{"id":1073,"date":"2024-09-03T00:20:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T00:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webdesigninsg.com\/nif\/alumnus\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:07:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:07:55","slug":"game-for-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2024\/09\/03\/game-for-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Game for Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Every week,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reportedly receives more than 200 submissions from crossword constructors vying to see their work published in the newspaper\u2019s storied pages. Given that a single puzzle is issued daily, the feat of Dr Julian Lim is all the more remarkable.<\/p>

Over the past 15 years, the adjunct psychology professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has had more than 150 of his puzzles printed by leading publications, including\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>,\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Chronicle for Higher Education<\/em>.\u00a0

A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START (9 letters)<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed wordplay and trivia,\u201d said Dr Lim, who is also the co-founder of\u00a0Somnus Sleep Wellness.<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Although familiar with British-style cryptics from his secondary school days, the path from puzzle solver to constructor came largely via an American education. As an undergraduate at Duke University, Dr Lim learned to solve crosswords from the campus newspaper while half-listening to his introductory economics lectures. \u00a0<\/p>

\u201cI quickly realised how clever the American-style crosswords could be,\u201d explained Dr Lim. \u201cNot only are there many different ways to clue ordinary words, but you also see several cultural touchpoints side by side. The same puzzle could include pop culture, Shakespeare, sports, and politics.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>

The 2006 documentary\u00a0Wordplay\u00a0<\/em>led to Dr Lim\u2019s revelation that newspapers often solicit their puzzles from freelancers rather than professionals, motivating him to try crafting and submitting his own.<\/p>

\u201cOne of the difficulties is that the big publications don\u2019t like obscurity, so everything has to be \u2018in the language\u2019: solid phrases, simple words, or proper names that are commonly known. Getting everything to interlock in the grid and still be accessible turned out to be really hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

His breakthrough came in 2009 when the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>\u00a0provided his first acceptance. The following year, he made his\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em>debut.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Dr Julian Lim pictured with his first New York Times crossword.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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CREATIVE SPARK (11 letters)<\/strong><\/p>

Ideas for Dr Lim\u2019s crossword clues and themes come largely from everyday life, be it an offhand idiom or chance sighting. A visit to the museum to view Van Gogh\u2019s\u00a0The Potato Eaters<\/em>\u00a0led to a potato-themed puzzle, while a meal gave rise to one of his favourite clues (Game\u2019s turning point? Answer: rotisserie).\u00a0<\/p>

Other clues contain a more personal nod. \u201cMy mom loves doing puzzles in general, but she was especially enchanted when I started publishing them,\u201d said Dr Lim. \u201cSo I sometimes drop in Easter eggs referencing a shared memory or time we spent together.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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CHANGE OVER TIME (9 letters)<\/strong><\/p>

Despite the decline of traditional print media, crossword puzzles have maintained, if not grown, in global popularity in recent years with the digital shift. Online platforms and mobile apps have yielded innovations such as hints, checks, timers, and collaborative solving, resulting in a more dynamic form of play.<\/p>

Likewise, digitalisation has fuelled a proliferation of forums and online communities, enabling constructors to share feedback, resources, and mentorship across geographies. It has also spurred new independent sites that stand as an alternative to the major newspapers, granting constructors greater control over\u2014and increased revenue from\u2014their work.\u00a0\u00a0 These changes, coupled with the push for more international and minority voices to be represented within crosswords, have created new opportunities for constructors. \u00a0<\/p>

\u201cWhen I first started, I shopped my puzzles around to the local media and was nearly universally rejected,\u201d said Dr Lim. But commissions from independent ventures in Singapore, such as Jom Media, point toward a more hopeful future for Singapore\u2019s puzzle community.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Dr Lim constructs a crossword on the train in the Czech Republic in 2022. Crossword construction software has provided puzzle makers a more efficient alternative to graph paper. \u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201cFor the first time, I can finally make a puzzle that contains Singlish phrases, and is more in the language and references of what I grew up with,\u201d said Dr Lim.<\/p>

One takeaway from his experience?<\/p>

\u201cIf anybody has a quirky thing they enjoy doing, I encourage them to just go for it. It makes Singapore a more interesting place when people pursue their own interests, even if they’re not very mainstream.\u201d<\/p>

Photos courtesy of Dr Julian Lim<\/h6><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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subheadings: beginning; inspiration; evolution<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Julian Lim, adjunct professor at NUS, demonstrates the creativity of thinking inside the grid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2156,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions\/2156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}