What to do when nothing comes at all

Some puzzles refuse to open. You read every clue, nothing arrives, and the grid is still empty after ten minutes. This is normal, it happens to experienced solvers on unfamiliar setters, and it is not a signal to press check. A blank grid is a problem with a short list of causes, and working through that list takes less time than recovering from a wrong answer written in ink.

A blank grid is information

An empty grid after one full read usually means one of three things. You are solving a harder puzzle than you think, because the difficulty of a daily crossword changes through the week. You are reading for meaning when the puzzle wants you to read for shape. Or you have been hunting for answers when you should have been hunting for footholds, which are different things: a foothold is an answer you are certain of, and certainty matters more than quantity when the grid is empty.

Before doing anything else, check which puzzle you have picked up. A Saturday is not a Monday, a Prize is not a Quiptic, and a themed puzzle may be unsolvable until the theme falls. If you are not sure where today's puzzle sits, the weekly difficulty curve used by the main papers is worth checking before you blame yourself.

The checklist

Run these in order. Each step costs a minute or less, and the list is designed so that the cheapest and most reliable moves come first.

If the list produces two or three certain answers anywhere in the grid, the puzzle is open and the rest is ordinary work. Move to the densest corner you have and stay there, as set out in solve the crossings first.

Change what you are hunting for

The most common cause of a blank grid is that you are asking each clue the wrong question. "What does this mean?" is the wrong question. The right questions are mechanical. How many letters? What part of speech? Is it plural? Is it past tense? Does the clue contain a word setters normally shorten to one letter?

Answering those questions does not solve a clue, but it narrows it, and narrow clues combine. Two half-known answers crossing each other are worth more than one complete answer standing alone. The habit of reading the letter count before the words is the single cheapest change you can make.

The clue types that break first

Some clues are structurally easier than others and they are worth finding deliberately. In a standard crossword, fill-in-the-blank clues and partial quotations come first, then capital cities, chemical symbols, Roman numerals and any clue that names a language or a currency. The short repeating answers that fill awkward corners, the crosswordese, are worth learning as a set: our list of four-letter answer patterns covers the ones you will meet weekly.

In a cryptic, the order is different. Hidden words break first, because the answer is written out in the clue. Anagrams break second, because the indicator is loud and the letter count is checkable. Double definitions break third: a clue such as Healthy source of water (4) has no indicator at all, two definitions side by side, and one answer that satisfies both, WELL. Charades and containers need crossing letters, so leave them.

When to put it down

If the checklist has produced nothing after fifteen minutes, stop solving and do one of two things. Either put the puzzle away and come back to it later, which works far more often than it has any right to, or accept one revealed letter in a corner with several short slots and carry on unaided from there. Revealing a whole answer teaches you nothing. Revealing one letter in a crowded corner usually gives you the corner.

What not to do is guess your way in. A confident wrong answer blocks more of the grid than an empty square ever will, and the cost of finding it later is high. That argument is made in full in pencil discipline, and the recovery routine for a half-filled grid is in when you stall. Any unfamiliar term used here is defined in the glossary.

It also helps to change puzzle rather than change difficulty. A short letter game such as daily Spelling Bee help keeps the word-finding part of your head working while the crossword rests. When you return, the Wordplay column is a good place to see how experienced solvers talk their way into a hard grid, and the daily puzzles at the Guardian and the New York Times both offer easier days to rebuild confidence on.