FAQ

Who are you?
I’m Stella Zawistowski, crossword constructor and trivia writer. I’m consistently ranked in the top ten solvers at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and I’ve appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy!, Mental Samurai, and The Million Second Quiz.

What happened to Tough as Nails?
I still make a hard themeless puzzle every two weeks, and I still offer it free of charge. (This is not an act of selflessness so much as me not wanting to undertake the work of self-editing and testing that I think charging money for these puzzles would require.)

I just don’t call my site Tough as Nails anymore because, as much as I love hard puzzles, I know that those of us who do are in a very small minority. I now make the majority of my living crafting puzzles and trivia, so a rebrand was in order. My brand, Inteltainment, reflects that I’m a much more well-rounded craftswoman than Tough as Nails implied.

Where can I solve your puzzles?
You’ll find me on a regular basis at Reason, Vulture, Crosswords with Friends, and The Daily Commuter. My puzzles have also appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Games World of Puzzles, Atlas Obscura, and other major outlets.And of course you can solve one of my hard themelesses every other Wednesday right here on this website!

What services do you offer?
If you’re looking to add user engagement to your website, print publication, or marketing, I’m your girl. I combine years of experience making puzzles and writing trivia with a 20-plus-year career in the advertising industry, so I know how to make content that entices and engages solvers.

If you want to add puzzles to your specialty publication or website, you should also know that I sit right at the intersection between trivia and crosswords. I make libertarian puzzles for Reason; I’ve made puzzles that introduce solvers to interesting travel destinations for Atlas Obscura; I make puzzles with deep-cut biology facts for The Scientist. No matter what your niche is, I can find the fun facts that make people feel smart while they’re having fun.

Why shouldn’t I just have ChatGPT or my intern write trivia for my website/corporate event/etc.?
You can, but inexperienced trivia writers often turn out questions that are more frustrating than fun. Gauging difficulty level? Making sure that every question has only one correct answer? (I promise you, nobody is more mad at the writer of a quiz than the person who is marked wrong but whose answer was actually correct.) Giving players more than one way into a question, so that the question appeals to people with different areas of expertise? All this is where it can be worth paying me to give your audience a better experience.

Popular in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India, cryptics are a very different style of puzzle than the dominant version in the United States. Each clue has two parts: wordplay and enumeration, which can appear in either order. An example:

Send Mom to Illinois (4)

The answer is MAIL (“send”), which is MA (“Mom”) plus IL (the postal abbreviation for “Illinois”).

You should do cryptics because, although the first time you look at one, it can seem completely inscrutable, once you get the hang of what’s going on, they are incredibly satisfying! It’s time we Americans figured out what the Brits have: The dopamine hit from solving a cryptic is pretty great and involves no illicit substances.

OK, you’ve convinced me. How can I start solving cryptics?
Try this tutorial from The New Yorker. Although TNY is sadly no longer producing cryptics, their archive is also a good source of smaller, easier puzzles. Canada’s National Post also no longer produces new puzzles, but this blog has an extended archive of old Post puzzles, which are on the easy side.

I post a #crypticclueaday on Instagram, and Minute Cryptic (on YouTube and Instagram) does daily clues with video explanations. The latter is UK-based, so although the clues are generally approachable for American beginners, you will encounter some Britishisms.

Once you’ve managed to solve a puzzle or two, try The Browser and AVCX Cryptics! (Disclaimer: I construct for both of these venues.)

How can I get better at solving regular American crosswords?
Don’t bother memorizing lists of words. Unlike with Scrabble, you will not get very far simply by stuffing your head full of words you don’t know the meanings of. The best way to get better at crosswords is to do more crosswords!

If, like many folks, you solve only the New York Times crossword and you’re looking to get better, here are my recommendations based on where you are in that solving journey:

• I do the Mini. If, right now, the size difference between the 5×5 Mini and the 15×15 that runs Monday to Saturday feels like too much, that’s okay! Try Puzzmo, whose puzzles are sized in between those two sizes, and which offers a unique user interface that includes hints when you’re stuck. (Disclaimer: I sometimes construct for Puzzmo.)
• I can do Mondays, but that’s it. Check out USA Today or Universal, which are both full-size (15x) and easy every day of the week.
• I can deal with Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Add the Los Angeles Times to your solving rotation. Like NYT, the puzzles increase in difficulty from Monday to Saturday, but you’ll probably find that the Thursdays and Fridays are an accessible way to build your solving ability.
• I like weird Thursdays. Subscribe to Fireball Crosswords and/or purchase some of the reprints in books. You’ll find lots of tough gimmicks this way!
• I can do every day of the week and I want to be faster. Try solving some easy (NYT Monday, USA Today, or similar) puzzles, but don’t look at the Across clues. This is called Downs-only solving. You may find it quite difficult at first, but having to solve a puzzle using only half the clues will strengthen your pattern recognition skills. After you do it enough times, solving a puzzle with all of the clues starts to feel like cheating!

If you want to know more secrets of true speed solvers, have a look at this panel from Puzzmo’s 2024 Crossword Con, which I participated in with fellow speed demons Tyler Hinman, Paolo Pasco, and Matt Gritzmacher.