Okay, so I’ve been trying to get better at crosswords lately, and the NYT one is like the gold standard, right? It’s tough! So I decided I was gonna try to tackle it more strategically. I started by looking up some common crossword answers, you know, those short words that pop up all the time.
First, I grabbed a pen and paper – gotta go old school for this. Then I opened up the NYT crossword on my phone. Started with 1 Across, as you do. And… blank. Total blank.
My Practice
- Scanned the clues: I went through all the Across clues first, just to see if anything jumped out at me. Nothing.
- Tried the Downs: Switched to the Down clues, hoping for an easier entry point. Still nothing. Feeling a little dumb, not gonna lie.
- Looked for fill-in-the-blanks: These are usually easier, right? Found one! “… of Eden”. Boom! GARDEN. Finally, something!
- Used the crossing letters: With “GARDEN” in place, I now had some letters to work with on the intersecting words. Managed to get a couple more that way, like “AREA” and “EGO”.
It was slow going. I kept bouncing back and forth, trying different combinations, Googling a few things (don’t judge!). I even started recognizing some of those common crossword words I’d looked up earlier. Progress!
After about an hour (maybe more, I lost track), I actually finished it! I’m not saying it was pretty, and there were definitely some lucky guesses, but I did it. Felt pretty good, like I’d actually learned something. I’ll keep practicing – maybe one day I won’t need to Google anything, I’ll improve my skill!
