I’ve been working on my current WIP since April. For the first three months, it was hit or miss in the writing department. Some weeks, I would do some writing, some weeks, not so much. It was a bad three months for writing. But since the beginning of this month, I’ve had some awesome word counts. Everything is flowing nicely, and I’m really loving this story. But will others love it as much as I do? This is a story that I’m hoping with take off on Amazon and B & N like Guardian Vampire did in Jan/Feb of 2011. It’s so frustrating to have something like that happen, and then it not ever happen again. I WANT it to happen again. 🙂
I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I’m more of a novella writer than a novel writer. Before I wrote The Gnome, I had three novels and six novellas published. And a short story. I was SURE The Gnome would be a novel. But when I finished, I didn’t quite have 40K words. You really can’t call something a novel unless it’s 50K, and I was almost 11K short. 😦 At that point, I was sure there would be no more novels for me. I was convinced I didn’t have any more novels in me. But along came my current WIP. I planned it as a novella, but I wasn’t even going to worry about how many words it would turn out to be. I was hoping it would at least be a LONG novella like The Gnome. Now here I am at almost 38K, and there are still more adventures to come. The main characters haven’t yet gone on a journey where there will be challenges and perils. In a little more than 12K, this will become a novel. I’ve been averaging 1K to over 2K in each writing sitting. So even if I only get 1K per day, I could conceivably finish this as a novel in 12-13 days. (Not necessarily consecutive.) This makes me happy. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop at 50K. I’m just saying I COULD and still call it a novel. 🙂
Here’s a problem, though. This story has flowed so well lately. But when it comes to the challenges the main characters must face, I’m afraid things will come to a screeching halt. The challenges will have riddles involved (and danger), but what if I can’t think of any good riddles? What if my riddles are lame? Eek, this riddle thing is new to me! (I know this almost makes it sound like I’m writing a fantasy book, but no, it really is a paranormal romance. It’s just a little different.) Have any of you ever faced something like this? Have you had to write something that had to be SOLVED? Any advice?
lauralynnelliott.com 
I’m not sure I can help with riddles but it sounds like your writing is going well. Charge through the challenges that the main character has to confront and then go back and edit and revise. I wish I could be of more help. Good luck.
Emma, I’ve seen movies where there are challenges that have to be faced involving solving a riddle. For instance, on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, there was a riddle about a penitent man. It turned out they had to be on their knees to keep from being killed by something that came at them at head level. That’s the kind of thing I’m looking for. I can’t do the challenges without the riddles because they’re connected. I’ll get this figured out! 🙂
Try starting with the solution and work backwards. I’m sure that’s how most riddles and puzzles are designed.
Hi Andrew. You mean like figure out what the challenge actually is, then figure out a riddle to make the hero and/or heroine be in the position/situation? Like when Indiana Jones was supposed to be kneeling…figure out how he needed to get there? The penitent man. That’s a thought. Thanks!
Exactly.
Ack! You voice my fears aloud, Lauralynn! Stop That This Instant! Ha!
I love riddles in books – I love wildly speculating as I turn page after page. But I have trouble holding onto that tension in my own writing. I nearly burst to reveal my story’s secrets. Lol. Here’s to crafting great riddles – and laying clues expertly within your storyline. Drop those crumbs! :}
The riddles will be things the characters have to solve to get to where they are going. They need to be clever. LOL
I think every writter is affraid that their riddles or mysteries are lame, or we try so hard that they become a convoluted mess that, literally, no one could solve. Curse you cruell insecurities and your venomous ways!! Like Emma said, charge through, I find that the answer presents itself when I’m ready (which is usually long after I think I’m ready, I’m either impatient or the answer is lackadaisical). I also find that I gave myself the answer if I go back and read what I’d already written, my subconcious is far smarter than I. Congrats on your flowing story and its contiously growing girth.
Riddles aren’t my strong point, but they are really necessary for the next part of the book. The characters can’t just charge into where they’re going without facing the challenges. I love the penitent man thing that Indiana Jones had to do, but I certainly don’t want to copy it. LOL
I’ll work this out. 🙂
Isn’t it ironic that the books you think will be longer turn out shorter and vice versa? No matter what I do with my current WIP, I won’t be able to get the 65,000 I was hoping for. I should be able to hit 50,000 but after that, I’m about done. Once I figured that out, the story finally picked up. I didn’t realize my insistence that the book be longer was blocking my creativity.
So I guess my problem was the opposite. 😀
As for riddles, do you have Netflix? I think you do, but I don’t remember if you mentioned it or if it was someone else. Anyway, there’s this show called Psych and in Season 3 at the end was an episode (Yin, I think) where there were a bunch of riddles the main characters have to solve. I don’t remember most of them, but one had something like:
“The General stands at the white river” and since the killer had seen the main character that morning, he knew it meant General Mills cereal and milk (white river).
Also, one of the Batman movies has the Riddler in it. I don’t remember the title but it had Jim Carrey as the Riddler. There were some good ones in that too.
I suck at riddles. I couldn’t make them or solve them to save my life. Maybe starting from the answer like Andrew suggested is the way to go.
Writing became easier when I stopped worrying about how long a book was going to be. From now on, I’m going to write, and if it’s a novella, so be it. If it’s a novel, all the better. But I’m going to stop worrying about it. My biggest seller is a novella. 🙂
I think I need to sit down and figure out the three challenges or riddles before I ever get to that point in the book. And I’m almost there. I just thought of a brilliant idea! My husband would probably be good at this. I need to bounce it off him. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that!