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Good clue setting is often described as 'an art' and think I'd agree. After solving my favourite setters' puzzles I am usually lost in admiration for their enormous skill and inventiveness.

So, as with any other creative activity, there is no magic formula for how to 'do' it. Some people, it seems, are just naturally gifted, while others have to work very hard to become even half decent.

For me, a minimum first step is to thoroughly learn the basics by becoming proficient as a solver. For that I always recommend using The Guardian's free archive – with the weekly Everyman, Quiptic and Monday's cryptics generally being a bit easier, so good for beginners – in conjunction with the FifteenSquared parsing site, where every clue's construction is explained and regular users discuss their likes and dislikes in each puzzle.

With that said there are some good setting tips to be had here and I'd heartily recommend The Chambers Crossword Manual as an excellent book for budding setters to learn the basics.

Get yourself a cryptic crossword book, and read through some clues thinking about them, then looking up the answers. Start on the next crossword, and before you look the answer, underline the word you think might be the definition, or mark those that you think are anagrams of some kind (always remember to count letters and compare to how long the answer should be!), or jot down thoughts one what a certain word might mean - flower can be river (something that flows), so bear that in mind for wordplay clues. As you go through one to the next, phase out looking at the answers, and phase in answering the ones you are now able to do (personally, I find anagrams the easiest to identify and the easiest to solve).

Also, what really helped me is to try and make them yourself! Take one that already exists, or auto generate one, and then try to build clues that lead to the answer. Doing it this way forces you to think of words in new ways (backwards, mixed up, bits of other words, different languages, etc). And you get the satisfaction of completing a grid.

Have fun!

The OED lists three spellings: >!uroboros, ouroboros and uroborus. So it seems you can have an 'u' there, but not while also having the 'o' at the start!<.

Chambers only has >!ouroboros!<.

That said, that spelling does have some use, like this book, for example.

EDIT: Here's what Google Ngram Viewer looks like. It seems >!the 'u' spellings are pretty uncommon!<.

Hi mate

If you're keen and have some money to invest, I suggest Ximenes' pioneering book - https://www.amazon.com/Ximenes-Art-Crossword-D-S-Macnutt/dp/190340004X - good to see how clues have evolved, as well as explanations.

(A bit later I can reply to this thread with some books from my collection and recommend some picks plus some insights into the pros/cons of the books. cheerio).

Thank you for these suggestions! I will certainly look into the book and the compiler you suggested. For a start i went ahead and got this