New York Times Mini Crossword Creator Joel Fagliano Shows the Internet How Crosswords Are Born
The New York Times is known for its excellent writing, large fan base, and, of course, its crossword puzzle. There are entire books on how the NYT has done its crossword puzzle over its 82-year history, but few are more qualified to talk about it than the people who currently work there. Joel Fagliano, editor of the Mini Crossword, took to an Instagram Reel to show folks how he gets it done.
Fagliano starts his journey by using what he refers to as a “seed answer” that runs across the middle of the five-by-five puzzle. He says that this can be any word that the creator wants whether it’s a theme word or just a word they’ve never used before. In his example, Fagliano uses the word “viral.”
From there, he opts to black out a few squares to make things interesting. He says that the key is not blacking out squares that make your life more difficult. In the example, Joel says that blacking out the two squares under the letter V in viral forces him to come up with a three letter word that ends with the letter V. There aren’t a lot of those so he blacks out the blocks above the V instead.
“Now the thing we usually do when we’re making a puzzle is start with the most constrained areas,” explains Joel. He then creates the word “vow” off of “viral” before continuing onward. This is where things get a little complicated as Joel effortlessly finds a four-letter word starting with “O” and a four-letter word that includes the letters “IK” in the middle. He then repeats this process in the opposite corner.
“One thing that I’m doing that I’m not telling you about—but I’m doing it in my head—is that I’m alternating consonants and vowels,” Joel explains as he fills in the crossword. “That’s really helpful when making a crossword.” Moments later, Fagliano finishes the puzzle.
Four New York Times crosswords by the time he finished high school
Joel Fagliano is quite the puzzle creator. He’s already good enough to have his own Wikipedia page and he works under the legendary NYT Crossword Editor Will Shortz. Fagliano had his first crossword submission published by the Times when he was 17 and four were submitted and published by the time he finished high school. Fagliano would intern for Shortz for three summers before attending college and coming to work at the Times as the editor of the Mini Crossword. The Mini Crossword is featured in the NYT Games app and website along with Wordle, Strands, Spelling Bee, and the full-size crossword puzzle.
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