Hi guys, I'm writing a Sci-fi mystery thriller that is chock-full of puzzles that the characters need to solve, and I'm having trouble with writing an organic sounding "A-ha!" moment... Can you give me some examples in which 2 characters are faced with a puzzle, one of them knows the answer and has to explain it to the other, yet it doesn't sound like one character knows everything, and the other one is just there to marvel at how smart the first character is, like in the Da Vinci code... "Anagram is right. O Draconian Devil! Oh lame saint! becomes Leonardo da Vinci, The Mona Lisa" (while Sophie is looking at him with big dumb eyes...). Also, any good examples of how to write it when it's just one character and his/her thought process? Thanks, Oren.
Well, I don't have examples but there's the Lightbulb moment, and the Slow revelation as when a dimmer gets brighter and brighter. You could also do a few escape room scenarios, because they are full of puzzles and the way how you and your friends handle these can provide inspiration.
This is probably tertiary, but to your second question (about it just being one character): In my recent book of short stories one chapter has the MC faced with a puzzle that has a misleading clue. She thinks she knows how to solve it -- but it turns out the action she took was not only wrong, but it was what ensnared her in another trap altogether. Later on, the puzzle gets solved accidentally by someone else, and then it's revealed that the clue that misled the MC was actually to be taken literally. Had she done that, the riddle would've been solved and she'd ride off into the happy sunset. But what would have been the fun in that? Point is, puzzles and riddles can be fun to write because you can go in many directions with them. It's your story...use whatever conventions you want, or none at all.
This is the IDEAL place for an allegory. In a novel I just finished, I had to basically explain what market share is in the business world, and why the villain in my novel acted as he did. Its a complex topic, yet I explained the concept easily between my main character, and his love interest in one line of realistic dialog via the use of an allegory. "It's like turning on the faucet in your kitchen and bathroom", he explained. "You do not get twice as much water, you get the same amount of water, but in two different places." By their very use, allegories imply intelligence because an intelligent person is able to convey complex information to a a whole spectrum of people because the more people can understand it, which is for the betterment of all. Intelligent people that try to use fancy words to convey information do not come across as intelligent, as much as they do in just being arrogant. Information that can not be used in a useful way is just plain useless. I am well versed in allegories because I have two sisters with down syndrome. They are amazing people, and by using allegories all the time with them, I can explain things on their level. In that sense, allegories have immense power.
Point of note - this is a simile, not an allegory... you are explaining one thing by comparison with something else. An Allegory is a peice of writing with a deeper subtext, like say Orwell's Animal Farm was an allegory about how communism had been distorted in the soviet union
@DriedPen I recommend you double check your water pressure or ensure that the flow restrictors are properly installed on your faucets. Indeed, two faucets on should produce more water than one.
as a dm/dnd player i find puzzles on occasion but they are handled differently than from a novels perspective however, when i am a player i go through the puzzle as my character. unluckily i haven't encountered a puzzle when playing an overly smart character but i can give some examples. a dumber character would guess, and hope to get lucky through multiple guesses an average intelligence character would use what they know and attempt trial and error with better accuracy how i would play a smarter characters thought process would be to rule out the incorrect answers, through logic, math or reasoning then use their intelligence to make a well educated decision. so if you wanted to write how a smart character would figure out an answer to a less smart character you would have them go through each incorrect answer and briefly explain why its incorrect which would result in a correct answer. but if you want to write a more aha moment from a smart character as they are going through all the answers they can discover one of them to be a play on words or a more simplified or complicated answer than the rest. then they connect the dots that the puzzle wanted them to get it wrong by hiding the answer this way. in math terms i would have a character solve for x but in order for them to solve x they have to solve y in another problem for x to make sense. sorry if this doesn't help just my little thought process hopefully it helps a bit
It certainly does help! Going through some wrong answers humanizes the MC and is exactly what I was looking for.
I disagree. The story of the Tortoise and the Hare is a true allegory. It is NOT about a race, it uses the story of a race to explain to children that slow and steady is a better approach to long term gain that quick bouts of speed. It uses something simple, to explain something far more complex, in an easy to understand way. My faucet example does the same thing. I used another allegory in my example above of digging two canals to drain the lake. Two faucets open, or two canals dug, both explain the complex nature of market share. Market share is akin to the water collected from the water shed of the lake. There is only so much money in a city that can be spent on groceries. Walmart might drain some of that money from grocery sales, and DriedPen Grocery might be the other grocery store. Now Walmart might have 90%of the grocery money, and my little store might only get 10%; but there is no way both stores can get 100% and 100% because eventually the city dwellers would go broke. This explains the true power of allegories. Saying, "If you dig two canals from a lake, you do not get twice the water, you drain the lake twice as fast", conveys the point really well, and really quickly.
the hair and the tortoise is a fable not an allegory... it's a moral tale designed to convey a lesson... your faucet/canal things are either an example or an analogy... they could also be a metaphor if applied to something like market share... they are not in any case an allegory From Wikipiedia "As a literary device, an allegory is a narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory Analogy: OED a comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification. Metaphor https://www.grammarly.com/blog/metaphor/ A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. Simile OED a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion ). On point for this thread demonstrating the solving of a complex puzzle would be a dreadful place for an allegory... but it would be a reasonable place to use analogy/metaphor/similie
even if we accept that the hare and the tortoise is an allegory (its not because the meaning is in no way hidden, but even if), your link specifically says "An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events" Talking about water going through pipes or canals is not an allegory by that definition... nor is solving a puzzle which is what this thread is about. Now no more hijacking, back on topic please
Ignoring the vast diversion, this is a place where you can tell as well as show... some times you need to show the whole solve, while other times you need to explain things directly to the reader so you don't wind up with characters telling each other things that they both already know... sometimes you might want to lay the puzzle out earlier to the reader can try to solve it themselves. (as with the coded letters in Alan Garner's Red shift) you may also find this blog on a related topic interesting (its more about mysteries as puzzles but some of the lessons are transferable) https://www.binge-writing.com/home/writing-twists-and-solving-mysteries
I think this depends highly on the situation where your character is coming to the realization they know the answer. Are they surrounded by enemies that will take advantage of their knowledge. Are they with someone they dont really trust? Will holding onto the information help them later or keep the reader in suspense? I would say to taylor their Aha! moment to the pace of your story. If they are surrounded by friends and they've been trying to figure out the riddle for the last several chapters then the big happy Aha! may be the way to go.
