LINDSEY’S WRITING PRACTICE

Posted: August 5, 2026 | Author: Lindsey Martin-Bowen | Filed under: Lindsey's Writing Practice, Writing, writing exercise | Tags: Lindsay Martin-Bowen, Lindsey's Writing Practice, writing exercise, Writing to be Read |4 Comments

Borrow a Character Exercise

For years, authors have borrowed characters from other 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, 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 especially intrigues you. Then, make that character the protagonistin a scene or story you write.

For instance, what would Allie Fox’s wife say if she were to tell her version of Mosquito Coast, or if she were to write about a 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 particular world and to build from it. And don’t forget to have fun with this exercise. It can yield wild results.

About Lindsey Martin-Bowen

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This segment of “Lindsey’s Writing Practice” is sponsored by Undawnted.

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