Category: Write for You Blog

by Nancy Casey

Begin by setting up your page. Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Then write all the letters of the alphabet, A-Z, down the left-hand side of the page.

Next to each letter, write a word that begins with that letter. Any word. You can choose from your surroundings or memory. You can write down whatever pops into your mind. Often it’s easier or skip around the alphabet rather than plod from A-Z.

When your word list is complete, look it over and pick a word to begin with. Whatever that word is, compare it to something else. Anything else. You can be silly or serious, or both.

One way to make comparisons is to think about the qualities of things. Qualities are ideas you can use to describe something—size, weight, reliability, difficulty, color, sweetness, speed… Comparisons based on qualities might use words like bigger, easier, more nutritious, slower, taller, rounder, harder to remember…

You can also put together a comparison by choosing one of the words from your list and naming something else—anything!—that you will compare it to. In that case, you hold the two words in your mind and think about the qualities that they do and don’t share.

No matter what two things you think of, there is always a way to compare them. This is obviously true if you are comparing two different pairs of shoes, and equally true if you are comparing a rattlesnake to a thunderstorm.

When you have written a comparison using each of your 26 words, look back over your work. If you like, add some illustration or decoration while you think about it.

Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. And write the date on it. Here is just one 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. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

Of all the things, possible and impossible, that a person could do in the world, which ones haven’t you done? A rather long list, no doubt. Think about the zillions of things you haven’t done while you settle in to write and set up your page.

No doubt there are all sorts of things you meant to do, but didn’t. (Yet?) Also things you woulda-coulda-shoulda done—and didn’t.

Consider some of the things you are really glad you didn’t do. (Whew!) Or things that you didn’t do because you don’t care about them enough to bother.

Most people don’t break the laws of biology or physics when they get up in the morning—or at any other time. Imagine all the things you haven’t done because you can’t time travel or be in two places at once. What haven’t you done because you can’t fly or breathe under water? You could write about any number of those.

As you let ideas about what you didn’t do float into your mind, get out your writing stuff. Arrange the things in front of you in a way you find pleasing. Take a breath or two. Wiggle around a little to loosen yourself up. Pick up your pen and start.

Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Set aside some space for illustration if you like. Start drawing or doodling if it helps your mind settle down and focus.

When an idea about something you didn’t do comes to your mind, start writing it down immediately. Don’t get all fussy about whether the idea is good enough. It is.

Explain a lot or a little about what you didn’t do. It’s possible to fill up a whole page explaining what you didn’t do, why you didn’t, whether you could have, who can do it, how and where it is normally done, who else would be interested… There is so much you could say.

You might decide that you don’t want to say anything extra about what you didn’t do. Then your page would look more like a list. If some items on the list merit explanation, include some more information. Just let the ideas flow and try to keep pace with them as you write.

When you get to the bottom of the page, look back over your work. Pause to add illustration or decoration if you like.

Did your writing fall into any kind of a pattern? Is there some kind of story it tells? If so, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If not, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. 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.

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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.

by Nancy Casey

You can find writing all over the place. In books and on food labels. Road signs. Fine print. Where else?

Today, write about where writing can be found, whether anyone reads it or not.

Consciously notice all the writing that you see while you get ready to write. Get out your stuff. Organize your space.  Move or stretch your body a bit. Take a big breath in and a long exhale.

At the top of a clean sheet of paper, draw a line where you will put your title after you have written a page. Mark off some space for illustration if you like. Or draw a frame around the page that you can decorate if you like to draw and doodle while you think.

Where can you find writing? Write down the very first answer that pops into your mind. Tell something about that writing, but don’t tell what it actually says. You could tell what kind of writing it is or how the letters or marks look. You can explain where the writing is and who, if anyone, is likely to read it. Maybe you know who wrote it. What language is it in?

After you have written something about one bit of writing, look around you and scour your memory. Where else can you find writing?

Maybe you want to stretch the definition of writing to mean something other than what people do with words and letters. If you can read animal tracks, do they count as writing? Geologists talk about what is written in rocks. What does it mean if something is written all over your face?

