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LINDSEY’S WRITING PRACTICE

Posted: November 5, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Character Development, Lindsey's Writing Practice, World Building, Writing, writing exercise | Tags: , , , , , , |7 Comments
Woman with giant pencil standing next to stack of giant papers. Bookshelves in the background. Text: Lindsey's Writing Practice with Lindsey Martin-Bowen

Borrow-a-Character Exercise

For years, authors have borrowed characters from previous authors’ works. For example, Jean Rhys’s novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, details the early life of Mrs. Rochester, wife to Mr. Rochester in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

Likewise, other authors have followed suit: George Macdonald Fraser uses Tom Brown and Flashman from Thomas Hughes’s novel, Tom Brown’s School Days, John Gardner wrote the novel, Grendel, about the beast in Beowulf, and Joseph Heller brought the biblical King David to life in God Knows.

Now, it’s your turn.

The Exercise:

Select an antagonist or a minor character from a story or novel by someone else—select a character who intrigues you. Then, use that character as the protagonist in a scene or a story you write. For instance, what would Allie Fox’s wife say if she were to tell her version of Mosquito Coast or to write about the courtship between her and Allie? What might Rabbit’s illegitimate daughter (from John Updike’s Rabbit novels) say if she told her story?

The Objective:

To enter into the imaginative world of another writer, to understand that specific world and to build another one from it.

And, of course, to have fun with a character by taking him or her somewhere (either physically or mentally) that her original creator hadn’t imagined he or she would go.

About Lindsey Martin-Bowen

On Halloween 2023, redbat books released Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s 7th poetry collection, CASHING CHECKS with Jim Morrison. Her 4 th collection, Where Water Meets the Rock, was nominated for a Pulitzer; her 3rd, CROSSING KANSAS with Jim Morrison was a finalist in the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 Contest. In 2017, it won the Kansas Writers Assn award, “Looks Like a Million.” Writer’s Digest gave her “Vegetable Linguistics” an Honorable Mention in its 85th Annual (2017) Contest. Her Inside Virgil’s Garage (Chatter House Press 2013) was a runner-up in the 2015 Nelson Poetry Book Award. McClatchy Newspapers named her Standing on the Edge of the World (Woodley Press/Washburn University) was one of the Ten Top Poetry Books of 2008. It was nominated for a Pen Award.

Author and Poet, Lindsey Martin Bowen

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7 Comments on “LINDSEY’S WRITING PRACTICE”

  1. Darlene's avatar Darlene says:
    November 5, 2025 at 5:06 am

    I love this exercise and will use it at my writing group. Thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. robertawrites235681907's avatar robertawrites235681907 says:
    November 7, 2025 at 12:48 pm

    This is a great post. I’ve seen writers do this with well known characters but I’ve never done it myself.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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