The making of a Cryptic Word Search - part 2

Part 2

Once I have a word list for my Cryptic Wordsearch puzzle, it’s time to get working on the title and clues. The title is another cryptic clue, this time one which introduces the theme of the puzzle. For some puzzles, I’ve been told that once you figure out the title, things start making more sense. As an example, if the theme was “bread”, then you start thinking in certain ways. “Rye”, “Sourdough”, “Sliced” and other answers would be easier to see. Of course, “Money” might also be an answer…

Hopefully, when I start on the answers for the puzzle itself, I’ll have plenty to pick from. If it’s only 30 answers (or worse, less), then it gets more challenging. My first pass through is to look for what are often the hardest to come up with from a themed list, double definitions and sounds-like (homophones).

Double definitions are always nice because they often lend themselves to puns. “Pirate digs up his buried torso?” (5)

Homophones are usually hardest to find because, again, I’m constrained by the theme. If I only have 30-40 words, chances are none of them will be a stand-alone homophone.

If I’m lucky I’ll find a way to use some combination of double definitions and homophones together with other wordplay, but overall I’ve discovered that those are the hardest words to pull out of most themes.

On the other hand, some of the themes we use are more general – “starts with the letter ‘s’”, could be one, in which case life becomes easier.