Explaining the Puzzle Form

• In magazines and newspapers, the list of clues, always printed on the left, has a number appearing under the dash for each letter of the answer. The clues are all designated by letters of the alphabet in order. Therefore, if a square on the grid shows a small "B75," you would record the letter in the second clue's answer that sits above a "75" in that square. Many crostics are now available for solving on the Internet; in that case, when a clue is answered, each letter of the answer will automatically be transposed onto the grid. Unlike crossword puzzles, the completed quotation on the grid will read across, line by line. No words are formed vertically. Each word runs from one blackened square to the next and can wrap around to the following line, reports Crostix.com.
  
  

Examples of Acrostic/Crostic Clues

• A clue on the left might be, "Children's TV friendly neighbor" - - - - - - - - - - - -. When MISTER ROGERS is filled in, the M would be transposed to the square on the grid with a number that corresponds with the number printed under the first blank, and so on. The two-part puzzle, also called a double crostic, allows you to work on the clues' answers on the left, while also filling in the squares of the grid on the right at the same time. If you recognize a piece of the quote, you can use that to complete some of the answer blanks.
  
  

Themes of the Puzzles

• When completed, the quotation displayed on the grid may be taken from a poem, book, article or song. Sometimes the clues have a correlation to the quote, such as the puzzles on the Christmas Crostics website. The quote might be lines from a carol, and clues might refer to decorations, traditions and food related to the Christmas season. After all the clues are answered, reading the first letter of each answer, moving downward, will reveal the title of the work being excerpted and its author.
  
  

Tips for Solving

• John Kiernan of NetCrostics suggests that you start by filling in answers to clues that you are sure about, because, "like getting a boulder to roll downhill," these puzzles are difficult to begin, but the work gets progressively easier as more and more letters appear. Concentrating on filling in the first letters of each answer, showing the title and author, may be enough to bring forth the hidden quote. As the one-letter words "a" and "I" are permitted, Kiernan tries to determine if the puzzle contains a first person quote. If that does not seem likely, he tries an "a" in any one-letter slots.