I’m trying something new today, a variant on the spiral called a crushword spiral. My thanks to Alex Boisvert, over at Crossword Nexus, not only for the introduction to this variety format, but for providing the tool to make one.

As in a normal spiral puzzle, there are two sets of clues: one set reads inward from 1 to 49 and the other reads outward from 49 to 1. What’s different in a crushword spiral is that every square contains two or more letters (hint: the maximum is four letters in any square).

There are two options for solving the puzzle. If you’d like to solve on paper, click on File, then on Print in the dropdown menu. If you’d like to solve here on the website, you’ll need to use the rebus feature, which allows you to enter multiple letters in a single square. To do this, click on the square you want to fill, then hit the Esc key on your computer. This will open up a prompt into which you can enter the letters for that square.

Since this is a new format for me – and perhaps for many of you – I’ll be interested to hear what you think.