If these are your first acrostics you may find them difficult at first, especially if you spend too much time trying to fill in the blanks without also trying to guess some of the words in the quotation itself.

As you may already know, when you fill in a word you'll also need to pencil in those letters in the grid, making sure the numbers correspond. As you guess more of the clued words and transfer their letters to the quotation, you'll begin to see recognizable words emerging within the quotation. For example, if you have a three-letter word in the quotation ending in AS, then you'll know that it's probably either HAS or WAS. So pencil in an H or a W (or both) above the corresponding numbers in the blanks. Often, knowing one letter of a word will help you to decide what the word is.

Similarly, wherever the quotation has a single letter standing alone, it must be either A or I. The letters appearing most frequently will probably be E, T, A, O, and N. Look for three-letter words that might be “the.” Look for patterns that might be prepositional phrases, such as “to the _____,” “for a _____,” “in an _____,” “of a _____.” You'll be surprised at how easily some familiar construction patterns can be recognized.

If you nevertheless have trouble getting started, just peek at a word or two of the solutions in the back of the book.

Enjoy.