As part of a year of crossword celebration, the Guardian setter Boatman is running cryptic masterclasses
2013 is the centenary year for the crossword and the celebrations are already under way. We'll catch up presently with Paul and his crossword tour of the UK. His fellow Guardian setter Boatman is now sharing the love with a cryptic masterclass – or, as he terms it, the "Brighton Boot Camp for Trainee Tormentors".
Who is a crossword masterclass for?
I've had inquiries from all sorts of people: self-confessed dabblers who want to learn the basics and would-be pros who are just starting to get their work published. I'm expecting a lively bunch who'll learn as much from each other as they will from me.
What will you be teaching the novice setters?
The classes start with the history of wordplay. I'm interested in why it appeals so much to us and why the format of the cryptic puzzle works so well.
Then I look at the technical aspects of setting: what makes a really good clue, how to squeeze words into a grid and how to present work professionally and so on. We'll discuss how setters can learn to structure the way they work.
I finish by asking what creativity and inspiration mean in the context of setting. These things can be learned, as long as you enjoy word-games and have the type of mind that might read the words CAR PARK and conjure a picture of fish sailing a boat, a carp-ark.
Why now?
These classes will be a first for me. I don't know whether anyone else has tried this before and I probably wouldn't have got round to it if it weren't for Paul putting so much energy into his national crossword movement.
With Paul also choosing to make his home in Brighton, it seems appropriate to start the classes there – not only is Britain the home of the cryptic puzzle, but Brighton is laying a claim to be its unofficial capital. After Brighton, the next masterclass will be in London and then I'll arrange more further afield, wherever there are aspiring setters who tell me that they'd like me to come to them.
What sort of thing do new setters need to try not to do?
There are lots of little technical pitfalls that new setters need to learn to avoid, but actually the next generation of setters appears to be doing this very well. I'm always being asked to comment on work that's remarkably well constructed.
For a lot of these setters the issues are more about recognising when a clue needs to be tougher or simpler or more interesting, or understanding what makes for a satisfying theme. It's about going beyond competence, to find out just how many ideas – how much wit – you can convey through your work.
As part of that process, you have to learn how to see your work as your solvers will. I imagine that mine see me as some sort of Bond villain in his mountain fortress – "Oh no, Mr Bond, I don't expect you to die, but I do expect you to get a slight headache" – and I find that quite flattering. But, as a setter, you have to remember that Bond always wins.
Is 2013 a good time to get into setting? And is the crossword safe in its centenary year?
The future of cryptic puzzles appears to be in good hands. The new setters I'm seeing have embraced the use of software to cut out some of the mechanical work that occupied previous generations and they're focusing on humour and content.
If that means that we'll see more puzzles that show wit in the tradition of the Observer setter Torquemada within a formal structure that's fair to solvers, then we can say that we're part of a living, evolving art form.
Many thanks to Boatman. The details of the masterclasses are at Cryptics By Boatman and there's more centenary action at Paul's site Crossword Centenary 2013. Meanwhile, the conversation continues as to what the answer might be to Wodehouse's clue "No see here, it's a sort of church with a chapter".