If you think about all the different places you can find writing, you end up thinking about the places where you can’t find writing. If that’s interesting to you, write about that!

When you get to the bottom of the page, look back over your work. Pause to add illustration or decoration if you like.

Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. And write the date on it. Here is just one 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. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

When you put something together, you end up with a new thing, one that wasn’t there before the putting-together occurred. Take a moment to think about all the different ways that putting-together can happen.

People put together everything from bicycles to dishwashers by following (or not following!) the directions.

You can put ideas together in your mind and make new ones.

You can put together things like meals and videos.

What happens when you put certain people or pets together? What does a person put together to make a life?

Putting-together always starts with pieces and parts. It finishes with some kind of result.

Set your mind loose with putting-together thoughts while you put together your writing situation. If you haven’t already, get out your stuff. Arrange the things in front of you in a way that looks pleasing to you. Take a breath or two. Wiggle your feet, hips and shoulders.

Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Set aside some space for illustration if you like. Start drawing or doodling in it if it helps get your mind together.

As soon as an idea comes to you, start writing it down.

You could start with some pieces and parts and explain what can be put together from them.

Or you could decide to start with the results and explain what pieces and parts must be put together to achieve them.

Another possibility is to consider a typical day and write about all the various types of putting-together it contains.

When you get to the bottom of the page, look back over your work. Pause to add illustration or decoration if you like.

Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. 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.

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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.

by Nancy Casey

For today’s writing, you will fill a page with questions. The catch? The answer to every one of your questions must be “More than 10.”

Think about that as you get ready for your writing session…

Get out your stuff. Organize your writing space a little bit. Arrange the things in front of you in a way that looks pleasing to you. Take a breath or two. Wiggle your feet, hips and shoulders

Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Set aside some space for illustration if you like. Start drawing or doodling in it if it helps your mind focus.

Wait for the questions to drift in, and when they do, write them down.

It’s likely your questions will begin with the words, “How many…?”

You can ask questions about time. How many centuries, days, minutes. Those questions might also have words like until, since, before, or after.

You can ask questions about living things and inanimate ones. How many does it take? How many is enough, or too many? How many will you find? How many are forgotten, useful, understood…?

Questions that start out, “How many times…?” are about actions or events. How many times did someone (or something) fall, disappear, get wet,…?

Your questions can be serious or ridiculous. Maybe you can make up questions out of details from your surroundings. Perhaps you can ask questions about something you are trying to learn or a hobby that you have. You can ask questions that come entirely from your imagination. You can even use made-up words. (How many glips in a glop?)

When you have filled up the page with questions that can be answered with “More than 10,” look back over your work. Pause to add illustration or decoration if you like.

Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. And write the date on it. Here is just one 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. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

Put a fire in your writing today. Literally. Write about anything that you want to, as long as it has at least one fire in it.

As you set up your page, think about fires that you have seen or heard about, fires that you have started, and fires you have put out. And every other kind of fire that might pop into your imagination.

Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Set aside some space for illustration if you like. Draw or doodle while you wait for an idea to come into your mind. When an idea presents itself, start writing. Even if the idea seems lame.

The first fires you might think of are the kind with flames that burn stuff up in front of you. Or perhaps you mind will fall upon all the fiery bodies in the universe. If we burn calories, does that mean that there are little fires in each one of our cells?

What kind of fire is it when someone is all fired up about something?  What burns when a person fires off a tweet, a retort, or a gun? Are there flames when someone gets fired?

If you get burned, what do the ashes look like? What do burning questions devour?

Invite your imagination to roam freely in and around the notion of fire. Fill up a page with some of those thoughts. Then look back over your work. Squeeze in some additions or changes if needed.

Add some type of illustration or decoration to your page if you like.

Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. And write the date on it. Here is just one 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. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

You’ll be writing about wheels today.

Before you begin, spend a minute or two getting ready. Organize your writing space a little bit. Get out your stuff. Arrange the things in front of you in a way that looks pleasing to you.  Take a breath or two. Wiggle your feet, hips and shoulders. Empty your mind of everything except wheels.

