How to make up riddles for your story?

A riddle is more than just a clever puzzle. When used well, they bring a layer of intelligence, magic, and depth to your story.

Why Would You Need a Riddle?

When you're writing your novel, riddles aren't just for fun, they serve a wide variety of storytelling purposes:

• Worldbuilding: Riddles can imply an ancient culture, an arcane tradition, or a society that values cleverness and metaphor.
• Pacing: They create a moment of tension or reflection in a high-stakes scene, forcing characters to stop and think.
• Character development: Riddles test intelligence, creativity, or teamwork. Solving (or failing) one can show a lot about your character.
• Plot devices: A riddle might be the only way to open a magical door, retrieve a lost artifact, or discover a secret identity.

In all these cases, a riddle is not filler, it's a feature.

What Is the Structure of a Riddle?

While riddles come in many forms, most share a common structure that makes them recognizable and satisfying.

The Three Core Elements of a Riddle:

• Concealed Answer: The answer is hidden beneath layers of metaphor, implication, or double meaning.
• Hints or Clues: Good riddles are fair. The clues should lead to the answer if the listener is clever or attentive enough.
• Surface Deception: This is where the riddle plays its game. The words might suggest something entirely different at first glance, leading solvers astray.

Common Formats:

• Question Riddles: "What has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?"
• Riddle Poems: Rhyming, metaphor-heavy verse that requires interpretation.
• Who/What Am I: "I speak without a mouth and hear without ears..."

Structure creates rhythm, and rhythm builds anticipation. Your reader will feel when a riddle is coming—and that’s part of the fun.

Tips to write your riddle

1. Choose your answer

Obviously. It's hard to start something from nothing at all. For this example, we'll choose fire.

2. Find associated words

Gather all you can find: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs... Everything that sounds poetic or describes what your answer does, thinks, or how it behaves. If you can, choose words that could be used to describe something a human being can do. Also, try to think about what people usually think of your answer.

For fire, we could choose: burning, breathing, heating, crackling, dancing, light, spark, glow, warm... People can fear fire, or welcome it. It's either a blessing or a curse.

3. Think about contradictions

Now that you've chosen your main words, think about their opposites. For example, an antonym of light would be shadow. The opposite of heat is cold. If you don't breathe, then you die...

4. Use human metaphors

People relate to what they know and human metaphors are very common in riddles. If you've followed my tips, you have some words that you can associate to a human being. Again, let's think in contradictions.

Dancing, for example. What do you need in order to dance? Easy answer: feet.

Or breathing. You need lungs to breathe. Let's keep that.

5. Use the words 'Without', 'Yet', 'But' and 'Though'

You get it now, a riddle is all about contradictions. Most riddles use those words. In our example, common sentences could be:

• I dance without feet
• Though I breathe, I have no lungs
• I can dance but I have no feet
• I have no lungs, yet I need to breathe

6. Find a rhythm

The best riddles have a certain musicality, with roughly the same number of syllables in each line. They can rhyme, although it's not an obligation. In my example, I'll use ten syllables for each line.

I live without breath and glow without heat,

Born from a spark yet never to eat,

Though I dance and flicker, I have no feet,

In my crackling whispers, mysteries meet.

What am I?

How to Write a Riddle Poem

Riddle poems are a classic fantasy and folklore device. They’re poetic puzzles where each line offers hints but never names the answer directly.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing one (it's actually a lot similar to common riddles, but you'll need to work a little bit more):

Step 1: Pick the Answer First

It sounds obvious, but don’t try to write a riddle and “see where it goes.” Decide on your answer first, this grounds the rest of your language.

Example: Again, let's choose “Fire.”

Step 2: List Traits, Metaphors, and Contradictions

Write out characteristics of your subject in symbolic terms:

• Fire is bright, dangerous, hungry, spreads, dies without fuel, gives warmth, consumes.
• Metaphors: a dancer, a thief, a ghost, a predator.
• Contradictions: Gives life (heat) and takes it away (burns).

Step 3: Craft the Riddle in Poetic Form

Now shape those clues into a small poem. For “Fire,” you might get:

I dance with joy but leave no feet,
I eat but never hold a plate.
I sleep in ash, I wake with breath
Too close to me, and you'll meet death.

Step 4: Refine and Obscure

Make sure the language is poetic and slightly obscure, but fair. You want your readers to groan in delight when they realize the answer—not feel tricked.

The Tones of a Riddle

Riddles can have different emotional flavors. Choosing the right tone adds another layer to your storytelling.

Mysterious

Cryptic, ancient, and slightly eerie, perfect for tombs, old libraries, or magical doors.

I am not alive, but I grow.
I don’t have lungs, but I need air.
What am I?

(Answer: Fire)

Whimsical

Playful and funny, great for children’s stories or eccentric characters like trickster gods or riddle-loving fae.

Forward I’m heavy, but backward I’m not. What am I?

(Answer: The word "ton")

Ominous

A riddle can be a warning, a prophecy, or a challenge with stakes.

In deepest night I take your breath,
I call you gently into death.
I ride on sleep, on dark, on dream
What am I?

(Answer: Silence or death)

Philosophical

These riddles don’t just test intelligence, they ask questions about life, identity, or fate.

I am the thing all men must face,
I win the game, I end the race.
Kings and beggars, one by one
Fall to me when day is done.

(Answer: Death)

Writing Riddles for Children

Riddles for kids should be simple, clever, and engaging—without being too obscure. They’re less about deception and more about delight.

Tips:

• Use everyday concepts (animals, weather, objects).
• Keep language simple and clear.
• Rely more on wordplay than metaphor.
• Avoid overly dark or scary themes (unless you’re writing spooky fun!).

Examples of Riddles in Literature

Many authors have used riddles as pivotal moments in their stories. Some of the most memorable include:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Bilbo and Gollum’s riddle battle is one of the most iconic riddle scenes in literature. It’s suspenseful, clever, and full of tension.

"This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down."

(Answer: Time)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

The Sphinx’s riddle in the maze challenges Harry's reasoning skills.

“First think of the person who lives in disguise,

Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.

Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend,

The middle of middle and end of the end.

And finally give me the sound often heard

During the search for a hard-to-find word.

Now string them together and answer me this,

Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?”

(Answer: Spider)

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

The gates to the Southern Oracle each pose different psychological and philosophical riddles, testing not just knowledge, but the heart and self-worth of the traveler.