Write for You: It’s About Tuesday

by Nancy Casey

Begin your writing by taking a few minutes to set up your page. This is a way to ground yourself and begin to focus. It helps the mind-chatter fall gently away. When it’s time to start writing words, there will already be marks on the page. This helps you get started if you find a clean, white page daunting.

Here’s the page setup: Draw a line close to the top of the page where the title will go. Off to one side draw a box that’s a couple inches tall and a couple inches wide. You will be drawing something in this box, so if you like to draw more than you like to write, make the box sort of big.

The rest of the page is for writing. In that space, put a dot at the spot where the page will be about half full when your writing gets to it.

Finally, begin to write. Write about Tuesdays. What do you do on Tuesdays? Is there anything in your regular schedule that always falls on a Tuesday? A meeting or an appointment, perhaps. Some people take classes that meet on Tuesdays. Others have certain job duties special for Tuesdays. Perhaps Tuesday is the day of a program or podcast that you like.

Things that happen every day happen on Tuesdays, so include some of them if you like.

As you write about your Tuesdays, the page will start to fill up. When your writing gets close to the dot, make a slight shift in your thinking. Focus on the very next Tuesday that is coming up. What will you be doing on that particular Tuesday? Your regular Tuesday things, of course. What else?

Do you have any specific plans for the coming Tuesday? What will the weather be? How will you dress for the day? Perhaps you will be meeting a friend for some reason on Tuesday. Maybe you will start reading a book—or finish one. Are there any tasks you hope to start or finish on Tuesday?

Write about anything you can think of that has anything to do with this coming Tuesday.

When the page is full, read over what you have written. Then draw something in the box you made when you set the page up. You can draw a picture that is directly related to what you have written—or not. You can doodle. You can simply color the box all one color if you want to.

When you draw or color, your mind relaxes. You might keep thinking about Tuesdays. Your thoughts might meander off elsewhere.

After you have finished, write a title above the line that you drew at the top of the page. Make sure the date is on the page somewhere, too. Add more decoration and color to if you think that’s needed. Here is an example of what a person could write.

You can share what you have written by posting it as a comment below. Type in your work. Or post a picture of it.

Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. Sometimes she teaches writing classes at the Recovery Center. You can find more of her work here. She offers (free!) writing help to anyone in recovery. This can be for any kind of writing project—resumes, letters, stories novels—email latahrecoverycenter@gmail.com for more information.