Submitting content to The Enigma
All members are encouraged to contribute to The Enigma. Submit your puzzles in the same form you see in The Enigma. Give your nom, city, and state after each puzzle. If possible, create a .doc file for each puzzle. This can be either a Word document that you attach to your email, or a Google doc that you link to. If you use Google docs, be sure to share the document with the relevant editor. Whether you submit as a .doc or in the body of your email, please leave at least 15 lines of “spoiler space” between the puzzle and the solution, so the editors can solve the puzzle. Editors would appreciate it if you use a font with “curly” quotes, as it lessens the amount of formatting they need to do.
If you choose to submit on paper, put the solutions on the back, and make sure you keep copies of your work.
Include all the source and tagging information you can. Are the answer words main entries in online MW? Is your usage of the word confirmed in the dictionary given by the tag? Is your word slang, obsolete, foreign, or other + usage? Capitalized? (Give this information even if it doesn’t affect the tag—for example, if the word is coyly hiding in the geographical section of 11C or under the line in NI2, let the editor know; it will help them check your puzzle quickly.) If you haven’t been able to check all the relevant references—for example, if you know a word is in NI2 but don’t know if it’s in NI3, too—tell the editor what sources you did check.
If you’d like some help getting started with writing puzzles, feel free to reach out to our Editor Btnirn.
Flats
The editor likes this format:
FLAT TITLE IN ALL CAPS (# of letters) (any notes about abbr. or not MW or can be sung)
A verse with good meter and rhyme
Will give me the happiest time.
=NOM IN ALL CAPS AFTER AN EQUAL SIGN, City with no comma SA
[SA standing in for state abbreviation]
Then at least 15 lines of spoiler space (or start a new page in your document)
Then the answer and any notes or questions you may have; include rubric readings. Give acrostical enigma part-words with the word or phrase in the verse that’s used to clue each part. Add any other explanations or comments that you think will help the editor, even if they may seem obvious to you. (What is obvious to one may not be to another, especially when deadlines approach.)
Not everyone is a master poet, and even master poets aren’t infallible. Part of the editor’s job is to fix rhyme and meter when necessary. If you want no changes made without consultation, just let the editor know in advance. Send topical material as early as possible in order to give the editor the best chance of fitting it into the appropriate issue. Flats are due on the 8th of the month before publication, but the sooner you get them in, the more time there is for editing, and the greater the chance the editors can use them.
Send to the Flats Editor Tyger (Elaine Renner) or to the Editor Btnirn (Sandy Kutin), 16 Magnolia Ln, Princeton NJ 08540
Forms
Submitted forms should follow this order:
- Title
- Clues (as in The Enigma, a new number starts a new line)
- Byline as =nom, City with no comma SA
- SA standing in for state abbreviation or other designation
- Blank grid if not a standard Guide form (otherwise, either description or image)
- [sufficient spoiler space]
- Answer
- Comments/considerations
Please give a source for every word that isn’t in online MW. Except for non-MW sources, this information won’t appear in The Enigma, but it will save time for the forms editor.
Send to the Forms Editor Jo the Loiterer (Julian Ochrymowych), 35 Smithfield Court, Basking Ridge NJ 07920
Extras
Include complete solutions to all extras, as well as any hidden words/phrases/messages that solvers must derive.
Send to the Extras Editor V Vroo (Bruce Leban), 13816 NE 36th PL, Bellevue WA 98005
Cryptic crosswords
Include complete solutions to all crosswords (both explanations of individual words and the filled-in grid), as well as any hidden words/phrases/messages that solvers must derive.
Send to Cryptics Editor Xemu (Guy Jacobson), 4 Adrian Ter., Bridgewater NJ 08807
Cryptograms
Submit cryptograms as they appear in The Enigma, written in block letters or typed in capitals, with spaces between letters and with lines double-spaced.
Cryptograms in The Enigma must conform to certain rules, designed to ensure that they are fair to the solver:
- Each crypt must contain from 75 to 90 letters in all.
- A letter that is used only once (such as A, H, K, S, and W in the message “Meet me here at two o’clock or else!”) is called a singleton. You may have no more than six singletons in a crypt. It is best practice to have at most one singleton in a word, particularly an obscure word.
- Ideally, no more than four proper nouns should be used.
- All words must appear in one of our official references or be noted as “not MW”.
“Reformed spellings” (from NI2) or other obscure variant spellings are not allowed, although common variants (e.g., gray/grey) are fine. - The message must be a complete and coherent statement, grammatically stated (though perhaps telegraph-style) and correctly punctuated. Lists of words set off by commas (e.g., “Happy, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Doc”) are not acceptable
- Each cryptogram must have a brief, appropriate title, providing some indication of the crypt’s subject or theme, but not so directly as to give away the answer. If you don’t supply a suitable title, the editor or crypts editor will write one.
- Encoding one word as another (for example, ciphertext BERRIES or SETTLER for villain) is permitted, but the ciphertext should not itself be a clue—in other words, the puzzle should be just as hard or easy with ciphertext ABCCDBE.
Include complete solutions to cryptograms (not just alphabets).
LeXman offers this guidance to people submitting crypts:
- Please do not encode your puzzle by hand; mistakes are inevitable. Instead, use any of a number of free web tools. I suggest the Brain Food tool at Rinkworks.
- You do not, however, need to encode it at all: I will accept just the plaintext you want to turn into a cryptogram. It’s the easiest kind of puzzle you can submit to The Enigma.
- Please do not add any special layout for your puzzle, such as extra spaces between letters. I just have to remove all of it by hand before I can add your submission to my list.
- I will confirm receipt within a week of receiving your email. If you do not get a confirmation, feel free to send it again saying so.
- I test-solve puzzles blind. Therefore, I will not know the subject of your puzzle in advance, and it may take me several months to get to yours. Therefore, if you are submitting a puzzle that’s time-sensitive (referencing current events, upcoming conventions, Krewe achievements, etc.), please put the word “TOPICAL” in the subject line of your email.
- If you are not computer-savvy, I will gladly accept submissions by mail. I have several contributors who do so.
- Finally: I rarely have to edit the cryptograms I receive, but if I do, please understand that my first duty is to the Krewe, to offer entertaining but fair puzzles. If I send you edits, it’s a compliment: It means that, despite its misdemeanors, I like your puzzle enough to work with you to make it publishable. Fighting me on every single edit is the fastest way to NOT get published.
Send to the Crypts Editor LeXman (Alex Kolker), 6025 Lakehurst Dr, Davenport IA 52807
Everything Else
Send to the Editor Btnirn (Sandy Kutin), 16 Magnolia Ln, Princeton NJ 08540