two-letter answers, all white spaces must interlock, and black squares shouldn’t take up more than one-sixth of the grid. Those grids must be square, with an odd number of white spaces on each side.
With those principles in mind, I begin by editing the clues. A standard 15-by-15 crossword contains roughly 75 clues. Each one must be checked for typos, factual errors, and style.
Fortunately, at Games, many of the crosswords that I work on need only minimal tweaks, like italicizing titles or correcting minor errors, such as inserting a missing hyphen or closing an extra space.
Sometimes, though, the errors are substantive. I recently caught a clue that inadvertently added a t to Nicole Richie’s surname and another that accidentally included its answer: “Mila 18 author Uris” (answer: URIS). Mistakes like these can detract from a solver’s enjoyment.
A good crossword puzzle contains a mix of facts, wordplay, and pop culture. To keep things timely, some clues require updating. I recently paused over “ ‘You Belong with Me’ singer Taylor.” After discussing it with colleagues, I changed it to “ ‘Shake It Off’ singer Taylor.” Not her most recent hit, but a better clue.
Ensuring that a crossword matches its intended audience is also important. Clues in an easy puzzle should have helpful tags that constructors generally omit, including “Abbr.” and “2 wds.” A challenging puzzle, however, can include wordplay, clues in a foreign language, and even recondite answers. What tough puzzles shouldn’t have are too many definitions or fill-in-the-blank clues, like “___ Vegas.”
No matter what level of difficulty, it’s best to avoid “crosswordese,” those short, obscure words found only in puzzles. ESNE (an Anglo-Saxon peasant) and ORT (a scrap of leftover food) are good examples. This crosswordese appears as “fill,” the term used for all the non-theme answers in a puzzle. Clever “theme” entries often occupy a grid’s long Across entries, but the best puzzles have interesting fill, too.
If I make even a handful of these edits, I’m confident that I’ve improved a puzzle. At the New York Times, however, editors have the resources to do much more.
Thinking Inside the Box, Adrienne Raphel’s recent book about crossword culture, devotes an entire chapter to Will Shortz, the paper’s puzzle editor. After Farrar, Shortz is unquestionably the most significant crossword editor.
In that chapter, Raphel describes how Shortz and two assistants review each puzzle. It’s a deliberate, painstaking process. Many submissions are rejected with a brief note, “TDEME,” meaning “Theme Didn’t Excite Me Enough.” Even when they accept a puzzle, it’s not printed verbatim. As Raphel notes, “Editing a puzzle, by and large, meant rewriting its clues.” Elsewhere, Shortz has said that he rewrites roughly half of the clues in most crosswords he publishes.
Editors help to make crosswords accurate, entertaining, and thoughtful. Our task now is to publish more puzzles created by women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community, all of whom are underrepresented at major outlets, including Games.
Fortunately, projects like the Inkubator, whose mission is publishing crosswords by women, both cisgender and transgender, and Queer Qrosswords, which highlights LGBTQ constructors and content, are beginning to address those concerns.
Frankly, it’s about time.
More Than a Clue was originally published in Tracking Changes (Winter 2021 edition). Members receive a PDF of the quarterly Tracking Changes newsletter by email.
Header Image by Steve” class=”redactor-linkify-object”>https://pixabay.com/users/stev… Buissinne from Pixabay.
