Does this theme even work?

[garuda18]

Hi there!

So I have this puzzle I'm about to finish, but I'm starting to realize that the entire theme might not actually make sense in practice when filling in the puzzle...looking for advice about if there actually is something to work with still. I think it comes down to how I clue it, but I think there's also a chance it just doesn't work at all.

So I have the phrase NIGHTBEFORE as the theme answer (not the prettiest theme entry anyway but meh). Then, I have 8 different answers throughout the puzzle that create a compound word or a phrase when you put "NIGHT" before them. For example, one is "CAP."

I guess I hadn't sat down and thought about it as much as I should have before spending a lot of time filling the puzzle, but in my head I was thinking the clues for those entries would just be the clue for the full phrase with a star on those clues. For example, something like, "Evening drink" for "CAP." And then the clue for "NIGHTBEFORE" would be something like, "Eve, as of a holiday, or a hint to what needs to be added to the answers to the starred clues and where."

But now that I'm thinking about it more, upon seeing the "NIGHTBEFORE" clue and even with solving that, I'm realizing it still doesn't really help to know what word you are putting "NIGHT" before, unless you can just get the word filled in through solving the other answers geographically around it and accidentally getting the word filled in that way. Or, is it enough to see a clue like "Evening drink," know that the answer is NIGHTCAP but seeing the space only has three letter spaces, and knowing to put in just CAP and that it will later on make sense?

Am I overthinking this (not rare for me) and it actually works as is, or does it not as of now, but there is a way to save it through how I clue it? Or does it just not work by nature? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[mmcbs]

What you're getting at here, I think is often called a "words with" theme. Basically, NIGHT goes before a bunch of words in the grid. But in order for this to work, the words that follow NIGHT need to be an element in a full-length theme entry rather than small words scattered here and there. For example, CAP AND TRADE, or CLUB SANDWICH. Ideally the sense of the words would be a different sense than their usage with NIGHT, as in these examples.

[garuda18]

Thanks for your feedback! You're right tahat it is pretty much that idea. I suppose I could always go back and make whole phrases out of some of them so that it fits that format.

I went ahead and clued the eight theme answers as normal ("___ & gown" for CAP) along with starring them, and have the clue for NIGHTBEFORE as "Eve of a holiday, or a hint to how to make a phrase out of the starred clues." This kind of "saves" the way I've already done it, but results in a not-that-spectacular theme. Oh well. Definitely did clue them so that adding NIGHT before at least changes the sense/meaning of the word as it is by itself.

All part of the learning process I suppose. Thanks again.