Okay, so today I decided to tackle this “unadulterated crossword” thing. I’d seen it floating around online, and honestly, it looked kinda intimidating, but also super satisfying if I could actually pull it off.
First, I googled what it actually was. Seems like it’s a crossword puzzle, the grid is filled with letters, no black squares, and some letters used in across and down answers. That’s all I got.
My Tiral and Error
I found a crossword online to start with, I chose it becauce It is a blank grid. Then I printed it out – yeah, old school, I know. I figured it’d be easier to scribble on paper than try to do it all digitally.
I started by trying to fill in some common words, like “THE” and “AND,” just to see if I could even get a few letters to intersect properly. Total mess. I erased so much that the paper started to look like it had been through a war.
- First Attempt: Epic fail. I went in with no plan, just started throwing words at the grid. Big mistake.
- Second Attempt: Slightly better. I tried to focus on one corner of the puzzle, thinking I could build out from there. Still a mess, but at least a smaller mess.
- Third Attempt: I realized I needed to be more strategic about word lengths. I started looking for places where I could fit longer words, hoping that would give me more anchor points. It helped, but it was slow going.
A Little Progress
After a couple of hours, I switched tactics. I started to pick some longer, uncommon words and tried to find a place to start them.
Slowly, very slowly, I started to see some connections. I got a couple of words to cross, and then a couple more. It was like a tiny spark of hope in a vast, letter-filled wilderness.
Finally Some Result!
It took me, I’m not kidding, most of the day. But I finally finished it! It’s not perfect, I can do better I think.
It felt pretty darn good, even if my brain was fried.
Would I do it again? Maybe. It’s definitely a challenge, and I like a good challenge. But I think I need a break from letters for a while. Maybe I’ll try a jigsaw puzzle next time… something with actual pictures!
