I’ve been working on crossword puzzles more over the last year. I’m not sure why I’ve gotten more interested in them. Maybe it’s to keep working my brain, knowing that studies show those sorts of activities can help later in life. Maybe I like the challenge to get through one without much backtracking. Maybe I just started finishing my magazine reading sooner when I was home so much more!
Regardless, as I was working on one recently, I got to thinking about putting together a crossword puzzle. This can’t be an easy task! We probably all had that teacher who made us create one for some class project. Most of ours had stray lines barely intersecting with others, nothing like the complex puzzles you see in many newspapers, where words are crossing over with two to four other ones.
So how does one begin to put together a really big crossword puzzle? I’m sure that, just like many other creative endeavors, there are a variety of ways to go about this job. Different puzzle makers do what works best for them. I did a little research and found that many start from the middle of the puzzle and work their way out. Others may divide the puzzle into sections and work on them separately before bringing them together somehow.
I would imagine that creating a puzzle takes multiple tries and numerous erasures. Then again, I could be wrong. I’m sure there are many people with an amazing talent just to see it come together in their heads while they work. They just get started and find a path to a full puzzle in less time than it would take us to finish a word search.
Word searches are easier and probably not nearly as difficult to make. Place your words and then surround them with other letters. Of course, the really good word searches make you think you’ve found a word, only to be foiled by a stray letter that doesn’t belong.
How about Sudoku? Whereas people who create crossword puzzles are excellent at word usage, a Sudoku creator uses a different part of their brain, angling numbers into place to form those nine squares with nine squares each. As a word guy myself, Sudoku takes me a lot longer to finish than a crossword.
Our brains work in funny ways. Everyone has different talents, and we are amazed at things others do that we think we’re incapable of. I might be able to put together a crossword puzzle, but it would take me a really long time. I don’t have that knack.
But there are other puzzles I enjoy creating. I’ve been coordinating summer baseball and softball field use for many years in our district. I’m given schedules for all the teams from t-ball to Legion and have to find a way to try to get everyone on a ball diamond when they have home games. I love doing this! I work off one schedule at a time, starting with fields in New Richland, and then add new schedules, shifting teams to our other three communities as needed. We’re very fortunate to have so many fields around here!
Many of you have puzzle abilities that I could never comprehend, especially dealing with numbers. You also have other talents that access parts of your brain that I’ve barely tapped. I enjoy cooking and baking, but there are some of you who just have a great instinct and can go about the kitchen, knowing just how much of everything you need to create new and amazing dishes.
I’m always impressed when I look at music as well. Think about putting a song together. I think of music notes as a different language. We all understand that language, but very few can “speak” it by putting those notes together in different formations to form songs that we can all enjoy. That’s another part of the brain that would be fun to use more.
Even the idea of a regular puzzle that you put together on your table is unique. How many pieces will that picture be? What shapes will you use? Is it a rectangle or circle? I’m sure a lot of work goes into figuring out the options that work the best.
Even writing fits this bill. My Honors class of 8th graders just finished our annual trek through National Novel Writing Month and completed 10,000-word stories. Some struggle with this, but others have a knack for finding a good flow with their words. I’ve just started to read their stories, but I already see so much of that talent and have been very impressed. They are often reluctant to do this; it’s intimidating to write at least 300 words every day that all fit together into one narrative. The end result is usually between 20-30 pages, depending on how they space it.
Writing, like all the other puzzles I’ve written about, becomes easier with practice. People who have been putting together crossword puzzles for decades probably are able to just sit down and take care of business, as are the other artisans. My students find this out through blogging and other writing that we do on a regular basis. It’s easy to bang out 100 words in ten minutes or less after doing it repeatedly.
I’m blessed to be able to look at my screen each week and find inspiration to write, and I love doing it. But maybe I should look into crossword puzzles. I see the New York Times pays between $300-$450 for a puzzle, and $1000-$1200 for the Sunday puzzle!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is luteous, which means muddy, as in, “The picture on the new puzzle was so luteous that she knew it would be tough to put together without distinct color separations.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!