Category: Write for You Blog

by Nancy Casey

What are you good at? What kinds of things do you do well? Think about that while you get ready to write.

Do a little moving around before you sit down with your writing stuff. When you move around and get the blood flowing, ideas will flow, too. What kind of moving around are you good at?

Do you have skills you seem to have been born with? What has always been easy for you?

What skills have you learned on your own? Consider what motivated you to learn this. A chance of a job? A change of relationships? A health issue? A childhood fantasy?

Do you have a skill that makes other people ask you for help?

When we are good at something, it might feel easy to do. Or it might not. Are you good at something that you also find difficult to do?

Just because a person is good at something doesn’t mean that they like to do it.  For example lots of people are good at their jobs but wouldn’t be doing that job if they didn’t need to earn a living.

In addition to being good at doing certain things, a person can also be good at showing restraint. Someone who is a great talker can also be a skilled listener. When you are helping someone learn something, you need the patience not to interfere and just do it yourself because you are so good at it. What kinds of inaction are you good at?

Fill up a page today by writing about what you are good at.  Draw a line at the top of the page where you can put a title when you are finished. Set aside some space for illustration or doodling.

Explain what you are able to do and why you are good at it. Add as many details as you like. You might find yourself writing about one single skill that you have. Or your page might look more like a list.  You could even organize it alphabetically.

However you fill the page, read over your work when you have finished. Make small changes if you need to. Add some color or decoration to the page if you haven’t already. When you are satisfied with the whole thing, 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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes, writing coaching and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

While you gather your writing materials and set up your workspace, think about what it means to be pals with somebody.

A pal is a thick-and-thin kind of friend. One who knows when to stay quiet and when to help you change the subject. A friend who shows up and who asks questions because they care about you. When your pal rubs you the wrong way, it’s easy to forgive them, because they are your pal.

Today, think beyond the people who are your pals. Think about things.  Inanimate objects. Your stuff.

You could probably say that all of the everyday objects that make your life possible are your pals. From your favorite shoes to your spoon, they wait around most patiently to be at your service. They are loyal.

Some pals are your pals by the simple fact that they have witnessed your history. They remind you that yes, all that did happen, even if it seems a lifetime ago. Even if they are out of sight in a box.

People can have pals that they forget about until they need them again. When they get back in touch, they are glad to be together. No guilt-trips between pals.

Set up your page: draw a line at the top where a title will go and mark off a space for illustration.

As you do that, think about the stuff in your life.  The stuff in front of you, the stuff you know is around somewhere, the stuff you remember, even though it’s gone. Look around in all that stuff for your pals.

Write about one of those pals. Here are some questions that might help you do that:

• Does this pal smell or sound or look a certain way? Can you touch it?
• What does this pal contribute to your life?
• Does this pal ever frustrate you?
• What is reliable about this pal?

Write about one of your inanimate pals. Doodle and draw in the illustration space while you think. If you finish writing about one pal and still have room on the page, write about another one. Or draw some more.

After you have filled a page, read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add more color or decoration to the page. 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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about writing coaching and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

Think of the many people that have passed through your life and the many places you have been. Oh so many!

Today you will write about 26 of them.

Set up your page by first drawing a line at the top where the title will go. Then write the letters of the alphabet (A-Z) down the left hand side of the page. For each letter of the alphabet, you will coax yourself to recall a person or a place from your life that begins with that letter.

You have lots of people to choose from: everybody you have ever known or heard about, strangers, people from the media, characters from shows and books.

Some of the places you have been have names that everybody knows. They be found on maps: names of cities, streets or mountain ranges. Other places are personal. They don’t have official names. You have favorite and not-so-favorite places in your living space and out in the world. Are there places you miss? Can you recall a place where you sat, stood, laughed or danced?

Here’s the twist: Don’t write down the name of the person or the place. Instead, write down a short detail that gives just enough information for you to know what it means. You don’t have to make it so somebody else would understand or even guess. It only has to make sense to you.

