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So the four 'shapes' are just the four quadrants?

My previous post about wakening has some serious cryptic clues in 8-). The words are not the same length - two are. They are related to the phrase.

yes greengage you are correct!

As usual I am lagging behind everyone else, having just completed the original grid. I have used the 15 letters of the phrase to make the grid 90 degree symmetrical but that takes up only 56 cells leaving 48 further cells to "leave" so that 40 are blacked out. Is there a logical way to achieve this or is it trial and error? If the latter I think I'll abandon ship!

Hang on in there Escuan. Just look at where you have non-words and blank out more to make words. Start with the longer bits and you will gradually whittle down. Many words are the same as the originals......if I could do it, I think you can as I am usually the last!

Thanks unclued. Now got three of them. The fourth, though, I can't see. If it follows the same parameters as the others then it must end in EGS. Is this correct, or have I made an error somewhere? The EGS words can not be altered, so where have I gone wrong?

It's not as long as the others although one might say it has no end......

thank you buzzb - I was worried about the 2-letter entries!

Escuan, it's partly logic, partly trial and error. I had a bit of trouble reducing from 44 blocked cells to 40 because I wasn't sure one resulting entry was an allowable Chambers word, not having the latest Chambers to hand and not finding it on the online Chambers.

I congratulate the setter on some excellent grid construction. It's not easy to achieve a series of changes that all produce real words. However there were aspects of the puzzle I didn't like. The preamble was distinctly unhelpful in some respects. I cannot see why solvers weren't told that some of the samples of wordplay were deficient by more than one letter, in one case five. Nor were solvers told whether the final step (drawing lines) left real words. Since two-letter words are an anomaly in a Listener grid, I found the lack of information about that a bit annoying.

I wasn't all that impressed by the clues, either. A few good ones, some awful ones. Rather too many had wordplay involving proper names, sometimes curtailed.

Surely it's not time, although that would fit the theme. Shame it couldn't be six letters.