My Crossword Journey

I grew up in a home where it was not an unusual site to see a New York Times crossword sitting out on the table, everyone taking a quick skim when they walked by it and seeing what they could fill in. I never did much more than that until early into the start of covid we were all looking for a solo activity to do from the comfort of our own bubble. I started completing the NYT daily puzzle in 2020 and I have yet to stop. I was lucky to complete my Mondays in under 30 minutes. I then scrolled back in the archive and completed every single Monday in 2019 until my time was consistently under 7 minutes. 

Along my NYT solving journey I became aware of other puzzle outlets with clues and fill that were more my speed. It was a nice change of pace to solve a puzzle full of fun, young, pop culture (sometimes chronically online) references. As someone who loves word games, logic puzzles, puns, and pop culture, I figured it couldn't be that hard to make a crossword puzzle. Spoiler alert - it was!

In early 2024, after consuming all the articles, Facebook groups, YouTube streams, and Reddit posts dedicated to the topic, I tried my hand at making my first puzzle. I couldn't make it work. I then gave up for several months. Over the course of the next few months I kept a note on my phone with random revealer phrases and clue sets. I finally took another stab at a new puzzle, and with the help of spread the word(list) I was able to make my first decent puzzle (linked here)!! I took this new found sense of accomplishment back to my original first puzzle and played around until I finally made a grid I was happy with. Within that same month I became aware of Crosswordr’s New Constructor Contest 2024. All I had to do was upload my puzzle to the site and tag it with "contest 2024". 

So then imagine my surprise getting this email in my inbox a month later.

Btw you can solve my award winning crossword puzzle here.

This would go on to boost my constructing career (still like my third puzzle I ever made may I remind you!) to a whole new level.  This puzzle would then go on to be featured on 12/30's Daily Crossword Links with a glowing review from Norah. 

That same day I get this DM:

Was a very weird experience seeing a DM pop up from someone whose work I've been following/admiring for years. Brooke is the puzzle editor at puzzmo.com and she very generously offered me the opportunity to work with her to create a crossword for the site. We texted back and forth and bit and I shared how my 2025 resolution was to keep constructing and eventually submit to a venue. Less than 3 weeks later my first Puzzmo puzzle was accepted. At the time of writing this (March 2025), that original puzzle ran on Puzzmo (3/6) and I have 3 more accepted and queued up for the future. 

I cannot thank Brooke enough for offering her time and expertise to help me through my first ideas and iterations. It has been a dream to get to actively participate in the little corner of the internet after only passively solving online for the last 5+ years. My crossword constructing journey has only been 4 months at this point, so this seems like a good spot to end this on now. I'm imagining I'll have many, many more amazing crossword related experiences to share in the future. 

Brioche posing/inspecting my award winning puzzle