by Nancy Casey
You can go straight. Get straight. Act straight. Walk straight. Look straight. Think straight. See straight…
There’s straight up, straight down, straight to, straight past, straight over, straight through…
Think about all the things you could say and think that have the idea of straight in them somewhere. Let your mind wander around these thoughts as you draw a line across the top of your page where your title will go. Set aside some space for illustration. (If you would rather draw than write, make the illustration space really big.)
Start drawing in the illustration space if you like, and invite your mind to keep thinking thoughts (and tell itself jokes) about the many different ideas connected to the word straight.
Rather than wait for some “good idea” about straight come into your mind when you start writing, write down whatever thought about straight comes tumbling through your mind as your pen hits the paper in the writing space. Even if it’s not the one you were planning to write a nanosecond before.
Then keep going wherever your thoughts lead you, and take note of everything that’s straight along the way.
If you tell a story, put as many straight details in it as you can think up or remember. Use the word straight as much as you can, even if it seems to make your story turn goofy. Even if the story doesn’t get told by the time you’ve reached the end of the page.
You could decide to write something more like a list, jumping around from one straight thing or idea after another.
When you get to the bottom of the page, stop. Read over what you wrote. Do you find connections that you didn’t really plan to put there? Sometimes those kinds of connections can help you think up a title.
Whatever title you decide on, write it at the top of the page. Write the date on the page too, along with a signature or your initials.
Here is an example of what someone could write.
If it turns out you had more ideas about straight than could fit on one page, call the page “done” and the get out a clean sheet of paper and start a new one, same way you did the first one. Keep writing individual pages that way. You would probably get tired of writing pages about straight before you ran out of ideas.
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. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center. In-person Write-for You classes have been suspended for now, but when Covid recedes, they will return.
Latah Recovery Community Center, Inc. 