Thursday's Children: Conundrums

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Inspired by conundrums.

Robert Langdon, um... thinking

Do you like solving conundrums?

I do. At least I did. Now... I love them.

Last week, I had to do a "team building" activity with a few of my work-mates. But this wasn't your average fall-backwards-and-trust-that-someone-will-catch-you exercise. It was a Conundrum Adventure!

My teammates getting their first look at the clues

Imagine a cross between The Amazing Race and the Da Vinci Code. Our team of five was pitted against three others in a race through the city. Our goal? Rush to a famous location in downtown Toronto, find the piece of art or architecture hinted at in the clue, and use it to decipher a riddle in order to earn points. The team with the most points wins.

Source

One example: hunting down the Academy Awards displayed in the lobby of the TIFF Bell Lightbox to figure out the "national dish" referred to in one of the clues. When we arrived at the display, we found one of the Oscars was awarded to Canadian screenwriter Paul Haggis... and the national dish was of course, haggis. Score!

Pausing from the code-breaking madness for a photo op!

Taking part in this adventure reminded me how much I love conundrums.

I use lots of them in my stories: mysterious characters, mystical objects that are more than meets the eye, clues peppered throughout the narrative that only the sharpest of minds could spot... and decipher. Sometimes I over-conundrum my work, and have to dumb it down so that people aren't completely bewildered, lol. But nevertheless, I DO love a good mystery.

Do you ever use conundrums in your stories?


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