TAKE TWO

Celeste Watts, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is a retired elementary school teacher. After years of solving puzzles in her spare time, she decided to try making one herself. Her first 14 attempts for The Times were rejected, but she persevered.

For this one she collaborated with Jeff Chen, a writer and professional crossword constructor in Seattle, whom she calls "a gifted, patient mentor." The theme idea is Celeste's. Jeff helped her execute it. Finally, success! "One off my bucket list!"

CELESTE: I'm indebted to Jeff for making my dream come true. He took the kernel of an idea that I sent him, expanded and tweaked it to create the "Take Two" theme and clues. I enjoyed every moment that he took to teach me along the way.

When I work with a new constructor, they often give up after a few back-and-forths after realizing that die-hard persistence is needed to spark a crossword idea. If they do stick around through my first rounds of feedback, most of them lose hope after we find a previous puzzle that's too close, or if we decide we need to regroup and shift direction to generate a stronger a-ha. I try to help every polite person who comes to me, but few people make it through to a published product.

Celeste is not only one of the few that gutted her way through the process (across dozens of different ideas), but we clocked in at two months of theme brainstorming for this one.

We had started with Celeste's proposed LONG TIME NO SEE and a few others, which like the seed of something interesting. A few more like TEE OFF TIME and UNEASY FEELING … but I had an uneasy feeling that this felt too similar to something I'd seen recently. Research ... alas.

We were on the road to scrapping it, but Celeste gave it second life with a few new possibilities, including one phrase with two missing letters. That smelled interesting, but we couldn't come up with enough in-the-language phrases that worked similarly.

One morning a few weeks later, I was in charge of a morning that involved rejected waffles, much crying, and a stray poop (don't ask), making me wonder how I got into such an unenviable position. Unenviable position ... wait a second! Silver linings of having young kids!

I appreciate how willing Celeste was to roll up her sleeves and dig into the grid filling. A 140-word Sunday is daunting, but once I broke it down into smaller, more tractable sections, she tackled each with gusto, taking feedback with open ears.

I often tell constructors that it takes about 20 ideas to generate one solid seed concept, and even that one doesn't always gain traction. I love it when someone doesn't quit when things get tough. Congrats to Celeste for pushing through to the finish line!