by Nancy Casey
For today’s writing, you will need a half-dozen or so good words. What’s a good word? You’ll know one when you see one.
Get your page set up so that there is a line across the top where the title will go. Mark off some room for illustration, too. Then send yourself on a mission to find some good words.
One of the best place to find good words is in your own writing. You can find them anywhere, though—online, in books, flyers, graffiti… They don’t have to be words that you read. They can be words that you know or words that you hear.
Any word can be a good word. As long as you have some kind of connection to it, even a tiny one.
Scan some writing or just listen. As possible good words pop out at you, write them down across the page so that your first line of writing is just a string of words. Write down as many good words as will fit on one line.
Pick one of those words, any one. Look up its definition. If your word has more than one definition, choose just one of them and write it down. After the definition, write something that begins, “For example…” Give an example that will explain the definition better. Use the word as much as you can in what you write.
Your example can be as long or as short as you like. It can come from your memory or things that you know. You can also just make it up.
If the word you wrote about has more than one definition, you can write down another definition for the word and give another example.
If the word you wrote about doesn’t have another definition, or if you don’t want to write about that word anymore, pick a different word from your list and continue on by writing the definition of that one.
Draw or doodle in the illustration space.
When you have filled the page, reread your work. Make small changes if you need to. When you are satisfied with the page, give it a title and write the date on it, too.
Here is an example of what someone could write.
You can share your work by posting it as a comment below. You can type it in, or take a photo of it and upload the image.
Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She taught the Write-For-You writing class at the Recovery Center last summer and will return again in the spring. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Community Center.
Latah Recovery Community Center, Inc. 