I think the scariest words one of my novel characters could ever say would be, “Oh, I love riddles! I’m fairly good at them!” How about I send this person to an untimely death? I can do that in a book and not break any laws, right? I’m relatively certain the thought police haven’t been able to stop blatant homicide of characters by fiction writers.
Oh yeah, wait. I need that character. She’s the main person in the story, not to mention the story’s voice. Phooey. Guess I’d better bone up on my riddle-writing skills. Ack!
You know, I actually looked up how to write a good riddle. There are actually rules (well they’re more like guidelines, really) which if you follow them, you get much better riddles. The rules cover things like meter and rhyming and the use of red herrings. Whew! So I’m not following all the rules exactly but the ones I’m using have actually made coming up with them faster and easier. Yay! I’m all about that. Especially when I’ve got a certain number of words to write in a day and only 24 hours to come up with them all.
In my process of trying to figure out riddles, I came across this one here which I liked:
“Reaching stiffly for the sky,
I bare my fingers when it’s cold
In warmth I wear an emerald glove
And in between I dress in gold.”
(Drag and select the space after the colon to see the answer.)
Answer: A deciduous tree
Oy! I think I’ve created a monster!
winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂
Weathering The Journey 