New York Times, Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Shortly after I started constructing, I found myself constantly coming up with clues for words I'd encounter throughout the day. I'd see a MIME and think, "He's ‘not one to talk.'" Or I'd be driving on a CUL DE SAC when a voice would pop in my head to say, "You know, this is ‘not a through street.'" Then one day it hit me that the clues inside my head always seemed to begin with the word "not," which is when I found myself wondering if I could construct a puzzle in which all of the Across clues began with the word "not."

It wasn't easy, at least not for the beginning constructor that I was. I spent a couple hundred hours filling a least a dozen iterations of this puzzle until I came up with a version that I thought might be elegant enough for the New York Times…then the Times came back with a few notes that required me to start all over again. But all that work NOT only earned me my NYT debut, (I am pinching myself) I can confidently say it made me a better constructor.

Anyway, I'm still sad that I couldn't get CUL DE SAC to work (I really tried), but I hope my puzzle gives everyone at least a few smiles. And yes, I owe XWord Info a big thank you for a few of my "nots." (The clue search option was clutch.)

Not your everyday Wednesday puzzle! Not getting the jist? Not me! Not after a long think, anyway. Not one Across clue doesn't not not start with "Not." Not too shabby to get something completely different!

How does one even go about creating something like this? Our clue search finder or Matt Ginsberg's clued database might be a good starting point — the latter contains a nearly comprehensive listing of every entry and associated clue for most of the major publications, along with some indies. Some coding would let you pull out every entry whose clue at least once started with "Not" into a specialized word list. That wouldn't cover thousands of entries that have never been clued starting with "Not," though.

Interesting to only clue the Acrosses in this way. I'm curious enough now to figure out how doable it might be to have every single entry clued with "Not" at the start.

(Not an insubstantial amount of time later ... Nnot that easy, as it turns out.)

I would have loved some revealer to help me achieve a sharper aha moment — maybe something like NOT A GOOD START? Not an exact science, finding a wickedly sharp way to help solvers flip on the lightbulb.

"Not again" is something I say frequently, given how often the same genres get rehashed. Not a bad thing to get something fresh and interesting, especially in a debut.