When I wrote the book I first worked out the riddles, then decided what the objects the referred to were. Then I wove the book's plot around them. Arrien's mother had been studying a gold necklet inscribed with the 'master' riddle, and Arrien only finds about about them when her mother dies.
The necklet tells Arrien that she has to find seven objects, and hints that each of the seven objects is held by one of Vedrana's Great Families. That gives enough information for her to start looking for the first clue, on a friendly neightbour's land. But the clue doesn't tell her where on his large estate the object is hidden, nor does it reveal what form the object takes.
As the writer, I knew where and what each clue was, but I had to reveal them through Arrien's eyes, and think like she would. I know that each clue will be found in the same type of location on each estate. But I realised as I was working though the re-write that Arrien would have no reason to think that.
And here is where I had to balance the needs of keeping the story flowing against the complexities of the riddle quest. If Arrien set off to search each Great Family's lands without any idea of where to look, it could take her years to find the riddle objects. And the reader would have got bored reading about her aimless wandering a long time ago.
So I resorted to some editorial sleight-of-hand. I had Arrien reasoning that, because she found the first object in a certain type of location, she should start off by looking in similar locations for the rest of the objects on the other Great Families' lands.
She makes an assumption that turns out to be true. And that allows me to write about her solving the riddles and finding the objects solely by her own efforts. That first unseen nudge by me has put her on the right track to complete the quest.
I'm happy that I've got the balance right between authorial direction and character freedom, and can now get on with unfolding the rest of the adventure.
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