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• emphasize arpeggiating the chord tones
• fill in between the chord tones with non-chord tones
• use tones from the blues scale, or relative to the chord use flat thirds, flat fifths, and flat sevenths, for a bluesy feel
• don't worry about using a small range, many riffs dwell around three adjacent tones for a while
• in terms of pitch, your basic material is just chord and scale tones, which is generic, think of rhythm as a primary way to make unique riffs
• in terms of direction, your basic material is up and down, which is also generic, but some jumps in the riff to give them a nice shape, for example instead of E G♯ B G♯ E you can try E B G♯ E B

• emphasize arpeggiating the chord tones
• fill in between the chord tones with non-chord tones
• use tones from the blues scale, or relative to the chord use flat thirds, flat fifths, and flat sevenths, for a bluesy feel
• don't worry about using a small range, many riffs dwell around three adjacent tones for a while
• in terms of pitch, your basic material is just chord and scale tones, which is generic, think of rhythm as a primary way to give riffs a unique character
• in terms of direction, your basic material is up and down, which is also generic, so use some jumps in the riff to give them a unique shape, for example instead of E G♯ B G♯ E you can try E B G♯ E B

So, in that example we can see there is both the first five tones of the E major scale, but also and arpeggiation of the E major chord with two passing notes.

So, in that example we can see there is both the first five tones of the E major scale, but also and arpeggiation of the E major chord with two passing notes. The point bears repeating: those five notes that most would regard as part of only a scale also function harmonically as a manifestation of a chord.