#NYT CROSSWORD EDITOR DOWNLOAD#
Puzzle titles can be the theme revealers for daily themed puzzles or marquee entries for themeless puzzles.Īn example is shown below, which you can download as a pdf.Westchester is known as a place where a lot of smart people live, and it’s quite possible that our collective IQ as a county is just a tad higher because it is also the home of The New York Times’ legendary puzzle master, Will Shortz. Please label your files LastName_PuzzleTitle for ease of editor review. Include your name, address and email address on the grid page.
Include a filled-in answer grid with numbers. If your collaborator has never been published by the Times, the puzzle will not count toward your total.Īll crossword constructing programs have settings to create PDFs in the proper submission format, as follows:Ĭlues should be double-spaced on the left, answer words in a corresponding column on the far right. We count collaborations as half for each byline. Please limit yourself to no more than three puzzles in the queue at once. The Times buys all rights, including first rights. Times puzzles must never have been published anywhere before, either in print or electronically. Maximums may be exceeded slightly at the editor’s discretion, if the theme warrants. These include:Ĭrosswords must have black square symmetry, which typically comes in the form of 180-degree rotational symmetry Ĭrosswords must not have unchecked squares (i.e., all letters must be found in both Across and Down answers) Īll answers must be at least 3 letters long īlack squares should be used in moderation.ħ8 words for a 15×15 (72 for a themeless) 140 for a 21×21. While we encourage new and creative crossword themes, there are a few hard rules (broken with extreme rarity) when it comes to constructing New York Times crosswords.
#NYT CROSSWORD EDITOR HOW TO#
For a full list of these programs, as well as tips from New York Times constructors and editors on the puzzle making process, see our series on How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.
#NYT CROSSWORD EDITOR SOFTWARE#
There are many options for making a crossword puzzle, including the good, old-fashioned graph-paper-and-pencil method, though several software programs exist as well. Saturday clue: “What might keep a watch on you” Themeless clues should be more difficult and require imaginative thinking. Try to be original, and inject humor where possible. Sunday puzzles should reflect midweek difficulty levels.Ĭlues should be fresh, colorful and precise. Our difficulty scale increases through the week, with the easiest puzzles on Monday and hardest on Saturday. CluesĬlues should reflect the difficulty of the puzzle. However, never let two obscure words or names cross. Difficult words are fine - especially for the harder daily puzzles that run late in the week - if the words are interesting bits of knowledge or useful additions to the vocabulary. Keep crosswordese to a minimum - that is, answers that appear far more in crosswords than in real life (ERNE, ASTA, ARETE, YSER, etc.). Non-English words are allowed, so long as they are familiar or inferable to people who don’t speak the language.Īvoid uncommon abbreviations and partial phrases longer than five letters (“So _” for BE IT would be permissible, while “So _” for IT GOES would not.) Be mindful of words that might impact solvers negatively.
Common words that lend themselves to interesting and imaginative cluing angles are encouraged.ĭiversity in cultural references - for age, gender, ethnicity, etc. FillĬonstructors should emphasize lively words, well-known names and fresh phrases. We generally prefer puzzles with playful themes rather than straightforward subjects. Themes and theme entries should be accessible to everyone. For example, if the theme includes a particular kind of pun, then all the puns should be of that kind. Themes should be fresh, interesting, narrowly defined and consistently applied throughout the puzzle. What we could use more of: Thursday and Sunday puzzles that don’t involve a rebus. No more than three puzzles pending at a time. Original, on-target clues, pitched at the puzzle’s intended difficulty level, including a variety of cultural reference points. Lively fill, with words, phrases and names that solvers know or can infer from the crossings. This page of guidelines is a living document and reflects our current best practices on crossword construction. A New York Times crossword will be a collaboration between you and our staff of editors, who will seek to preserve your voice while making the puzzle as enjoyable as possible for solvers.
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