Draw a line at the top of the page where your title will go. Set aside some space for illustration if you like. Start drawing or doodling in it if it helps your mind focus.

Wait for an idea with a wheel in it to come into your mind. When it does, start writing.

You could consider all the forms of transportation that use wheels—cars, buses, trucks, trains, bicycles. Unicycles, grocery carts, wheelbarrows. Do you have any experience with these?

How do you imagine the wheels that people speak of poetically? Wheels of time and the seasons, for instance, or the wheel of life.

Have you ever wheeled around? Done a wheelie? What kind of wheel would you find in a wheelhouse? What will you get if you wheel and deal?

Have you ever built a wheel? Broken one? Been run over by one?

Is a fan a wheel? A roundabout? A galaxy?

Let your imagination run away with ideas about wheels and fill up your page with them.

When you get to the bottom of the page, look back over your work. Pause to add illustration or decoration if you like.

Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. And write the date on it. Here is just one 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. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

Tilt your head back the littlest bit and notice how that feels. Does your neck bend? Do your shoulders move? Do you feel it anywhere else, like your low back or your feet?

Move your head gently to the left and right. Notice how that feels. As you do this, look out “straight.” Except that “straight” is not where it usually is. With your head tilted back, “straight” is a little bit “up.”

Keep looking a little bit “up,” and move your gaze to the right and the left. Take note of everything you see when you are looking up from your usual line of vision.

That’s what you will write about today.

Before you start writing, practice looking up and to the left and right. Then set up your page. Draw a line at the top where your title will go. Set aside illustration or doodling space if you like. Then get your pen moving. If an idea for something to write doesn’t come to you immediately, doodle on the page until one does. Pause often and look up.

Maybe you will notice an object you haven’t paid attention to for a long time, and it has such a big story to go with it that you will take up the whole page when you tell it.

Maybe your page of writing will turn out to be more like a list of all the things that you see from this different angle of vision.

Your writing could also be a combination of these two. Or maybe you will start writing down memories of other times you have looked up and seen something that still sticks in your mind.

You could even write about the experience of looking up itself, what it felt like and any surprises that you had.

When the page is full, look back over your work. Pause to add illustration or decoration if you like. Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. And write the date on it. Here is just one example of the type of thing 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. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

When somebody uses the phrase, “In the middle”, they could be talking about a lifespan, a seating arrangement, or a sandwich. Look around the world in front of you. Scour your memories and imagination. Ask yourself, “What’s in the middle?”  Write about that today.

Before you begin writing, take a few breaths and settle yourself into the task. Get your page set up by drawing a line across the top where you will write a title when you have finished. Set aside some space for illustration if you like. As you do this, think about “middles.”

Sometimes the middle is in space. Two objects exist somewhere, and between them is something else. The two objects could be fence posts, houseplants, or galaxies. They don’t have to be identical objects, either. A shoe that sits between a purse and a dog is in the middle. The thing you are looking for can be in the middle of a pile or the middle of the floor.

The middle can also exist in time. Lunch, for example is before dinner and after breakfast, so it’s in the middle. Any moment in time has a moment that comes before it and one that comes after, so it’s in the middle. You could pick a moment in time and ask yourself what that moment is in the middle of.

What tends to happen in the middle of the day? What about the middle of the night?

Situations can have middles, too. It’s not pleasant to be caught in the middle of somebody else’s conflict. We don’t like to be interrupted when we are in the middle of something. 

Write about a location, a time, or a situation that has a middle. What’s in the middle? Provide as much information as you would like: what it is, how it got there, whether or not it belongs there or will stay there. You can write about several different middles, or maybe you have so much to say about the first one that it will fill your page.

However your page fills up, look back over you work. Add illustration or decoration if you like. Do your ideas form any kind of a pattern? Do they seem to be about a bigger idea that you hadn’t really planned on writing about? If they do, maybe you can use that insight to think up a title. If they don’t, make up some kind of a title anyway and write it at the top of the page.

Put your initials or a signature on the page, too. And write the date on it. Here is just one example of the type of thing 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. 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.