As a writer, I enjoy crossword puzzles. So I was excited by Wordplay, a movie about people who do them for money and title. It aired on KCTS this week.

Wordplay features Puzzle Master Will Shortz and the team of people he relies on to help him create crossword puzzles for The New York Times, the gold standard of the crossword kingdom. The team includes puzzle players, Puzzle Constructors and Puzzle Editors.

As a writer, I took interest in the Puzzle Constructors. They construct the crossword puzzles that Shortz selects for printing in the Times every day. They work like writers work. They write to an audience. They take advantage of popular culture to provide new meaning. They write to a theme. They delight in the English language. And most importantly, they know that every word matters. Use one wrong word in a crossword puzzle and the entire puzzle is wrong. It’s like that for copy too.