In the News

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.