Category: Write for You Blog

by Nancy Casey

You shouldn’t say “should.” Should you?

We’ve all probably observed ourselves or someone else organizing all of life into a pile of “shoulds.” I should do this. I should do that. I should do stop doing this other thing. I should forget about it. I should vacuum, study, walk, apologize, eat, sleep, sing, listen, work…

The problem with such a pile of “shoulds,” of course, is that they can get to weigh so heavy on your shoulders that you can’t get anything done.

But people wouldn’t lay all those “shoulds” upon themselves with no reason. There is always something better behind it.

Today’s writing will be in two parts. First you will take a few minues—only a few!—to wallow in your “shoulds.” Then you will look behind them for the good things hiding there.

Begin with a clean sheet of paper. Draw a vertical line down the middle of it, so it is divided into two halves, left and right. (Leave a little bit of room at the top to write the title after you have finished.)

Down the left-hand side, write the letters of the alphabet, A through Z. Now pretend you have superpowers. For each letter, write down something you “should” do that begins with that letter. Because of your superpowers, when you finish writing, you will wave your hand and everything on your list will be accomplished. So go a head and be extravagant with your should

Should you have something for every letter? You can decide.

Look back over your list. Ask yourself about the good things that happens when each of the “shoulds” gets done. When the “should” gets accomplished, something about it will make you happy. It might be little or it might be big.

On the right hand side of the page, use the ideas that come from the “shoulds” to write about things that make you happy.

You can write the second part, any way you want. You can make another list, write random thoughts, or explain something in detail. Every time something from your “should” list reminds you of something that makes you happy, write the happy part down.

For example… Imagine that for the letter “F” someone wrote, “Fix the roof.” The thing that makes them happy about having the roof fixed could be something like “getting the important chores finished” or “learning how to do something new.” (It depends on the person. It could be lots of things.)

When you have finished writing, go back over the page and draw stars by the best parts.

Give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Add decoration and color to the page as 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. You can 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.

by Nancy Casey

Fire is warm. It burns. It glows. It can smolder, or explode.

Write a page that describes some of the fires in your life.

What kind of fire keeps you warm as the season gets colder? Many different kinds of things can keep such fires going—wood, electricity, fossil fuels. Do different fires warm you in different ways throughout the day?

Where are the fires that cook your food?

Think about all the things that you see during the day that give off light. What is burning to make that light?

You burn energy inside your body, too. And people talk about neurons that “fire” when we think and act. Do you have a sense of those kinds of fires burning inside you?

Sometimes the word “fire” is used in a descriptive way. What burns inside a person who has a “firey personality?” What happens inside a conversation when it turns into a “firey exchange?”

Where are the flames when you feel a burning desire for something? What kind of spark causes a person to burn with rage? What catches fire when somebody or something “crashes and burns?”

What glows? What shines? Every time you aren’t engulfed in total frozen darkness, there has to be some kind of fire somewhere.

Write about some of the different fires that burn or have burned in your life. From the tiny fires that keep the inner and outer world going. To the big conflagrations that change everything at once. And all the medium-sized fires in between.

When you have filled a page, give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Add decoration and color to the page as needed. Here is an example of what a person could write.

Share what you have written! Post it as a comment below. You can 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.

by Nancy Casey

We often talk about the past and the present as if there is a clear dividing line between the two. Yet the past adds richness and depth to our present moments, so it’s never completely gone.

Today you will write a page that plays with the way the present and the past are braided up together.

Begin with the present. Take in your immediate surroundings. What objects are you aware of? What sounds do you hear? Can you detect any movement? What’s on your mind?

As soon as your awareness lands on something present in your world, write down what it is. It’s best to write whatever comes to mind first, rather than trying to come up with a “good idea.” Any idea will work. Write a line or two.

Then look up, look around, and let your awareness fall on something else that’s in the present tense for you. Drop down about 3 lines on the page and describe what you noticed.

Look up, notice something new, leave about 3 lines of space, and write that down. Fill the page this way—although the page won’t really be “full” because there is a lot of white space in it.

Change to a different color of pen.

Go back to the first thing you have written. In the blank space that follows add some information that has to do with the past.

Read the second thing you have written about the present. Add an idea that has something to do with the past.

Continue that way down the page, adding a thought about the past in the blank space after each thought from the present.

You will end up with a description of a series of present moments, along with some information about how each moment is woven into the past.

When you have finished, read over what you have written and give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Add decoration and color to the page as 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. You can 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.

by Nancy Casey

Before you write today, spend about 20 minutes making something. Then write about making it.

What should you make? Anything, of course.

You can use any tools or materials that you want. You can pile up random things and call it a sculpture. You can fix something or make someone a present. You can make something frivolous or practical. Just set a timer for 20 minutes and get going. If you work longer than 20 minutes, that’s great. Make sure to set aside enough time so that you can write a page about what you did.

Maybe you already have some kind of a project going, something you are already making. Go work on it for a while, and write about what you did.

