How to Make Sample Crossword Puzzles
Crossword puzzles are known to provide hours of fun. They are so popular that many newspapers include a daily crossword. The New York Times is known for its crossword, which increases in difficulty from the beginning of the week to the end of the week. Many puzzle lovers consider this to be the ultimate in puzzle challenges. Creating your own puzzle can be a good way to develop a better understanding of crosswords and improve skills for later solving attempts.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Grid paper
- Pencil
- Black marker
- White out
- Copier/printer
- Art development software
Instructions
-
-
1
Start with grid paper and pencil or make a grid on a sheet of blank paper. This helps in the creation of the crossword puzzle. When building the puzzle, think about the clue and the placement of the word. Grid paper makes layout a lot easier to plan. Traditionally, crossword puzzles are one of five sizes: 15x15, 17x17, 19x19, 21x21 and 23x23 blocks. The standard size is 15x15 blocks.
-
2
Pick a theme for the crossword puzzle. This makes it easier to come up with words and makes it easier for the solvers. Following this theme, create a list of as many related words as you can think of. Do not use two- and three-letter words as these tend to limit your ability to build on the puzzle.
-
-
3
Pick one word to start the puzzle, placing this word toward the middle top of the grid sheet. Just go with the first word, name or topic that catches your eye. Clues can be created from dictionary definitions, trivia or synonyms. The rest of the crossword puzzle is built from this first word. Make it longer and you'll have more letters to work with when building the puzzle.
-
4
Select five or six more words to build the basic framework of the puzzle. Place two of these words vertically, attached to the first word. The remaining three to four words build from these two words. This part of the process is fairly easy.
-
5
Continue picking words to fill in the puzzle. It becomes more difficult as you go because additional words are more and more likely to cross each other. Don't worry too much about creating something the level of the New York Times crossword. A good starting puzzle contains 20 words. Building more puzzles over time will help you develop your skills and allow you to create more complicated puzzles.
-
6
Once the words are placed in the grid, fill in the empty spaces with black marker or pen. Make a photocopy of this and use white out to clear out the words in the copy. Number the words in the upper left corner of the first block for each word. Organize the word list and number the words used to correspond with the puzzle. Make a copy so that you have a clean version of an empty crossword puzzle. If you have a computer, it's a lot easier to complete this process. Grids are simple to create and fill in with basic art software.
-
7
Look at the word list and create clues for the words. Clues are simple to create. They can be synonyms of the words used, fill in the blanks of common phrases, basic definitions and trivia questions. Create a new list of these clues, numbering them to correspond with the proper placement of the answers.
-
8
Tape the clue list on to the copy of the empty crossword puzzle and make as many photocopies as needed. Or use the computer to paste this list next to the digital crossword puzzle. Print out the puzzle.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Don't duplicate words. This can be confusing for the puzzle solver.
Create a few practice puzzles before building the real thing.
Don't use really obscure or long words. They can be difficult to fit into the puzzle.
The first few puzzles won't look like those seen in the newspapers. You will get better with practice.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit crossword image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com
