See You in Court
My NYT debut. Theme hint: "I'm gonna sue!"
Crosswords
Themeless
My favorite recent themeless, probably paywalled.
Inner Peace
My first published puzzle at 16.
Selected unpublished puzzles
Zoomusicology (PDF)
Themeless (Very Scrabbly) (PDF)
Themeless (Favorite NYT Friday Style) (PDF)
My themeless crossword construction tips
- Rescore your wordlist. I’m using LLMs to rescore a ~300,000-word list for cleaner fill.
- Start with a seed and a loose grid; play before you commit.
- Max 72 words; max 30 three- and four-letter entries.
- Make the puzzle you want to make and solve—don’t cater to what you think the NYT likes. That constrains overly open grids and builds voice.
- Never accept crappy fill for great entries.
- Ask yourself why you like a puzzle.
- "Kill your darlings": all 8+ letter entries should be exciting.