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Constructing => General Discussion => Topic started by: horkrat on January 13, 2018, 01:06:41 PM

Title: theme answers lengths
Post by: horkrat on January 13, 2018, 01:06:41 PM

hey all,

I came up with six theme answers, and have two questions:

• what's the ideal # of theme answers? four? six does feel like a bit much when I'm squeezing that many 10+ letter words in the puzzle
  
  
• can you create a puzzle with letter counts like: 15x1, 14x1, 13x1, 11x2, 10x1? it seems like with standard symmetry you can only have ONE 15, and then PAIRS of other answer lengths. maybe you can get around this with other kinds of symmetry?

interested in any opinions, thank you!

Title: Re: theme answers lengths
Post by: RichP on January 15, 2018, 10:48:56 PM

I don't think there is an ideal number. Typical 15x15 have at least three, usually four, and can have many more. Your themers should be paired, so you want to include a 14-letter seed, you need two of that length. You can have one that is not the same length, right in the middle of the grid (but, in my experience, those grids can  tough to fill cleanly). Really, the answer to your original question is, " as many as you can fit, and still have a really clean grid!"