Chapter 1: Completing the Grid: How to Solve a Crossword 15
With your pencil in hand, read through the clues and see whether any seem
obvious. I think most people find that fill-in-the-blank clues can be fairly easy,
such as these found in our sample puzzle:✓ 19 Across: “Care for _____ of tea?”
✓ 30 Across: Saint _____ Fire
✓ 54 Across: “Not _____ in the world”
✓ 1 Down: “_____ sock in it!”
✓ 37 Down: “Get _____ of it!”
If you can fill in even a half-dozen entries with certainty in this first stage, that’s
a great start.
Next, go back and troll the clues for less-obvious items that you can answer
with at least some confidence — especially those that intersect with the entries
you’ve got on the grid already. If you think you may have an answer but aren’t
certain, pencil the entry in lightly on the grid. If you get confirmation that one
or more letters is correct (by solving clues that intersect with that entry),
you’ve saved the time of having to return to that clue later.
Because our sample crossword has a theme, you may next want to consider how
that theme plays out in the grid. If you’ve solved a few clues already, you’ll notice
that they don’t all relate to the theme. But keeping in mind that some entries will
be food-related (that’s where the “gruel” comes from) may put you in the right
frame of mind to solve some clues. For example, 20 Across (“Jumble of spilled
letters?”) may lead you to ALPHABITS more quickly if the theme is on your mind.
As a next step, consider which clues could be solved more easily if you consulted
an outside resource. For example, you could probably solve 15 Across (“Mountains
bordering China”) and 25 Across (“Historic Dead Sea fortress”) with the help of
your favorite search engine. If you’re willing to go that route, now would be a good
time to fill in some additional entries by consulting your resources.
Identifying plural entries may be a good next step. For example, 17 Across
(“They go with studs”), 31 Down (“Self-centered chatterboxes”), and 50 Down
(“Nest eggs, briefly”) seem likely to end in S. (And, in fact, they all do.) You can
pencil in that letter on the grid until you solve the clues themselves. It may
seem like small potatoes, but you never know when a single letter may help
solve an intersecting clue!
Speaking of 50 Down (“Nest eggs, briefly”), it’s a good example of the creative ways
that puzzle constructors alert you that entries need to be abbreviations. You don’t
see “Abbr.” here, but “briefly” is a hint that the answer will be abbreviated — in
this case, IRAS.