Category: Write for You Blog

by Nancy Casey

Before the year 2019 slips away, you can use your writing to recall events that were important to you and to notice the many things that have changed for you as those 365 days marched by.

Set up your page first. Draw a line at the top where the title will go. Divide the remaining space on the page into 12 more-or-less equal parts. Label the parts with the names of the months, January through December. Don’t write the labels too big because you want to have room to write something in the space, too.

Scan back through your memories of the past year. Try to recall the different months. What comes to mind as you remember your year? What month was it?

In the spaces you made on your page, write something down about every month of the past year. Anything that you remember. Skip around the different months, don’t try to force yourself to do it in order.

It can be hard to remember something specific from every month right away. Sometimes it takes some thought.  Doodle on your page and see what pops into your mind. Or get up and do something else for a while.

Sometimes you can jog your memory by reviewing the year’s weather. What do you remember from the seasons when it was warm or cold? Did you get rained on this year? When?

You might think of special events. Holidays and vacations. Birthdays—your own, or somebody elses?

Maybe you had a change-of-heart or a new realization about someone or something. Maybe you learned something new or understood something for the first time.

Perhaps you have experienced or witnessed major life events—births, deaths, marriages, divorces, job changes, illness, moving, a new friend. Ask yourself, “In what month did all that happen?”

When you have recalled something for every month and written something about it in that month’s space, look back over your work. Make additions and small changes if you like. Add color or illustration if you choose.

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.

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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

by Nancy Casey

A jar is a glass container with a screw-on lid. Right?

Does it have to be glass? Must it have a lid? Can it be a lid that snaps on? If the glass shatters and it is a broken jar, is that still a jar?

No matter how you actually define them, there are lots of jars in the world and probably lots of jars in your life. Today, write about some of those jars.

You could look around yourself and write about any jars that you see. You can think about the jars in your home, or someone else’s. Do you have any favorite jars or favorite kinds of jars?

What about the things that are in the jars? You could describe what they are and why you have them. What kinds of things do people put in jars? What do you like that comes out of a jar? What would you never put into a jar?

Maybe there are jars that you wish you had. Maybe you are a hoarder of jars. Maybe you hate jars and throw away every single one that you can.

You can think about jars in an imaginary way, such as jars that hold memories or conversations that you have forgotten. Jars full of moonlight. Jars of time. Is there something you wish you could go and fetch from a jar?

Today, write something about jars, or one particular jar, real or imaginary.

Fill up the page. Add illustration or color if you like.

When you have finished writing, take a careful look at 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.

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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.

by Nancy Casey

Sit yourself down in front of a scene or a situation. It can be somewhere in your home, at work, or in public. Somewhere indoors or out. A café, a park, a hallway—anywhere.

Get your page ready. Mark off a space that you will use for illustration. Draw a line across the top of the page to save space for a title. (Don’t write the actual title until after you have filled up the page.)

Settle in. Take in your surroundings. Try to use all of your senses.

Along the left-hand side of the page, write a list of what comes into your awareness. You could write down the names of things that you can see. Can you also write the names of sounds or tastes or textures? Write down words that match what you take in from your surroundings.

Keep adding items to your list until you reach the bottom of the page. Draw a line that separates the long column of words from the rest of the page.

Read over the words slowly. Think about them.

In the big, empty space on the rest of the page, begin writing. Write about anything that you want, real or imagined. As you write, include as many of the words on the left-hand side of the page as you possibly can.

You could, for example, describe what’s in front of you, using the words on your list to guide you along.

You could make up an entire scene or story that uses words from your list and has nothing to do with what’s in front of you.

If you get stuck or don’t know what to write, pick a random word on the list and write something about it. You can work your way down the whole page like that, picking one word at a time.

If you get completely stuck, draw or doodle in your illustration space. Glance at your list now and again. Eventually an idea for what to write will pop into your mind.

After you have filled the page, look it over carefully. 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.

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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.

by Nancy Casey

There’s no accounting for taste. There are foods that other people love that you absolutely can’t stand. What are they?

Are there foods that make you shudder? Are there foods that make you gag? Are there foods that you dislike so much that you can’t even stand watching someone else eat them?

Are you allergic to any foods? What happens if you eat them?

Today, write about the foods you never eat—if you can help it.

Draw a line at the top of the page so there’s room to put a title later. Reserve a little bit of space for illustration or doodling.

Print the name of a yucky (to you) food in capital letters.  Next to the name of the food, write a little bit about your relationship with that food. What is disgusting about it? How does it feel in your mouth? What does it remind you of? Have you ever tasted it? Who likes it?

When you finish with that food, print the name of another food you find awful, and tell something about that.

Fill up the page that way, writing about the foods that you don’t eat.

When you have finished writing, 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.

