My Giveaway Crossword Project
Alright, let me tell you about this giveaway crossword thing I put together recently. I wanted to run a little giveaway, you know, give something back to folks who read my stuff. But just doing a random draw felt a bit boring this time. I was casting about for ideas, wanting something a bit more interactive, something that made people engage a little.
Then it hit me – a crossword puzzle! Seemed like a fun little challenge. The first thing I did was brainstorm the theme. Since the giveaway prize was related to gardening tools, I decided to make the crossword all about common garden stuff. Easy enough, right?
So, I grabbed a notebook and started jotting down words: shovel, rake, seeds, soil, water, sun, bloom, weeds… you get the idea. I aimed for about 15-20 words, a mix of short and long ones, thinking that would make a decent-sized puzzle.
Next step was actually making the darn thing. I’m not drawing that grid by hand, no way. Too much hassle. I went online and looked for some crossword generator tools. Found a few free ones. I picked one that looked simple enough, didn’t need me to sign up for a bunch of junk.
Getting the words into the generator was the next job. I just typed my list in. The tool then tried to fit them all together into a grid. It took a few tries, honestly. Sometimes it couldn’t fit all the words, or the grid looked really weird and spread out. I had to tweak my word list a bit, maybe swap a long word for a shorter one, until the generator spat out a grid that looked okay.
Once I had the grid layout, I needed to write the clues. This was actually kinda fun. I tried to make them straightforward, not like those super cryptic newspaper crosswords. For ‘shovel’, I wrote something like “Used for digging holes”. For ‘seeds’, maybe “Plant these to grow flowers”. Simple stuff. I wrote them all out, matching them to the numbers on the grid the generator provided.
Crucial step: Testing! Before unleashing it, I printed it out and tried solving it myself. Good thing I did! I found one clue that was a bit confusing and another where the word just didn’t quite fit the clue I’d written. So, I tweaked those. I even had my spouse take a crack at it, just to get a fresh pair of eyes. They finished it, so I figured it was good to go.
Then I had to figure out the giveaway part. How would the crossword connect? I decided the first five people to send me a picture of the completed, correct crossword would get entered into the draw for the main prize. And maybe everyone who sent in a correct one by the deadline got a small digital goodie, just for participating.
Finally, I put it all together in a blog post. I embedded an image of the crossword grid and listed the clues below it. I clearly stated the rules: how to enter (email me a photo of the filled grid), the deadline, and what the prizes were. Then I hit publish and shared it around a bit.
Watching the entries come in was pretty neat. It took a bit more setup than a simple ‘comment to win’ thing, definitely. But it felt more engaging. People seemed to enjoy the little challenge. Yeah, it was a bit of work, especially getting the grid right and writing clear clues, but I’d probably do something like it again. Felt more satisfying, you know?
