On the other hand, here’s an example of a non-symmetrical grid, in a puzzle that I’ve titled, “Things That Don’t Exist”:Īs I hope you will note, the above puzzle contains four things that clearly don’t exist. What this means is that, when you’re coming up with entries, they should all be of corresponding lengths (in the example above, see how the words match in grid-position and word-length). On a standard crossword grid (15×15 squares on Monday-Saturday, 21×21 squares on Sundays), puzzles are almost always symmetrical.

Of course, when coming up with a theme, there a few rules you need to follow… Rule One:

presidents, this would obviously be a really good theme for a crossword puzzle. So, hypothetically speaking, if you wanted to make a puzzle about, say, “America’s Cutest Antebellum Presidents”, the theme would appear in the puzzle as follows:Īs you can see, since these four theme entries are all great examples of super-cute antebellum U.S. Or sometimes the theme is just a bunch of similar things, like “phrases that start with the letter ‘Q’” or “things that scare people” or “songs about horses.” Or “songs about horses that scare people.” Basically, a theme can be anything. For example, sometimes the theme will feature answers that all have some sort of pun in them (ex. Usually, a crossword’s theme consists of 4-6 answers that are, in some way, related. Like the gooey center of a deep-dish Chicago-style pizza, the most important part of any good crossword is its theme. So just download Crossword Compiler or Crossfire or some other program that has the word “cross” in the title, and you’ll be all set. Otherwise, this whole process will be an unending, dystopian nightmare from which there can be no escape. When making a crossword puzzle, you’re gonna need the right software. Since this basically means that I’m a puzzle-making genius (and not, you know, super unqualified to write this kind of article), I thought I’d share some tips on how to make the best crossword puzzle ever. Recently, I got my very first crossword puzzle accepted by a real-life newspaper.

Free online crossword puzzle maker free