New York Times, Wednesday, November 3, 2021

I've had a draft of this puzzle lying around since 2015, and while cooped up at home last year, I decided to dust it off. With fresh eyes, I was able to find a stronger grid that was more open and supported more interesting fill. The theme is pretty basic, but I enjoy that every bit of each theme entry is truly a part of the theme. It was also fun to play with all the potential theme entries and the permutations of the words within them — LONGBOAT, STORYLINE, STORYTIME, STYLE COACH, TIMELINE, TIME MAGAZINE, and TIMESPAN all entered consideration along the way.

I've loved puzzles of all kinds since I was a child and have aspired to construct a crossword for the New York Times for nearly as long, so it's a thrill to have my first puzzle published!

Will Shortz takes few "both words can follow X" themes these days, so it takes an exceptional execution to make one stand out from the crowded pack. Some elements that can help:

Colorful theme phrases. It's hard to come up with two-word phrases where both words work, so much of the time, the themers are dull. Not so with LONG STORY, TIME SAVERS, BLOODLINES.

Great resulting phrases. LIFE is such an interesting starter, that most all of the finds are excellent: LIFELONG, LIFE STORY, LIFE SAVERS, LIFE INSURANCE, LIFE FORM (neat change of meaning, from paperwork to state of being!). LIFETIME isn't as snazzy as LIFE BLOOD, but it does the trick.

Apt revealer. AFTERLIFE does the job nicely, explaining that "each word can follow LIFE." It'd have been great to use DOUBLE LIFE, which would have hinted more strongly that both words follow this pattern, but you can't have both AFTERLIFE and DOUBLE LIFE in the same puzzle. For clarity's sake, AFTERLIFE (plus an "each word") modifier in its clue was the better choice.

So, I can see why Will accepted this one.

It's usually a good idea to make your theme answers stand out through layout — experienced solvers tend to focus on the longest Acrosses. It's also usually a good idea to add some bonuses into the fill, to enhance and elevate the solving experience. These two goals can be at odds, though, as they were today. The clue for AFTERLIFE does call out which Across answers are themers, but I appreciate when the layout helps my eye pick them out immediately. In this case, was LION TAMER a themer? Is LIFE IMAGINEER a thing? Aside from the fact that it should be, there were so many long bonuses that drew attention away from the main act.

It's an audacious grid, at only 72 words. Requiring dabs of BPOE and TGI wasn't worth the extra juice in MANIPULATOR or ENLARGEMENT — not when there's already ARTE EER ESSE FIL — but there's a reasonable argument that having a wide-open grid once in a while on a Wednesday is a welcome change of pace.

Solid addition to the "both words can follow" genre.