Looking for feedback on themes - new constructor!

[abrawhite]

Hi all!

I am so excited to be a part of this community! I have loved crossword puzzles my whole life and have just recently discovered the community around it and have started to construct my own puzzles. I have two puzzles that I have actually completed, but I am just going to ask for feedback on the themes for now. (If I have to refill based on this that's ok - it was good experience). Both I think would be 15x15 puzzles.

Art of the Steal?

The theme of this puzzle is famous stolen artworks.

Theme clues and answers:

A chat; Renoir, 2001 CONVERSATION
Location of biblical storm; Rembrandt, 1991 SEAOFGALILEE
What Dorothy sleeps in; Van Gogh, 2010 POPPYFLOWERS
The French singers; Degas, 2009 LESCHORISTES

Each answer is a famous stolen artwork. In each clue I included a general clue that one could get the answers from, as well as the artist and the year stolen. The one that might hint at the theme the most would be Sea of Galilee, because it is the most famous heist.

The first across answer in the puzzle I've constructed is CAPER and the last is STOLE. Both of these could be reveals, and also have double meanings. Thief is also in the puzzle, but it's not in an obvious spot and maybe shouldn't be related?

Eponymous

This theme is about eponymous words (or words that have come from a person's name) based on fictional characters.

Theme clues and answers:
Fixed like a handy man? MACGYVERED
Someone like a nerdy guy? POINDEXTER
They're like an exessively cheerful girl? POLLYANNAS
Like an impractical fellow? QUIXOTICAL

I really like this theme and it made for a really challenging fill. I do think the language of the clues could be cleaned up, though.

Thank you so much for your feedback!

[mmcbs]

I would be inclined to think that your stolen painting theme requires too much specialized knowledge to understand or appreciate. Just don't think it would sell in a general interest puzzle publication. Clever idea, and maybe there's an outlet that might use it.

Your eponymous theme is cute, but I'm a little worried that MacGyvered and Poindexter are not nearly so much in the language as the other two, and I'm almost certain that the variant spelling QUIXOTICAL will not pass muster (it's QUIXOTIC in normal usage). As to Poindexter, I have a personal bias against derogatory terms that are linked to people's names, because real people have those names, and it's not much fun for them (KAREN, STAN, etc.).

[abrawhite]

Thank you so much for your quick response!

I had the same concerns about the art one. I thought maybe Chronicle for Higher Education might be one place that it could work.

Interesting you say that about Macgyvered and poindexter! I (American) and my husband (British) both used the term Macgyvered frequently before meeting each other, so I assumed it was commonly used! Pollyanna was the obscure one for me. I may stick with this idea, though, and see if I can get it to work. Would Quixotically be more acceptable? Or is 8 letters ok? 

[mmcbs]

Actually, Chronicle of Higher Education is no longer publishing crosswords. They can't seem to update that information on this web site. If you are on Facebook there are a couple of groups that have extensive information and many followers. Cruciverb is one, and the other is Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory.

The business about MacGyver and many other terms of that nature is that they're based on characters that are not familiar to all people. This is sometimes a generational thing and also a product of the extreme diversity of our entertainment industry. I'm probably not the only person in the world who has never watched a single episode of MacGyver . . . and I don't recall anyone every using the word in conversation. Likewise Poindexter. Pollyanna and Quixotic have very deep historical roots, though from the tool below I can see Pollyanna is fading in usage. Certainly crossword publishers relish using up-to-date slang and terminology, so I wasn't suggesting that those would be acceptable entries, just noting the contrast among the terms.

This is a good tool to gauge the usage and familiarity of words and phrases:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pollyanna%2Cmacgyver%2Cpoindexter%2Cquixotic&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&case_insensitive=on&corpus=17&smoothing=3&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cpollyanna%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BPollyanna%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bpollyanna%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BPOLLYANNA%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cmacgyver%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BMacGyver%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BMACGYVER%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cpoindexter%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BPoindexter%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BPOINDEXTER%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cquixotic%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bquixotic%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BQuixotic%3B%2Cc0

[abrawhite]

Thank you so so much! So much information out there and I really appreciate all the resources. I will definitely check them all out.

I'm glad I asked for feedback before submitting! So much to learn.   

[mmcbs]

One other thing I forgot to mention about that link I sent you. It's based on books so the poindexter line would include everyone of that name who ever appeared in a book (not just the slang term). Likewise MacGyver.

And one last thing about the eponym theme. Some editors are very picky about the symmetry of the theme entries in terms of part of speech and plurality. Your set has two nouns (one plural), a verb, and an adjective. This is diversity that will not always be welcome. The open submission publishers receive many times more submissions than they can publish, so little glitches like this may get an otherwise interesting theme knocked out of contention.

I do quite a bit of mentoring of new constructors, so please feel free to touch down with me if you have other questions. My direct email is mcclain.salem@gmail.com.