For example, a person who loves to stretch out on their blue couch could use “couch” for the letter “C”. But instead of writing “couch” they could write something like, “Inviting and blue.”

Another example: Suppose you have a friend named Bob. You could use “Bob” for the letter “B”. You wouldn’t write “Bob” though. Instead, next to the “B”, you could write down something you and Bob did together. Or you could name one quality of Bob’s that you admire.

It can take a minute or two for your mind to settle into the two-step thinking it takes to do this. First you think of something for the letter, then you think up the detail and write that down next to the letter. Be patient with yourself. Doodling can help. You can skip around instead of doing the letters in order.

If you get really stuck on a letter or two, leave it temporarily blank. Something might occur to you after you start doing something else and you can fill it in later.

When you have written something for each of the letters and illustrated the page to your satisfaction, give your work a title and write the date on it.

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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes, writing certificates, or writing coaching, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

Drawers and windows can open. People can open their mouths, their eyes, their hands and, of course, their minds.

Volcanoes and earthquakes open up the ground.

A person can open a book, a file, a faucet or a present. Doors can open into something, and they can open out on something, too. (What’s the difference?)

How can you tell whether or not your mind is open? Does anything open as time passes? Can a flower prevent itself from opening?

Your writing mission for today is to fill a page while over-using the word open (or any of its forms, like opening, opened, open up, etc.)

You can describe your surroundings or something that happened to you. You can tell a story that you know about or a story that is invented from your imagination.

As you write, try to use the word open in every sentence at least once, more than once if you can.

As you fill your page, be open to the idea of drawing on it. Your mind opens up when you are “writing” and also not trying to squeeze your thoughts out in words and letters.

Be open to writing. Be open to drawing. Most of all, be open to the idea of opening and whatever that might open up.

After you have filled a page, read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add more color or decoration to the page if you want 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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

What’s new and different in your life lately? These virus times have brought most of us new concerns and routines. New understandings and knowledge. New beginnings. New ways of problem-solving. New connections. New distances.

It’s overwhelming when everyone is cast into such newness at once. But newness isn’t new. Every day, every moment is new. Even if we tend not to notice.

As you set up your page, think about what’s new in your life lately. Have you had new thoughts? Have you noticed anything recently that you never really noticed before? What new things are you doing these days? Are you learning new kinds of information?

The page setup takes a while. Do it slowly and think about what’s new to you lately. Big things and little ones, related to the virus and not.

Draw the usual line at the top of your page where the title will go. Then divide the remainder of the page into four equal sections by drawing a vertical line and a horizontal line. Inside each of the four sections, draw a pretty-big rectangle. Plan to write inside the rectangles and draw or decorate the rest of the space.

Label each rectangle, using these four headings:

Think – Notice – Do – Information

In each of the rectangles write down what’s new to you in that category. Don’t force yourself to think specifically about the virus, and don’t avoid thinking about it either. Do notice where your mind tends to go and encourage it to go other places as well.

Skip around and gradually fill the page. Write inside the rectangles. Doodle around the outside of the rectangles. Until the page is full.

Read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add more color or decoration to the page if you want 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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

The more you look for things that are growing, the more growing things you will find.

Your mission today, in order to write your page, is to notice what’s growing.

You could begin by going outdoors into the spring day and taking a short walk, noticing all the particular types of growing that is happening around you. You could also notice spring growth by parking yourself near a window, or a houseplant.

You don’t have to limit yourself to plants, though. Or animals. Or even the outdoors. Is anything growing in your refrigerator? If you have hair, it’s growing.

Check in with your senses. Can you hear any sounds growing? Are there sensations on your skin that can grow? When something aromatic gets near your nose, what grows?

What grows when you grow drowsy?

Thoughts and ideas can grow in your imagination. They get bigger on their own when our store of information grows. They also grow when they connect to each other. What thoughts have been growing in your mind lately?

