I hope this makes sense I’m adding a small and pretty simple layer to the crossword by incorporating a word jumble element. The grid is divided into four main sections - going clockwise from the top left: NW, NE, SE and SW. On the grid, there is a stand-alone answer that, moving clock-wise, follows each of the four main sections. Every answer in each of the four main sections has one circled letter, and each such letter in the section is a jumbled word. When unscrambled, that word is the answer to each of the four clues that, again, moving clockwise on the grid, follow each of the four main sections. The clues for each of these standalone sections are asterisked and say [NORTHWEST] JUMBLE ANSWER. The clues/answers for NW and SE are Down, and NE and SW are both Across. Please let me know if you enjoy it and if you have any suggestions!
Starting from top left and moving clockwise on the grid: NW, NE, SE and SW. The corresponding word jumble clue/answers for NW and SE are Down, while NE and SW are across.
I struggled with how best to format it, and I’m worried that it is too clunky.
Nice! If you do this again, you can probably simplify the format by making the clues for the wheel spokes something like "Word formed from the circled letters in the XX quadrant". And then you can have a single-cell rebus entry in the middle formed from those spokes!