(no subject)

[prog]

OK, I have managed to solve a handful of Cryptic clues, after completing a self-made exercise where I marked the wordplay/definition splits in a list of example clues and answers. Until that point, I didn't even know how to look for that division, so I really had no hope of solving any clues by myself.

Here is my solving strategy so far:

1. Find and solve an easier clue. (Generally, this means clues with less words, since every word in a good cryptic carries its own information payload, so long clues can have protein-fold levels of twisty complexity.)


2. Try to cravenly backsolve everything that crosses it. Then backsolve anything that crosses those, etc.


3. Go to step 1.

Well, it's something.

Comments

[cnoocy]

One thing that I do (not being a cryptic crossword whiz) is to look for clues of a type that I find easy. For me, this consists mainly of finding anagram-based clues (words like "crazy" or "confused", a set of words that has the same number of letters as the answer) and words hidden inside other words.
And you should not feel at all craven for using the crossing letters. If that wasn't part of the puzzle, they'd be cryptic quizzes.