Okay, so today I decided I’d try putting together one of those crossword puzzles myself. The theme I picked was kinda specific: “smart and fashionable one”. Seemed like a neat little challenge.
Getting the Words Together
First thing I did was grab some paper. Just plain old notepad stuff. I needed words, right? Words about being smart and words about fashion. I started jotting things down. For smart, stuff like clever, brainy, sharp, wise came to mind. Then for fashion, I listed things like style, chic, trend, vogue, model, runway, maybe even designer or couture. I tried to get a mix, some long words, some short ones. Just brainstorming, getting a pool of words to pull from.
Making the Grid
This part got messy. I drew out a rough grid, maybe like 15 squares by 15 squares, just pencil on paper. No fancy software. I figured I’d start with the longer words first, try to place them kinda in the middle. Maybe put “FASHIONABLE” going down and “INTELLIGENT” going across, see if they could intersect nicely. It’s harder than it looks, making sure the letters line up where they cross.
Then I started trying to fit other words from my list around those main ones. Like maybe “STYLE” could cross “FASHIONABLE”. Or “SHARP” could fit in a corner somewhere. It was a lot of trial and error. I had to erase quite a bit. Sometimes a word I really liked just wouldn’t fit with the letters I already had down. Had to let go of a few good ones, which was a bit frustrating.
- Placed long words first.
- Tried to make them cross over each other.
- Filled in smaller words around them.
- Lots of erasing and adjusting.
Writing the Clues
Once I finally had the grid filled with words, every square accounted for, I moved on to writing the clues. This was actually kind of fun. I needed clues for the Across words and clues for the Down words. Numbered them up on the grid. For each word, I tried to think of a clue that fit the “smart and fashionable” theme. Didn’t want them to be too easy. For “CHIC“, maybe something like “Elegantly stylish”. For “CLEVER“, maybe “Quick-witted”. Tried to be a little playful with some of them, but still fair. Had to make sure the clue really pointed to the answer and nothing else.
Final Look-Over
Last step was just reviewing the whole thing. I checked if all the numbers on the grid matched the clue list. Read through the clues one last time to see if they made sense. Checked the spelling of all the answer words in the grid. Made sure there weren’t any accidental awkward words formed by the letters. It felt pretty complete after that. Took a bit of doing, but I had my “smart and fashionable” crossword puzzle sketched out. Felt good to have actually made it myself instead of just solving one.
