Chris A. McGlothlin author page

Several weeks ago, Chris contacted me, wanting advice on getting through a dry spell. I tried to help, combing through some of his rejections, assessing the situation.

The rejections were merited; problems with themes or grid work, or both. However, one concept had an interesting seed, so I suggested a complete overhaul, using a different approach.

Several weeks, dozens of emails, and a lot of revisions later, we stumbled across the finish line with a solid product I'm reasonably sure someone will take. Chris learned some things, and so did I. Hopefully his acceptance rate will go up from here. A few general takeaways that might help other constructors achieve more acceptances, too:

• Don't use a giant word list as your main list. Chris said he's using a vast body of 400K+ entries — that's a red flag. There are only so many entries that you'd ever want to employ, and in the 400K range, you're wading through a ton of junk, which makes it seem like a lot of stuff is comparatively fine. Hey, at least this gloop isn't as bad as this ooze!
• Go way out of your way to avoid a weird entry like plural YOGAS or NTESTS. There's almost always a way to avoid them.
• These days, you can't start a puzzle with OLEO crossing OLIO. Chris told me he thought it was a funny joke, but I don't know how many non-insiders will take it that way. And ILO right next door? Can't do that.
• Constructors care about pangrams more than solvers. They usually come with compromises in overall quality.

Editors have limited time, so make sure they see you as a person whose products won't require much revision, if any at all.

The theme is reasonable — FORGONE meaning "phrases removing FOR for kooky results" — and I got a big laugh out of FISH COMPLIMENTS. I did wish that the other themers had been as strong, and since there are dozens of other FOR phrases out there, other winners felt within reach. If there wasn't a matching 15, FISH COMPLIMENTS could have gone in the middle row, with FORGONE at the end. That also would have delayed the a-ha, which would have been nice.

Beautiful set of triple-stacks today. Typically I groan a little when I see 'em because of the tortured crossings that usually occur, but I really enjoyed today's. If it hadn't been for a small handful of questionable entries, I would have given it the POW. Extremely difficult to execute a perfect set of triple stacks, but this comes close.

Making it even more difficult, Chris's grid only uses 64 words. Typically puzzles with triple-stacks have more like 68 or 70 words, which makes the crossings easier to produce (typically, shorter words = more options available). But look at what Chris uses for crosses: long stuff like HOG TIED, IN WANT OF, TIDIES UP. Wow! The top stack is particularly nice, with the glaring exception of LA HABANA, which felt a bit like a "glue" entry to hold the stack together. Perhaps not to native Cubans?

Entries like LA HABANA which alternate consonant-vowel-repeat are very helpful in long constructions (because so many words and phrases exhibit this pattern). The use of all those As felt a little unsightly though, given that so many glue-y entries used them: LA HABANA, ANANAS, NATAL, A RAIL. A couple of lesser entries are fine to hold a nice construction together, but having them all be of the same pattern felt conspicuous. Sort of like if a single puzzle was stellar except for it had SSW, SST, SSS, and SSA — you'd notice that and think it a bit unsightly, yeah?

Beautiful cluing today. I was convinced "Marker's mark maker" had a typo until I realized that FELT TIP fit in perfectly (and that I might be drinking too much bourbon). "Bottom line?" was a fantastic wordplay-type clue for X-AXIS, and "Practice test?" for BAR EXAM also tickled me. But my favorite was the unassuming-looking "Square things", which misdirected "square" as an adjective, not a verb. Brilliant! It's this type of cluing that often makes a puzzle stand out for me, sometimes even more than the entries themselves.

While the top stack totally impressed me, the bottom gave me a slight hitch. I CANNOT TELL A LIE is fantastic, no doubt, especially with its fantastic clue. And CAST A SPELL ON is a great entry, but CAST ONES SPELL ON feels... rickety. Having the extra common letters of ONES (in alternating vowel-consonant pattern!) definitely helps in stacked constructions, but many times those phrases involving ONES feel a bit made-for-crosswords. And I would like BANDED ANTEATER if it were less a definitional entry (one that's difficult to clue without using the dictionary), but that plus its generally alternating v-c-v-c- pattern made it conspicuous to my eye. Ah well, you can't have it all.

Overall, an extremely impressive construction, the top half in particular, and a ton of great cluing.