Setters' Advice Corner

Wed 14 Oct 2026Pinned

Hello all, I'm not wholly sure if this is going to work as intended but in the spirit of giving things a go and seeing what happens 😁 I propose an open-ended forum topic where people can ask and answer questions on setting, share general tips / offer opinions etc It's not intended to replace the already excellent and comprehensive Blog posts such as Raider's "Becoming a Cryptic Setter" or Fez's "Setting Things Right" series but more to address specific things that pop up that make a setter scratch their head -- or to proactively share a useful pointer to help other setters improve. Over time the more experienced setters could pop in and offer their views. Examples of the kind of thing it could address: - how do you get started when you're staring at an empty grid? - what are the conventions on capitalising and de-capitalising words in a clue? - does '[example]' work as an anagram indicator? - how do you enumerate 'DNA', is it (3) or (1,1,1)? - can you use a link-word in a double definition? etc etc... (and if no-one comments any time soon I might just add some replies myself 😆)

14 comments

lom

2 hr ago

I have one. Are we allowed to use imperatives to the solver which make the surface tight but add nothing to the cryptic? For example "Find" or "Put" at the start of a clue. Or does this make it unfair, as it could be mistaken for the definition?

3 replies

Last reply 37 min agoView thread

Henri

Author2 hr ago

Deleted

Henri

Author2 hr ago

My favourite bit of setting advice: "Easy clues for hard words, hard clues for easy words" i.e. if you have a obscure word (usually cos of GridFill Trauma™) the fairest way to clue it is with a 'plain sight letters' device e.g. hidden or acrostic (anagrams less reliable in this instance!); flip-side is that an everyday word can be disguised via a tricky combination device like synonym-reversed-then-deletion and/or a whimsical definition (e.g "joiner" for AND).

PostMark

1 hr ago

I have been instructed to post this here! Does anyone have to hand something that clearly explains same-sidedness? I am working with a group of new compilers and it's a concept that is tricky to define. 'Perceives taste and smell? (6)' = SENSES is the clue that prompted the discussion. So not the situation that often arises of a double def with both elements sharing a common root. Here, it was more a feeling that the clue was unsatisfactory/un-cryptic but how to explain quite why?

8 replies

Last reply 3 min agoView thread