Things You'll Need:
- Crossword puzzle
- Pencil
- Crossword puzzle dictionary
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Step 1
Learn. Read. Crosswords will come easier the more you know. Memory is important too. You know you've heard it a million times, but can you recall the name of the lion from the Chronicles of Narnia?
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Step 2
Scan through the puzzle and fill out the "gimmes." These are usually the fill-in-the-blanks and current pop culture references. The puzzle creator might as well have filled in these boxes for you; they will provide a great starting point for tackling the harder clues.
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Step 3
Normally, a crossword puzzle has a theme and, normally, the theme pertains to the longer puzzle clues. It could be a word that is repeated throughout puzzle answers, like "red" in "predatoryanimal" and "rightsaidfred." It could be an topic, like "archery" in the puzzle answers "rightontarget" and "arrowhead." Pin-pointing the puzzle theme might allow you to make educated guesses in a tight spot.
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Step 4
Never underestimate the advantage of filling in parts of blank answers. The clue might tip you off that the answer will be in the past tense and end in an "-ed." Fill it in. The same goes for clues that will end in an "-s." Your goal is to get rid of all the white boxes, even if you have to do it one by one.
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Step 5
Some letter orders will never show up in a word ("bf" for instance), and others will be used rarely ("ps"). Eliminating letters could leave you with only a handful of possible fills. An educated guess based on the patterns of the English language could break open the puzzle for you.
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Step 6
Keep up with the daily crossword! If you do the newspaper's crossword, the puzzles will get harder as the week progresses. But you'll improve with practice, of course, and as you learn the nuances of your particular crossword.
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Step 7
Find an online games site where you can play puzzles anytime of the day from your computer.
Comments
pianistic said
on 9/18/2008 Great!