Anatomy of an Extreme Crossword Puzzle

An extreme crossword has three eye-catching grids of smaller squares which are either blank or else already filled in with individual letters or individual digits.

None of the squares are blackened, so entire rows and columns of the squares harbor identically-sized niches for words across and down.

All of the words are mutually contingent, since all of the niches across intersect all of the niches down.

Puzzle Grid

The squares of the puzzle grid are blank.

The niches of the puzzle grid are identified by native row and column handles, but an adopted shorthand, 3 across or 3 down, for example, serves as puzzle addresses.

Concrete-Solution Grid

The squares of the concrete-solution grid are already filled in with individual letters spelling out the crossed words conjured up by the puzzle constructor.

Abstract-Solution Grid

The squares of the abstract-solution grid are already filled in with individual digits codifying where letters are repeated in the concrete solution:

  • A zero is substituted in the abstract solution for each letter appearing once in the concrete solution. See the six 0's substituted for the singular letters A, D, L, M, V, and W.

  • Other digits are substituted for each letter appearing more often. See the two 1's and two B's, three 2's and three E's, three 3's and three O's, and two 4's and two R's.

Publishing Conventions

The sibling grids are published together. Forthright looks at the abstract solution are de rigueur, but furtive glances at the concrete solution are discouraged by exposing the letters only upon demand: extreme crosswords are applets that provide a lexicon and enable you to fill in the puzzle grid, backtrack, flip the concrete solution, and more, simply by pointing and clicking.

Clues

An extreme crossword also has a single table of unary clues. The clues lack niche handles until you (implicitly) assign them yourself, and have extra word definitions that are bogus noise not bonus signal.

. . B e f o r e . . . A f t e r
?? . Nurtured 4d . Nurtured
?? . Wolf 1d . Wolf
?? . Dear 1a . Dear
?? . Pure 3d . Pure
?? . Declare 2d . Declare
?? . Association . Association
?? . Due 4a . Due
?? . Done 2a . Done
?? . Badger . Badger
?? . Ball . Ball
?? . Diameter 3a . Diameter
?? . Vantage . Vantage

Methodology

Fill out the puzzle grid. Solve the extreme crossword niche by niche. Think of words that simultaneously satisfy (a) the abstract solution, (b) the word definitions, (c) the orthogonal word templates formed by the words that you have already lodged in the puzzle grid, and (d) any additional letters that may have popped up in the puzzle grid here and there in odd squares.

But do not set your words directly into the puzzle grid. First fill out the staging area, which is located to the right of the definitions in the table of clues, before filling out the puzzle grid itself:

Step One Start solving the extreme crossword by building a cache of words in the staging area. Think of up to three different words for each definition. The same word may be chosen for more than one definition.
Step Two Finish solving the extreme crossword by assigning no more than one word per definition (from the staging area) to the puzzle grid. Close by explicitly filling in each row and every column of the puzzle grid.

Digital Patterns

Once you have prepared the staging area to your initial satisfaction and are ready to begin setting words into the puzzle grid, consult the abstract solution where each niche has a digital pattern. The first niches to attack are those with repeated letters repeated in them. Neglect the other niches until word templates develop in the puzzle grid.

As an example of a niche with a repeated letter repeated in it, the digital pattern of niche 3d of this abstract solution is 0242. The appropriate inference is that niche 3d of the puzzle grid needs to be set with a four-letter word that has the same second-letter and fourth-letter.

Absent the word definitions, of course, any word such as agog, anon, bolo, bozo, cede, data, dele, dojo, fete, gala, gene, gobo, guru, here, hobo, imam, java, kana, kava, kiwi, kudu, lama, lava, lobo, loco, logo, luau, mere, mete, midi, mini, mono, nada, pogo, polo, raga, raja, tipi, or ziti might potentially do for digital pattern 0242. These and many more words besides are qualified for niche 3d simply on the basis of its digital pattern.

Fortunately, the word definitions effectively vet the word candidates for a particular digital pattern so that you are not likely to find more than a couple of words in the staging area with the same second-letter and fourth-letter, in this example, which is a more manageable number of alternatives for trial and error.

But what if the problem is the opposite of there being too many words in the staging-area that are qualified for a particular digital pattern? Not only trial and error but also several procedural spirals are typically required to fill out the puzzle grid correctly:

Step One Redux Revisit the first step of this methology focusing upon the problematic digital pattern. Think of one or more new word candidates that are specifically qualified for the unset puzzle niche. Update the staging area with them.
Step Two Again Resume the second step of this methology trying to finish solving the extreme crossword with the rebuilt cache of words in the staging area.

Side Effects

Besides the main effect of filling in a puzzle row or puzzle column, look around for a couple of startling side effects each time you assign a definition/word to a puzzle niche:

  1. The niche handle will suddenly appear in the puzzle-address area which is located to the left of the definitions in the table of clues.

  2. More to the point of filling out the puzzle grid, any new letters in the new word may also pop up in one or more odd squares of the puzzle grid as a consequence of the abstract solution.

Notice that in the process of (explicitly) assigning a definition/word to a puzzle niche you are also (implicitly) assigning a niche handle to a clue and asserting that the definition is bona fide.

Word Templates

In the process of filling out the puzzle grid, the array of orthogonal word templates developing there may either seem promising and help fill in the remaining niches, or else seem hopeless and signal you to backtrack and try again.

Good Word Selection and Placement

As a fortuitous example, Diameter is a bona fide definition, bore is the intended word, and 3a is the niche where bore belongs. Notice the positive side effects from applying the abstract solution.

Bad Word Placement

On the other hand, 4d is not the niche where bore belongs, although that word might belong there simply on the basis of digital pattern 1420. Notice the negative side effects from applying the abstract solution (e.g., no four-letter English words end in ror).