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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.

by Nancy Casey

Before you write this page, draw a line at the top where the title will go. You will figure out a good title after you have finished writing.

Set off some space where an illustration will go. It’s always good to add a picture or some doodles to your page. Drawing can help you think up what to write. A bit of color makes your page more interesting to look at.

Today you will write short paragraphs. Paragraphs that are exactly three sentences long…

• One of the sentences must be true.
• One of the sentences must be false.
• One of the sentences can be either true or false—your choice.

The sentences can be in any order. You can start with a sentence that’s true. Or you can start with something false.

Maybe you will write two true sentences and a false one. Maybe two of your sentences will be false and only one of them true.

If another person were to read your page, maybe they will be able to tell what’s true and what’s false—or maybe they won’t.

Write as many of these three-sentence paragraphs as you can fit on the page.

When you have finished writing, 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.

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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.

by Nancy Casey

Get yourself situated in a place where there is something to look at. It can be indoors or outdoors. What shapes do you see in front of you?

Instead of taking note of the names of objects you see in front of you, take note of their shapes.

Rather than saying to yourself, “book…tree…pile of laundry,” you could say, “rectangle…triangle…blob.” Or something like that.

Look for rectangles and squares, circles and ovals, triangles and, of course, blobs. Study the blobs. Sometimes they are combination shapes, such as a square glued to an oval. Or a circle with a triangle cut out of it.

Try not to look at things. Look at shapes instead. Don’t say bicycle, ask yourself what shapes that thing is made of.

Set up your page. You can rotate the paper so the page is either wide or long. Draw a line at the top where the title will go.

Draw the shapes you have been looking at. Spread them out across the page more or less the same way they are spread out in front of you. Just the shapes. A circle here, a square there, and so forth.

Don’t try to make the drawing “look like” anything other than a bunch of shapes.

After you have drawn shapes for a while, write something somewhere on the page. You can write something about the drawing or the scene in front of you. You can write about what has drifted into your mind.

After writing a bit, go back to the shapes. Can you add details and more shapes? Some shapes have shadows that are also shapes. Sometimes you can see shapes inside of shapes. Different shapes might be different colors.

When you feel done with shapes, go back to writing. Alternate between writing words and working on the shapes until there is nowhere left to write or draw on the page.

Look over the whole page carefully. Make small changes if you want to. Wait for a title to pop into your mind, and then write it at the top of the page. Write the date on the page, too.

Here is an example of what someone’s page could look like.

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.

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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.

by Nancy Casey

Tables are everywhere—in homes, workplaces, on downtown sidewalks. Today, choose a table in your life and write about it.

There are many ways you can write about a table. You can tell its history or you can explain the various useful things that it does. Your table doesn’t have to appear “normal.” Some tables get overturned, walked on, or folded up.

Some tables have been sold, lost, or destroyed, but they are remembered.

You can write from the perspective of the table if you like. What does the table think about the faces that hover over it or the things people put on it? Are there things that make it angry, tired or happy? Does it think about the future? Can a tablecloth change its attitude? What does it remember?

While you are thinking about what to write, set up your page. Draw a line where you can put a title after you have finished writing.

Set off an area for an illustration. You can draw a table, of course, but you can also draw anything you want. You can just doodle, or even color the whole illustration space one solid color. When you run your pen or pencil around on the page without any words involved, it relaxes your mind and helps you understand your writing better.

When you look back at your pages, the ones with the drawings look the best—no matter what you drew.

When you have filled the page, reread your work. Make small changes to the writing or the drawing 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.

by Nancy Casey

When you write about what you don’t know, you have an infinity of possibilities to choose from. So infinite, in fact, that it helps to narrow it down. Today, write about what you don’t know by writing sentences or paragraphs that begin, “I wonder where…”

Sometimes we wonder things like where the other brown sock went. We wonder about where a lot of lost things are, even when we don’t expect to find them. Sometimes we wonder where a person is.

You can “wonder where” about the future. Think about planning a trip or moving to a new place. Think about your daily activities. Do you wonder where they will take place in the future?

You can “wonder where” someone or something comes from. Maybe you wonder where a certain idea comes from.

Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Mark off some space on the page for doodling or illustration. Then begin to write.

Write the words “I wonder where…” on the first line of the page and see if you get an idea for what to put next. If you do, keep on writing. If an idea doesn’t come to you immediately, start to doodle or draw and occasionally repeat the phrase, “I wonder where…” An idea for what to write will come to mind.

“Wondering where” always involves thinking about a place. That place can be in the past or the future. It can be a place in your mind, or a place in history. The possibilities are infinite.

Maybe you will write many details about what you are wondering about. Maybe you will move on quickly and wonder about something or someone else. If you feel stuck about what to write, go back to doodling.

When you have filled the page, look it over. Make small changes to the writing or the drawing 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.

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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.

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.

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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.