CRUCIVERB.COM

User

Welcome, Guest.
Please login or register.
 
 
 
Forgot your password?

Navigate

Resources

Donations


You can help support this site by making a small donation using either a PayPal account:

or with a major credit card such as:

 

 

Click here for details.
« previous next »
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Difficulty guidelines  (Read 5189 times)

Benniemc

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Difficulty guidelines
« on: October 07, 2019, 02:44:09 PM »
I'm having trouble determining puzzle difficulty levels. It would seem that creative clues affect difficulty the most. Are there any guidelines for constructing harder puzzles?
Logged

mmcbs

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 513
Re: Difficulty guidelines
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2019, 02:50:50 PM »
I will let the experts on the tough themeless puzzles comment on their tactics, but one rule of thumb is to have as few as possible entries (say, none) that can only be clued one way or must be clued with a fill-in-the-blank. And then, when writing the clues use no clues that provide a clear path to the answer. In other words each clue should have more than one possible answer of the requisite number of letters.
Logged
Mark McClain
Salem, Virginia, USA
https://crosswordsbymark.wordpress.com/

cranberry44

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 145
Re: Difficulty guidelines
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2019, 01:27:18 PM »
I'm not an expert re: tough puzzles; but I do try to solve them. I have noticed that the ability to get one answer doesn't necessarily help the solver to get the cross. Also, every once and awhile I see an acronym that's not that well known.
Logged
Pages: [1]
« previous next »
 


Powered by EzPortal