A Mind for _______: Ritterskamp Publishes First Crossword

Many people used time during the COVID-19 shutdown to explore new hobbies or grow their knowledge on certain topics. It was no different for David Ritterskamp, Instructor in Mathematics. His hobby of choice was creating crossword puzzles. And his work over the years has led to one of his crossword creations being published by the Los Angeles Times.

Ritterskamp’s passion for crossword puzzles wasn’t something new that developed during COVID. He remembers his mother and grandmother spending time doing crosswords and other puzzles when he was younger, which instilled a love for puzzles in him. “As early as 9 or 10 years old, I remember a magazine called Games that featured different crosswords, logic puzzles and other items like that. And we had a subscription to that,” he explains. “So, every month there would be a new magazine with new crossword puzzles available to me.”

This exposure to puzzles provided a hobby and allowed him to explore beyond completing crosswords to actually creating them himself. He started by purchasing software online geared toward helping create crosswords. Ritterskamp explains the software helps the user set up a grid and pulls from a huge internal dictionary of words to help create workable puzzles. It was a great first step into making his own.

As COVID hit and the world paused, Ritterskamp spent his time at home on his software crafting puzzles. “As I wrote some puzzles, I found out that there is an online community of people who solve, create and post their own crossword puzzles,” he adds.

These communities have many creators who have websites, blogs and even livestream themselves solving puzzles. “People will broadcast themselves solving puzzles, and others will join in a text chat, sometimes helping the creator out or just discussing puzzles,” he explains. “Many also allow people to submit puzzles for everyone to join in and solve at the same time.”

As Ritterskamp became more involved with other crossword enthusiasts, he was able to make connections and work with others on his puzzles. He took their advice and experience to improve his work, and though he was not confident with his first works, the online community’s continued support and advice help to build his skills. “I could see when people solved my puzzles what worked and what didn’t, how I could improve them,” he says. “It’s just been an ongoing process. I keep trying different things, working on getting better.” 

Many crossword puzzles tend to have themes, which usually means there is wordplay or longer answers connected in some way, he explains. That’s usually where he starts on his puzzles; picking a theme and how he would like things to be connected. “I’m always on the lookout for clever wordplay or popular phrases that can be put together in a theme,” he says.

From there, it’s just creating a grid within the requirements for publication—usually a 15 x 15, he says—and then framing the themed answers to fit. Some adjustments will naturally happen, he explains, and the software will help by making suggestions, allowing the user to choose what words would be best to fill out the rest of the puzzles.

Once the grid is set, Ritterskamp says the next part is his favorite—writing the clues for the answers. “I like the challenge of coming up with a clue for a word that is not completely obvious but makes sense and is not too hard,” he says. “I aim to be a little bit outside of the box but not so far out that it doesn’t make sense to anyone else.”

Ritterskamp now has his own website where he puts up roughly 65 to 70 puzzles for others to solve. He continues to go back and improve his earlier crosswords as he learns more. He also gives back to the online community that has helped him by solving others’ puzzles and helping edit them as well. “If people are willing to do that for me, I do my best to pay it forward,” he says. “I like to be willing to be on both sides of the process.” 

In mid-January 2024, the hard work he put in resulted in one of his submissions being included in the Los Angeles Times. The daily west coast paper accepts submissions for the daily crossword puzzles published both in the paper and online for free. “The email said I was tentatively accepted for publication with some edits. So, I went through their editing process and found out they liked my puzzle enough that they would publish it,” Ritterskamp says.

It was an exciting process. When it comes to national publication crossword puzzles, the LA Times is a close second to the New York Times when it comes to the pinnacles of crossword puzzles. For Ritterskamp, the publication of his puzzle on Friday, May 10 checked off an item from his bucket list. “Just making it in a national publication is enough to be super exciting for me,” he says. “I’m definitely going to keep at it, and if I get in the New York Times someday, that would be great too.”

Ritterskamp’s puzzle is now available on the LA Times website at latimes.com/games/daily-crossword. You can print the puzzle or complete it online. The puzzle will be available on the website for two weeks.