Crossword solving is a pastime I have enjoyed for a long time. In Australia, the most popular style is the cryptic crossword. I have never mastered, or even been very good at, solving cryptic crosswords. However, I am conversant enough with the style that I can solve some clues, understand most, and occasionally solve an entire puzzle. A number of years ago I attempted to construct my own cryptic crossword, and I still have my work saved somewhere. I doubt that I will ever arrive at a completed product, but it's possible that it may happen some day.
In 2023 I became a regular solver of the New York Times crossword. American-style crosswords are very different in style to what I was previously used to, and in some regards I find them less interesting than cryptic crosswords. The "clumped" grid design places a lot of strain on how the puzzle can be filled, and it necessitates the use of short answers which frequently recur in the puzzle and are not really desirable. This style of puzzle certainly relies much more on memory and general knowledge, because it's so important to maintain a working memory of common answers, particularly acronyms or other terms which may be uninferrable if you don't know them. Nevertheless, it is still an enjoyable pastime, unsurprisingly given that I'm still going at it.
In 2024, after a bit of a rough patch of NYT puzzles which I didn't think were particularly good, I decided to try my hand at crossword construction, spurred on by the somewhat arrogant notion that I could do better. After some searching I came across the website Crosserville, which is a free site that facilitates crossword construction.
I didn't have much of an idea of how to proceed, and I think some aspects of my approach to constructing crosswords were quite unconventional and may have contributed to how long it took me. I stuck with it though, and after about four months of on-and-off work I had constructed a full grid and clues.
My original intention was to just share this puzzle with friends who also solve the New York Times crossword. However, once I had finished, it seemed to me that it had actually turned out much better than I had originally expected, and I decided to submit the puzzle to the New York Times to see if they might accept it for publication. I didn't have high hopes, considering that the acceptance rate is very low (somewhere around 2 to 3%) and also taking into account that I was a first-time constructor, which would logically mean that my likelihood of success would be even lower.
Every day that I didn't receive a rejection email bolstered my hopes, and eventually in January 2025 I was amazed to receive an email congratulating me on my submission having been accepted. This was only a few days after I had submitted a second crossword puzzle, which would ultimately also be accepted three months later. The typical turnaround time between acceptance and publication appears to be around a year, with my first submission being published on 26th of December 2025, and the second one scheduled for 24th of April 2026.
To date, I have not submitted any other puzzles to the New York Times or elsewhere, and currently I have no plans to do so. Crossword construction was a very enjoyable and rewarding pastime, but also exceptionally time consuming. Both of my crosswords took me several months to complete, and I feel that the time I put in paid off: while it might be possible to knock one off in a day or two, I am certain that the quality would noticeably suffer.
Perhaps more significantly than this, my motivation to create puzzles has actually been negatively affected by the fact that my submissions were successful. I was aware that it was extremely rare for a first-time constructor to actually have their puzzles accepted, and I was under no illusions about the likelihood of success of my first submission. I started working on a second puzzle immediately after completing the first one, partly with the idea that I would continue working at this in the hope of finally getting one of my submissions through. It felt like it was going to be a great effort and that a lot of resilience and patience would be required, but the fact that both of my submissions were accepted put paid to this idea in a way. I was obviously overjoyed that my puzzles made it to publication, but it is hard not to feel that I missed out on part of how the construction process was supposed to go.
I still enjoy crossword construction, and I am sure I will return to it some day, but the fact that I achieved my goal so easily makes it easy to feel more comfortable just resting on my laurels. It also feels like it would be a shame to spoil my perfect record with an unsuccessful submission, and even with my past success it is very unlikely that any future submissions would make it through.
Below I will include links to the crosswords I have constructed, including the original submissions (hosted on crosshare.org), the versions that were ultimately published, and my thoughts on each puzzle.