Feelings grow, too. Can you find words to describe how feelings like anger or acceptance grow in your mind and body? What grows so big inside you that you laugh? What has to grow so you can make a decision?

Roll the idea of growing around in your mind while you gather your writing tools and prepare your page to write. Draw a line where the title will go and set off a space for a drawing or two. Before you begin to write, wander somewhere.

You can wander physically by going from one random spot to another, indoors or out. You can stay in your chair and pretend you are the camera on a mosquito-sized drone exploring your surroundings. You can send an imaginary drone inside yourself to cruise around and notice what’s going on in your body and mind.

As you wander, ask, “What’s growing?”

When you notice something growing, write down what it is, how it grows and why you know it is growing.

You might fill the whole page by writing about one single thing. Or your page could turn out to look more like a list. Maybe you would rather draw what you notice growing, so that drawing takes up most of the page and there are only a few words on it.

Regardless of how your page fills up, look everything over when you are finished. Make small changes if you want to. Give your work 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 looks forward to having  Write-For-You classes in person again at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

When you have a writing practice, it doesn’t really matter what you write. The only thing that matters is that you fill up the page. Sometimes you will startle yourself with how brilliant you are. Other times you will say, “Meh. Why am even doing this?”

Even a lackluster page is a good page because you mind is working in the background, rolling over what you did and didn’t write, knitting the details together and making you a little bit more grounded.

For today’s writing, you will start with nonsense and see where it might take you.

What writing could be more nonsensical than random squiggles?

Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Then scatter a half dozen or so random squiggles evenly across the page.

Do any of them remind you of anything? A face? A bunny? A puddle? A shoe?

Pick one of the squiggles and add something to it. You could put more lines to complete the drawing. Or give it a cartoon bubble so it can say something. Or write what it is (or isn’t) next to it.

Do this for each one of the squiggles.

If you have a squiggle that is absolutely meaningless to you, add another squiggle to it and see if it turns into anything.

Don’t think very hard. Just keep messing around until your page is full.

Maybe you will end up with a page that has people or objects talking to each other. Maybe each tiny drawing will be its own masterpiece. Maybe your page will look like spaghetti with worms. Perhaps you will like some parts more than others. It doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that you sat down with your writing materials and filled up a page.

Look over the whole page. Keep adding to the drawings or writing more words until something occurs to you that somehow connects everything together. That will be your title. Or the idea for your title. Write a title at the top of the page along with the date.

Take a moment to think about what this writing was like. We easily recognize “writing” when we see a wall of orderly words on a page. This page shows you how writing can be random and disorderly, too.

Whatever you write, you mind will keep working on it, creating order, making sense, and reminding you who you are.

Even after you put the page away. Even when you are asleep.

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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

Here we are, all of us, adjusting to the New Abnormal.

A lot of people have new habits. Some are talking about new things. People are feeling uncomfortable emotions. Thoughts are different. Relationships have changed. A zillion things are new in people’s lives. Many of them are things we don’t like very much.

Today in your writing, you will be thinking about how it used to be.

Ask yourself:

What did I have in my life a month or so ago that I wish I still had now?

Then ask yourself:

What did I like about that?

When you take up your writing tools, write about what you miss.  Tell what it is and what it was like. Write what you liked about it.

Your mind might be eager to chime in with what’s crummy and rotten about not having this thing that you miss, or other things you worry about losing, but don’t write those things down.

If the gloomy thoughts come, sort them out by asking yourself:

What’s been taken away from me? What do I miss? Why did I like that?

You might find yourself writing about just one of the wonderful things that you used to have that you can’t have right now, or you might write about many. Explain how it was and what was good about it.

Don’t forget to illustrate.  You can make your page have more pictures than words if you want to. Doodling relaxes your mind. Sometimes a cartoon is the best explanation.

