Okay, so I was messing around with crossword puzzles the other day, and I stumbled upon this “exclusion” concept. It sounded kinda fancy, but it’s actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it. I thought I’d share my little learning journey here, in case anyone else is curious.
The Initial Confusion
First, I saw “exclusion crossword” and I was like, “Huh? What’s that?” I’m used to regular crosswords where you just fill in the blanks. This “exclusion” thing seemed like some next-level puzzle-solving strategy. I even imagined secret rules and hidden patterns!
Figuring It Out
So, I started, you know, actually trying to solve one. I picked a puzzle labeled as an “exclusion” crossword and dove in. At the beginning it plays by normal crossword rules.
The first thing I noticed? You look for the clues, and the goal isn’t to find words that fit, it’s to find words that don’t fit. The clues are designed in a way to find the letters or words which fit the least.
Putting it into Practice
Let me give you a super basic example I made up:
- Clue: “Fruit, 5 letters, it is NOT an orange”
See? Instead of racking my brain for any five-letter fruit, I only need to find a fruit which is not an orange. So I know the answer is not O,R,A,N,G or E.
My “Aha!” Moment
The real “aha!” moment for me was realizing it’s all about process of elimination, I mean, duh, it’s called “exclusion”! I took a step back, looked at the grid, and looked for letters that appeared the least amoung the clues.
It’s kinda fun, actually. It feels a bit like being a detective, ruling out suspects one by one.
Still Learning!
I’m definitely no expert yet. I’ve only done a few of these exclusion crosswords, but I’m getting the hang of it. It’s a nice little twist on the usual crossword routine. If you’re bored with regular crosswords, you might want to give this a shot. It gets your brain working in a slightly different way!
