Crossword Help Forum
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I know this forum is primarily for seeking or providing assistance on tricky clues, but I wonder if I may ask about the other side of the coin: setting crosswords.

I've been making cryptics in my own time as a hobby, and I am pleased to say I had a correspondence on the topic with Alberich, setter for Independent, before he sadly passed away earlier this year. He provided a lot of helpful feedback.

I have since produced a fair number of puzzles but I am at a loss at where to share them. Would this be an appropriate place? Are there other forums? There are many local papers to whom I could reach out, but I feel I'd rather work on my craft before taking that step. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks :)

Pierrot, I would recommend mycrossword dot co dot uk for exactly the purpose you describe. Good community and you will receive experienced feedback on your puzzles. Some of the newer Independent and Guardian setters started there and still post puzzles. You can upload in CC format if you’re using that or use template grids provided there (which include many from the Guardian grid library).
Best of luck!

Norah, Admin, here, Pierrot. This Forum isn’t the place for adding your own puzzles BUT, in the interests of helping a newcomer to setting, I am prepared to let you set up a new thread headed something like “Cryptic Clues by New Setter”. You could then add one or two clues, no more than 4 in a post to avoid overload, and see what response you get.

You could ask for advice on the suitability of your clues for a cryptic puzzle and offer to post the answers in, say, 5 days time.

I don’t normally encourage this type of thread over the weekend as it’s the busy time on the Forum but in this case I think it would be better to post then as you would attract the “weekenders”.

Say, post on Thursday with the answers posted on the following Tuesday.

You may get advice from other Members on the best way forward for your clues.

PS I speak as someone who can’t even do the simple Daily Mail puzzle, the parsing of cryptic clues totally baffles me but the reasoning is very interesting.

You may also be interested in the three weekly individual clue writing challenges - Clueless, Peer Review and Weekend Peer Review - to be found here on this forum. A good way to hone clue writing skills, plus they’re fun, with a knowledgeable and experienced group of regulars.