It’s funny how a shift in perspective can change how we feel about our work, no? When I started writing these, I was just thinking of how much more manageable it would be to write one 6×6 mini a week than it would be to write a full grid each month, but it’s basically the same thing. But even doing the math, realizing that I’m essentially writing a clue a day, it still feels more approachable. I think this goes the same for solvers, too: if you solve four midi puzzles a day, you’re basically solving as many clues as a full-sized grid, and yet it moves faster. Maybe that’s because there seem to be fewer places to get stuck, even if this is (I think) one of my harder grids? Maybe it’s easier to walk away from (or look up) answers in something that you might not deem a “real” puzzle? I don’t know; there’s probably a psychological term for this effect, and maybe I’ll put it in a full-sized grid some day, but until then, I’m going to keep “zipping” along with these.
Thanks to juff and skaldskaparmal for their great advice in the testing phase; you can find the final version in PDF form below or over as a .puz and in-app solve at Crosshare.
The Crossword Scholar 