Writing exercise

Recently, I have had the priviledge of hearing from old friends that I haven't seen in over 20 years. One of those friends, who has stayed in touch with the others, sent me an e-mail (she found me from this blog) and I've gotten e-mails from the others as responses to messages that she's sent out. These are people that, although I'd lost touch with them, I thought of rather frequently. I was thrilled to hear from Debbie, and I'm thrilled to hear about Mark, Andy, Judge, and Mary Grace.

One of the writing exercises I do sometimes, to work on character development and to stretch my imagination, is to choose friends from my past and to create character studies of what they might now be...based on the little information that I have from rather impersonal e-mails...

Debbie is living in Colorado. She broke her leg last spring. She's a poet.

Mark lives in Illinois.

Judge lives in the capital city of the state he grew up in and works in the arts.

Andy...I really don't know from his e-mail where he lives or what he does now....Creative license!

M.G. lives in Texas.

So, how did these smart and creative people, who started out in a Southern state, get to where they are now? I get to make it up! And I really get to make up what they are doing now, since I don't really know them well anymore.

This is one way to help develop back story for characters you use in your novels, imagining how they get from one place and stage in life to another. And if you start with someone you know, but not too well, you ground those characters in truth and imagination both.