Australian Crosswords

It might surprise you to know that it unsettles me when solvers express their concerns over certain clues, especially when they feel they have the answer and can’t work out the wordplay. For me, that’s a failure, as no clue should be that difficult or convoluted that it can’t be worked out from the wordplay alone, so to have the answer and still not be able to reconcile, means a flaw in the clue. Such happened this week, apparently, with 14-across: Sour one with quirky behaviour (6) = ACE + TIC. Oddly enough I felt unsure about this clue, but went with it anyway. Sour as the definition wasn’t explicitly stated in all my references; one = ACE probably needed a context like golf or cards; and quirky behaviour = TIC worried me the most as I was playing on “quirk” = “individual peculiarity or mannerism” and stretching this to a TIC that can be “an involuntary habitual response” or “a personal quirk”, as well as a medical condition. I guess any one of these three components could cause an obstruction, and together they most definitely did. Lesson learnt. The second thing that came up was about words not in general use, specifically, BENGAL the material in 20-across. I’ll save talking about that one until next week.

I’ve been talking recently about the different sorts of crosswords I’ve written over the years, both cryptic and non-cryptic. There’s one category that takes a large amount of experience and expertise to be able to construct, the personalised (or bespoke) crossword. These are done for such events as a significant birthday , an anniversary, or possibly a wedding (I wrote a wedding crossword for my daughter that guests filled in during the reception and the MCs referred to in order to tie the whole thing in). There’s a fundamental problem with personalised crosswords: the time and effort needed to construct one (no matter what types of clues are required) is far greater than any regular cryptic yet no-one wants to pay for that time and effort. Try and think of any personlised present, that is, one made especially for you to your specifications with your input, a one-off that no-one else will ever be able to reproduce. How much money would you expect to pay?
Let me talk you through the process of building a bespoke puzzle:
*Some of the variables are: size, shape, cryptic or non-cryptic, pictures included
1. To make a personalised crossword you need words that relate to the subject(s). The more words, the better the crossword. You need a huge list of words to fill an entire crossword, so I supply a questionnaire to the puzzle requester covering every area of people’s lives I can think of. Everything from names of relatives, their nicknames, pets names, places they have lived, work/profession-related information, family holidays, stories, favourite things – anything that I can write a clue for. This info has to be sourced secretly to keep the crossword a surprise.
2. Once I get the questionnaire back I need to make a list of words and keep track of how they relate to the subject so I can write clues later. I also extrapolate, trying to expand the number of words I can use in the crossword.
3. To maximise the number of pertinent words in the crossword, I build a freeform crossword of the requested size (sometimes it’s for a greeting card, other times A4 to be framed etc), and get the software to use my list to fill it with as many words as possible. Although to result isn’t symmetrical, I try my best to obey the crossing-letters rule so that solving isn’t difficult. The software always returns a puzzle that requires tailoring to fill holes and to balance out the content, so much tinkering goes on. Also, I identify some keywords in my list that must be included, so I keep playing with the software until I get the content I need.
4. If pictures can be used, I use them to fill the holes in the puzzle, and usually it’s possible to place them somewhere near related clues.
5. Once I’m happy with the content I’ll write the clues in the requested style being mindful of the limited space available.
6. The draft crossword is then sent to the requester for proofing.
7. Once changes are completed and approval is given, a final copy is produced in the format asked for by the requester.

The most I’ve received for this kind of work is $100. Is it worth the time and effort?