Puzzling Puzzles

[Addison]

Last night I was hit with an idea, that was around ten o'clock. Every time I tried to sleep I kept waking up with more pieces to the puzzle, literally. The characters stumble across a giant puzzle, solving the first clue beyond what anyone else has in decades. At first it's easy (find the right places, at the right time) but when they get to the end of the first puzzle it gets difficult. The end is not only solving the first piece of the puzzle but finding the second piece.

This is where things kept getting complicated. I won't go into details, lets just say the characters weren't the only ones with dizzy headaches.

My problem is sorting it out so it's not confusing to the reader. In writing the book I'll be putting in the character's drawings as they try to figure it out. But how can I doll it out to keep them engaged by the mystery but not repulsed by the difficulty?

 

[Penpilot]

Generally speaking, I'd treat it the same way I treat exposition. I'd make sure there's more happening within the scene than just solving the puzzle. For example the POV character maybe focused on solving the puzzle but the friends around them might be bickering or gossiping about something: a girl, a guy, who has to wash the dishes, who's smarter, etc.

Adding that bit of personal drama and conflict is like adding a bit of sugar to make things go down easier.

Here's a video example. It's from the TV Show Bones. Notice the personal drama mixed in with plot exposition. Warning for the squeamish. The scene involves a dead body, the first part of the puzzle to solving a case.

Poking Around from "The Party In The Pants" | BONES | FOX BROADCASTING - YouTube

 

[wordwalker]

If you mean solving a physical puzzle of what-piece-fits-where, I'd say include the drawings but really emphasize what character dialog (preferably an evolving argument so there's tension) "goes on as they fiddle."

(Edit: that part's ninja'd!)

Some readers might stop and try to solve the puzzle from the first drawing, and some might be amused by following the progress through several drawings, but many more readers just won't be into the puzzle enough to want many words lingering on the thing itself. And it's just that hard to describe a complex physical puzzle with the smoothness to encourage that-- riddles and other logic puzzles are much easier to capture.

(Edit: note that Penpilot's example is a visual medium.)

 

[Addison]

The puzzle is more connect the dots. They first find a hidden tunnel with little plaques in both walls and on the floor. The protag (who is an India Jones and Hardy Boys fan) came prepared with a digital camera, wax paper and crayon to copy the plaques, even numbering them in order and which one on which wall. {The plaques are squares of metal. Each plaque has notches on the edges, like lines or graph marks, in the top left corner is an etching and in the bottom right is either a straight line or right angle. Composing most of the plaque is either a warning, a rhyme or such and the writing is not linear, each word is in cross hairs of two notches.}

At the end of the tunnel is a large brown chamber with little oil lamps and several old book cases. The book cases are not arranged in any order like a normal library. They're filled with books, skulls, jars, and relics.

This is where things get complicated.

Each shelf has an etching in the corners. After they apparently get nowhere an SC notices that each shelf has different "swirlies". They discover that the etchings on the plaques match the shelves. They match each plaque to a shelf. The other SC, a techy, pulls up a program to map out the shelves, their corresponding swirl, plaque, and message. They feel they're getting somewhere but have no idea what to do next. Following the first puzzle (which I don't know details yet) an S.C finds that the format of the lines make different shapes. MC goes through shelves, taking pictures and find the shelf objects plus the format design make symbols (part of the puzzle.)

They find the beginning one and read the plaques together (the first line of the first plaque, the first of the second and so on.) Which gives something. Techy, on a hunch, creates another program in which the shelves become grids. She connects the lines, word by word. The result is a wacky knot. But she does find that going plaque by plaque, in order, if she overlays correctly, can make new lymerics or sayings. (These make new symbols.)

Protag, noticing cultural links in swirlies, pulls up a map on her computer and makes dots in the country of swirl origins. Techy connects the dots, first by order in which they found the plaque, order in which they were first read, and order of the new lymerics. Each connect-the-dot makes a geometric design which frames different areas. (She is also running a search engine on the symbols, coming up with nada)

Speaking of symbols she, following the reading order, arranges the symbols in the same orders which form sentences.

Finally she arranges the angles from the plaques to each shelf, finding a weird almost chinese symbol(s), and makes it 3d to connect them but that doens't do anything. So she looks at each shelf, their compiled-lymeric/messages, and instead of connecting the angles, arranges them to form geometric drawings which the computer software instantly folds into 3d objects. They search the corresponding shelves and find objects of matching appearance. They appear to be pieces of a wood-metal puzzle.

She saves everything and they run out when protag receives text from mother saying "Ten minutes then I'm calling a search party".

For the record I have no idea where this idea came from or what inspired it. True I read a book prior to its 'poof'ing in my head but it's clues and mystery were not even close in complexity.

So how can I dish this out, nicely and evenly and as un-confusing as possible?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

My question for you would be how important to the plot is the mechanics of the puzzle? I mean if you don't want your readers to actually be trying to solve the puzzle themselves then you can probably get rid of some of the detail which may be tedious to read. If you do want them to solve it then you need all the details and diagrams necessary for them to do so.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[skip.knox]

I don't see how we can advise you on this. It's your story and how it dishes out is going to depend a great deal on how you actually write it. I recommend you dive in, write it, and then solicit critiques. It's a bit like saying you have this idea for a tune but you're not sure about the time signature or how to handle the bass line. We have to hear the tune first.

 

[Addison]

Good point Skip.Knox. Thanks!