In the News

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.