Newspapers, magazines and puzzle websites pay the authors of professional-quality crossword puzzles $50 to $1000 for each puzzle. Compensation at this level dwarfs the income most bloggers or self-published novelists receive for their efforts. Always on the lookout for new opportunities, I put together a crossword based on what little we know about “Pirates of the Caribbean 5.”
Triond readers and obsessed, pitiable souls who search day after day for new information about “Pirates of the Caribbean 5,” welcome. I invite you to solve my puzzle. After the puzzle, I discuss how close (not very) I came to creating a crossword that a puzzle editor might buy. The answer to the puzzle appears at the end of the article.
Triond readers and obsessed, pitiable souls who search day after day for new information about “Pirates of the Caribbean 5,” welcome. I invite you to solve my puzzle. After the puzzle, I discuss how close (not very) I came to creating a crossword that a puzzle editor might buy. The answer to the puzzle appears at the end of the article.
Pirate Music
First, some pirate music from Elizabeth Velez Urie put you in the mood:
Puzzle
Across
1. This actress may return for "Pirates of the Caribbean 5."
3. Sparrow's actor's last
6. Eighth of a piece of eight
7. Pirate talk or Accident Risk Assessment Report
8. Utah or University of Tennessee
10. Will it be an epic film or an epic ____?
12. Four ______ theme parks have Pirates of the Caribbean rides.
13. ____ was I ere I saw Elba.
15. The two-eared Van Gogh brother
17. Negative response
19. Hear "Hi-yo ______" in the next Depp film.
Down
1. Body of water between Miami and Maracaibo
2. Tow-toed sloth kept as pet by pirates
4. "Pirates of the Caribbean 5" is expected to ____ billions.
5. First two words of movie series title.
8. Unmanned Aircraft System
9. In the video Elizabeth Velez Urie plays a hornpipe on a ___ whistle.
10. POTC 1,2,3,4 and soon _.
11. Not right
14. Latter Day Saints
15. Movie starring Charlton Heston, "Ben-___."
17. Netherlands, National League etc.
18. Output Voltage
Problems
A good crossword puzzle must satisfy aesthetic standards of symmetry and language. After I made the puzzle, I reviewed the writer's guidelines for five possible markets for crossword puzzles. The puzzle above has numerous problems:
- It’s the wrong shape. A puzzle fit for publication must have 180 degree rotational symmetry; that is, the puzzle must be the same shape when you turn it upside down. My puzzle has bilateral (mirror) symmetry.
- The sides have an even number of squares. Saleable crosswords have an odd number of squares on each side.
- A good puzzle can have very few three-letter words and no two-letter words. I have two three-letter words and four two-letter words.
- I used a partial phrase, “_______ __ the Caribbean.”
- I have one word of crosswordese. Most experienced crossword solvers know unau is a vernacular name for a two-toed sloth and Ea was a god of the Babylonians, but they don’t want to see these words very often. (I used unau for fun. Besides, I read somewhere that pirates kept them as pets. I swear it. Really.)
I could go on and on.
I do plan to make some more crossword puzzles, but I’ll try for a saleable puzzle next time. This one was just for fun.
I do plan to make some more crossword puzzles, but I’ll try for a saleable puzzle next time. This one was just for fun.
In case you were wondering, the author of a Sunday crossword in the New York Times receives $1000 on publication.
Answer
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