Fill up one page. How long does it take you? If you feel like it takes too long, consider writing with a fatter pen.

When the page is finished read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add some color or decoration to the page if you haven’t already. If the page is filled with drawing, add a few words.

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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

There’s a virus going around. It’s almost everywhere. This is the same as saying that it’s not everywhere.

Perhaps you are home alone. Perhaps you are home alone with too many people. Maybe you are sick. Maybe you can’t stay home because other people need you too much. Maybe you are angry.

Maybe you are worried about money. Maybe you are worried about people you love. Maybe you are worried about people you don’t even know. Maybe you are scared.

You are probably thinking about this whole situation a lot. Even if you don’t know what to think.

Today in your writing, think about something else.

Your mission today is to write down thoughts, observations, memories and other ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with this pandemic that we find ourselves in the middle of.

Maybe you will make a list. You could also tell one long story, or write notes for a few shorter ones. You can use the alphabet. Or colors. Restrict yourself to writing down things that are true.

You could start with the weather. You could tell the story of an object (or several) in your home. You can recall an event from when you were half the age that you are now. You can explain how gravity or a dishwasher work.

Write anything, as long as it has nothing to do with this scary disease and all of the things about it that are out of your control.

If you start writing about something unrelated to the virus, you are likely to be reminded of the virus somehow. Don’t write that part down. Your pen is easier to discipline than your mind. But your pen can show your mind that all thoughts don’t have to lead to virus thoughts.

A couple of things will happen when you do this.

• Writing, just writing—pushing your pen across the page—will make you a little bit calmer than you’d be if you weren’t writing.
• Inside your own personal universe, the space that is not-virus will grow. Your actions and decisions will be informed by this space.
• Someday in the future you will look back at this page and remember this time. You will like what you have written. It will remind you of doing your best. It will make you appreciate yourself more.

So get out the writing stuff. Draw a line across the page where the title will go. Leave a little bit of space for a drawing. Get to work.

It’s one positive thing you can do today. And it won’t take very long.

After you have filled a page, read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add some color or decoration to the page if you haven’t already. 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. More than anything else, she hopes you are being good to yourself. She looks forward to the time that Write-For-You classes can start up in person again at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

By now you’ve probably seen the of images of empty shelves in stores. Or heard lots of jokes about hoarding toilet paper. Maybe you have done some stocking up. It’s perfectly reasonable not to want to run out of things that are important to you.

What don’t you want to run out of?

Think about that as you set up your page for a bit of writing. Draw a line at the top where the title will go, and set off a space for doodling or illustration.

What matters to you in your life?

There are material things, of course. Most people care about food, shelter and clothing. Food gets consumed and you will always need more. Clothing wears out or becomes wrong for the season, or sometimes you just don’t like what you have anymore and want new things. Running out of shelter entirely is a tragedy, and you also don’t want to run out of the things that make your shelter clean, sturdy and comfortable.

What specific things in the food, shelter, and clothing departments don’t you want to run out of?

Beyond the basics, there are other material things that we want to have in our lives—art supplies, technology, gasoline, potting soil, novels, candy… The list is endless, and nobody should be ashamed of what they want.

There are also non-material things that we don’t want to drain from our lives. Affection, perhaps? Laughter? Information? Understanding? What invisible things would cause you a visible or invisible wound if they left your life and never came back?

Write about what you don’t want to run out of today. To get started, you can use a sentence in the form of:

I don’t want to run out of ­­­______, because….

You can then explain why this thing is important for you. You might also want to expand a bit and tell what you do to make sure you don’t run out of it. Or tell a story about how much you didn’t like it when you did run out of this thing.

Maybe you will write about one thing. Perhaps you will write about many.

Different things are important to different people. Noticing what you don’t want to disappear from your life can help give you direction. It can also help you better understand yourself, your situation, and your motivations.

After you have filled a page, read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add some color or decoration to the page if you haven’t already. 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 occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.