November 4, 2025 · Jason Levine, EMT-B
How we build a crossword that plays fair
Fair cluing is not the same as easy cluing. A look at the constraints behind every grid in The Long Evening Library.
Every grid we publish goes through the same three passes.
The first pass is structural. A grid is fair when no corner can be sealed off by a single unknown answer. That means checking each region for at least two independent entry points, and rejecting fill that depends on a proper noun no reasonable reader would hold.
The second pass is the clue set. We write to general knowledge, not to trivia. A clue may be oblique, it may be a pun, it may be doing three things at once — but the reader should be able to say, afterwards, that the answer was there all along.
The third pass is the one nobody enjoys: solving it cold, a week later, with fresh eyes and a pencil. Roughly one grid in six does not survive.
craft · puzzles · editorial