Perhaps you are too busy right now to go make something, or maybe you don’t consider yourself the “making” type. No worries, people make all kinds of things during the course of a normal day. People make their beds and their lunches. They make piles of dishes and laundry, clean and dirty. People make order—in drawers and closets, on desks and shelves.

Instead of setting out to make a certain thing, you can consider the “making” that’s involved in things that you ordinarily do. Then do one of those things, and write about it.

What should you write? Anything, of course.

Look at what you made. Or take a picture of it. Write about what you see and what it reminds you of.

You can describe what you made and how you made it. You can write about the things you used or touched to make it. You can tell what it is and why it’s useful—or not. You can explain why you made it and whether or not it came out the way you intended.

Another way to “write” about what you made is to draw it. You can do some combination of both if that seems like a good idea.

After you have filled up a page, give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Look it over carefully, and add things if you want. You can add words, or color, or decoration. Here is an example of what a person could write.

You can share your work by posting it as a comment below. You can type it in. 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.

by Nancy Casey

Begin by taking some time to think about all the different times that people have helped you. While you do that you could take a walk, do a task that doesn’t involve words, or just sit somewhere pleasant.

Help comes in many ways.

Sometimes help can literally save a person’s life. Someone can be bleeding, physically or emotionally. Someone else comes along and does something to make the bleeding stop.

Help also comes along when disasters aren’t happening. Someone listens to you or shares good advice. Someone does the dishes or moves a couch. Help makes life easier and more pleasant.

Sometimes one person asks another to do something. They do it. That’s help.

Help comes indirectly and by accident, too. Someone can say something casually and 10 years later someone else still notices how profoundly they were affected by it. People who feel like they are just living a life can inspire friends or strangers with their example.

If somebody hurts you and you learn a lot from it, that’s not help. That’s something else entirely. If those kinds of things keep popping into your mind as you remember how you have been helped, set them aside for another time. Save them for a day when you want to write about how you have overcome adversity.

After thinking about it for a while, begin to write about times you’ve gotten help. But don’t explain anything about what you needed and what it was like to get the help. Don’t identify anyone by name. Just write a line or two. Find some good details you can put in without giving away the story.

For example, if your dad always gave you good advice and his favorite chair was green, you could write, “What the man in the green chair said.” If you watched children on a playground and understood something new and important about yourself or others, you could write, “Listening to the argument that two short people had in the park.” If you were being taken away in an ambulance and a person sat beside you saying calm, reassuring things, you could call it, “A soothing voice in a strange car.”

You will end up writing a page full of things that sound interesting enough. But only you will know what they really, really mean.

When you have finished, give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too.

Then go back and look at your page. Hold it out at arms’ length and squint so it just looks like writing and white space. Then do something to fill up the white space. More words, doodles, drawings. It doesn’t matter, just give the page the squint-test and keep adding things until it looks full.

While you do this, if you get an idea for a different title, put it underneath the first one. If you don’t, no worries.

Here is an example of what a person could write.

Share what you have written! Post it as a comment below. You can 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.

by Nancy Casey

In the world of English grammar, verbs are the words that describe action. Action is everywhere. Every living thing is doing something all the time, and so are non-living things, even if we don’t pay much attention.

In your writing today, you will be on the lookout for action and try to notice it in lots of different ways. When you do that, you are thinking up verbs.

Begin with a clean sheet of paper. Settle into a place with a lot of things in front of you. Maybe you’ll be looking out a window or across a room. You could be in a public place like a library or a park bench. You could be in your home. You can even be someplace where you are convinced nothing ever happens. (If you are sitting two feet away from a blank wall, maybe you will want to choose a different location.)

In your mind, start naming what’s in front of you. Write down a list of the names of the things (or people, or animals) that you see. Write the words in a column down the left-hand side of the page. Skip a line between each one. The words you write won’t be verbs. They are nouns, the names of things (or pets or people.)

Nouns come to life when you think up verbs to go along with them.

For each of the things (nouns) on your list, write a sentence that describes what it is doing.

For some things it will be easy—kids running, windshield wipers swishing, water boiling. For other things, you have to wake up your creativity and see the world from their point of view.

Often your first thought will be that an object is not doing anything, but even lying there doing nothing is doing something! Things that don’t appear to be doing much could be waiting or remembering. Dust covers a table. Grass can push up towards the sky or uncrumple itself after being walked on. The air fills up with moisture when it’s humid and sucks the moisture from your skin when it’s dry. The trick is to turn your mind sideways and try to see the world from the point of view of the thing you are looking at.

As you go down your list of nouns, if you have trouble noticing what something is doing and don’t know what to write, just skip it and go on to the next one. By the time you get back to it later, you will probably have an idea that you can use. Try not to use any verbs more than once.

By the time you have filled the page, you will have demonstrated to yourself that even a quiet room can be a busy, active place!

When you have finished, give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Add decoration and color to the page as needed. Here is an example of what a person could write.

Share what you have written! Post it as a comment below. You can 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.