<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=378I7X_0w8jCxQU00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=378I7X_0w8jCxQU00" width="1000" height="667" ><figcaption>Chandler resident Rich Feely is becoming a whiz at creating crossword puzzles. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)</figcaption></figure>The year was 2020, the pandemic had shut everything down, and Chandler resident Rich Feely was stuck at home looking for something to do.Feely began doing crossword puzzles to pass the time.“The number of constructors went up a ton because people just sort of thought, ‘Well, I can do this,’” Feely said.So he began making his own crossword puzzles. Turns out he’s pretty good at it. He’s already had five crossword puzzles published, and another one is pending.They’ve appeared in the Los Angeles Times and by Universal Syndicate, which sends them out to multiple newspapers as part of a subscription service.Feely admits the idea of coming up with a crossword puzzle with all those letters filling multiple spots sounds daunting. But he has a secret that makes it a lot easier.He uses artificial intelligence.Feely broke down the process as this: First step, come up with a theme. The theme is everything, if it’s not a good theme, it’s unlikely any of the major players will pay you for it.Once you have a theme, you put in a few answers onto a puzzle grid that fits that theme. Feely says when he’s happy with both the theme and the three answers he’s come up with, he then asks an AI to fill in the blanks.It’s able to generate words that will fill the spaces around those three answers. In some cases, the words don’t make sense. Feely said when that happens, he will go in and try and come up with his answer that will work in that space.Once he’s happy with all the answers, then the real work begins: Coming up with the clues for each of those answers.“I like this part the best, coming up with a solution that I like here,” Feely said. “Then the clues, for me, you just grind it out. It’s not my favorite part.”Feely moved to Chandler from Minnesota in 2011. He has a home there that he visits in the summer. Before retiring, he worked in aerospace, then did marketing for United Technologies and other companies.He said he wasn’t really a big crossword puzzle person until the pandemic, when he and his wife began doing them together. He has discovered since then that there is a large crosswords community. There are competitions to see how fast they can complete a puzzle, and most are done in minutes.Many also try creating their own puzzles and submitting them to newspapers and syndicates. Having one accepted feels great, but it doesn’t pay a lot. He said the fees are typically between $150 and $500.Now that he’s had a half dozen published, Feeley said it’s easier to be successful at it. He can run an idea for a theme past an editor he has worked with, and find out if it has a chance at publication.The Mount Everest of creating crossword puzzles is the New York Times.“A New York Times Sunday, which is a lot of work to put in, because it’s so long, I think they’re at $1,500 now,” Feely said. “They pick about 2% (of puzzles submitted), is what I’ve heard.”He credits his wife for helping him get published.“She’ll test the puzzle before I submit it,” he said. “So she’ll do it, ‘This clue makes no sense.’ Absolutely, that’s really the biggest help.” </div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Chandler man finding success as a crosswords creator

The year was 2020, the pandemic had shut everything down, and Chandler resident Rich Feely was stuck at home looking for something to do. Feely began doing crossword puzzles to pass the time. “The number of constructors went up a ton because people just sort of thought, ‘Well, I can...