In the News

by Nancy Casey

Get started by doodling on your page. Let the tip of your pen ramble around. Watch as it makes lines and curves. At the same time, let your mind doodle. Ask yourself how many different ways you can use the word ground.

Underground. Ground zero. Grounded. Ground coffee. The ground.

Before you begin to write, draw a line at the top of your page where you will put the title after you have finished writing. You can include this line as part of your doodling. Keep allowing yourself to mind-doodle, and you’ll notice more and more ways the word ground pops up in everyday converstion.

Hit the ground running. Stand your ground. Ground-breaking. From the ground up.

Then start writing. Write whatever you want. Try to use the word ground as much as you can.

If you want to, you can be playful and think more about how your writing sounds than what it means. Just let yourself write semi-ridiculous stuff that repeats the word ground over and over. It might not end up to be ridiculous.

You could slip in words that rhyme with ground and whatever your write would probably be more interesting.

You could write a true or made-up story about a person who lives on the ground floor of a building and cares about ground balls. Or grounds-keeping, ground rules, or ground glass. Perhaps you have a story to tell about a person sleeping on the ground.

Unless you are in outer space, the ground is all around you. If you are down in a mine, where is the ground? What’s on the floor around you? Is the floor the ground? You could write a long list of details about the ground around you, indoors or out.

Maybe you have something to say about ground water. Or groundnuts.

When you reach the bottom of the page, read everything over again and make small changes if you like. Add to your drawings and doodles, too. Maybe you want to use extra colors.

When you decide the page is completely finished, give it a title. Write the date somewhere on it, too.

Regardless of how you fill the page, you will probably feel more grounded afterwards than you did before you started.

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 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. If you would like to do this exercise or others like it with a group of people, come to the Write-for-You class at the Latah Recovery Center on Thursdays at 5pm. Anyone can join. Just show up! You can attend just for fun or work to earn a writing certificate. For more information, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Community Center.

by Nancy Casey

A person usually doesn’t have to search very hard to find a hat. Or a person wearing a hat. Maybe you are wearing a hat. If you search your memory and imagination for hats, you will never run out of them.

Today, write something that has to do with hats.

You could write about hats you have worn throughout your life. You could write the life story of one single hat.

Are there hats you have loved or hated? Hats you have lost or found? Maybe you have an ex-favorite hat that you would never put on your head today.

Some people like to make hats. Some people never wear them.

If you twist a scarf around your head, is that a hat? Is the hood of a hoodie a hat? How about a bicycle helmet or flowers in your hair—would they count as hats? What’s the most creative or unusual hat that you know of?

What can a hat communicate about a person’s identity? When a hat is part of a uniform, for example, it tells you what to expect from the person who is wearing it. Hats can also signal a group identity or show the world what a person is interested in. Do you have hats that tell who you are? Do you have any hats that mean one thing to you and something else to other people?

Hats are just plain functional, too. They can keep a head warm, shade the eyes, or protect a bald spot from sunburn.

And of course, hats are fashionable.

Write something about a hat. Or many hats. Real or imaginary, remembered or forgotten. Draw on the page, too, if you want to.

When the page is full, 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. If you would like to do this exercise or others like it with a group of people, contact the Latah Recovery Community Center and ask about writing groups and classes.

by Nancy Casey

Today, write about the furniture in your life. It could be furniture you are sitting on now, furniture from your past, or furniture that only exists in your imagination.

While your mind wanders among the many couches, tables, rugs and footstools you have known, set up a page for writing.

Draw a line at the top of the page to leave room to write a title later. Write the date on the page somewhere. Mark off a section of the page for drawing. You could draw some furniture, of course, but really you can draw anything at all.  If you can’t decide what to write about, draw and doodle for a bit first.

What can you say about furniture? Is the furniture you are thinking of comfortable? Borrowed? An Heirloom? Ugly?

You could write about how a piece of furniture came into your life and describe the history you have shared together.  Maybe someone likes this piece of furniture more than you do.

Furniture can require maintenance and repair. It can be found to have many different uses.

Was there furniture you were not allowed to sit on as a child? Do you have furniture that you won’t let children sit on?

One of the most grueling adventures a person can have is moving all their furniture from one living space to another.

Some people never rearrange their furniture. Others move things around often. Which type of person are you?

What is furniture anyway? Tables and chairs, for sure. Are curtains furniture? A bathtub? You can decide.

Begin by writing about one specific piece of furniture. If that doesn’t fill the whole page, write about a second one, and a third or fourth one, too.

When you have finished writing, reread your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add drawings and decoration. 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. If you would like to do this exercise or others like it with a group of people, come to the Write-for-You class at the Latah Recovery Center on Thursdays at 5pm. Anyone can join. Just show up! You can attend just for fun or work to earn a writing certificate. For more information, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Community Center.

by Nancy Casey

To accomplish your writing today, you must take yourself on a field trip to a place where there are people. Anywhere, as long as there is at least one person.

Such a field trip could be a walk down a busy street, a meal in a restaurant, a trip to the library, or an evening with friends or family. It could be an event or situation from a workplace, a gym, or a church. Take yourself to a place where you will find one or more people.

If it’s not possible to take yourself physically to such a place, you can go in your imagination instead. One way to do that is to remember things. Another way to do that is to make things up.

Once you are immersed in your field trip, begin writing down the details of the place and situation. Here is the catch: Don’t write anything about the people.

Suppose you are meeting a friend for lunch and you decide to make that outing count as your field trip. As you eat and visit with your friend, collect details that you can write down later. Notice how the food smells, the color of the plates, the pictures on the restaurant wall and the cars parked outside. These are the things you will write about. You won’t be writing anything about your companion, the server, or your fellow diners. Even if somebody’s baby screams through the whole meal, a baby is a person, so you can’t write about that.

If you travel in your imagination, take some time for the trip. As you recall an event or situation with people in it, often the details of the people are what pop into your mind first. Close your eyes and let other memories of the moment filter in. What was in the sky and on the ground? What objects were behind or in front of the people? Are there sounds and smells that you remember? Was there anything soft or rough to the touch?

You can make up some or all of the details that you decide to put in your description. You can try to make your made-up details seems absolutely convincing. Or you can make them entirely fanciful.

When you have filled a page, reread your work. Make small changes if you need to. Perhaps you will add decoration or illustration. 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. If you would like to do this exercise or others like it with a group of people, come to the Write-for-You class at the Latah Recovery Center on Thursdays at 5pm. Anyone can join. Just show up! You can attend just for fun or work to earn a writing certificate. For more information, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Community Center.