In the News

by Nancy Casey

Situations can have a way of going from bad to worse, to even worse than that, and still end up with signs of optimism and hope. Today in your writing you will have a chance to imagine how that can happen.

Set up you page in the usual way, with a line where the title will go and a space for illustration or doodling. In addition, draw a faint line (or just put a couple of dots) about two inches from the bottom of the page. When you come to this mark, you will know it is time to change the subject.

Imagine somebody. An imaginary person. Don’t write about yourself or someone you know. Then you will be completely free to make things up.

Begin by writing down a moderately disappointing fact about the person. It could be something that happens to them, an idea they have, or the way that they feel.

Next, escalate. Use a phrase like, on top of that or if that’s not bad enough and add more information that makes the situation worse.

Escalate again, using an escalating phrase such as even worse, or to make matters more difficult or something similar.

Work your way down the page that way, escalating the imaginary person’s difficulties with each sentence. Use an escalating phrase each time. Try to think up a different escalating phrase each time you use one, but if you need to repeat one or two of them, that’s fine.

Continue, in your imagination, making your person’s life seem more and more difficult. You don’t have to dump murder and mayhem upon them (although you can.) You just have to make things happen that the person would probably rather have done without.

Stop writing when you get to the faint line that you marked near the bottom of the page. Add one more event to the imaginary person’s life. Don’t use any of the escalating phrases. Make this new event positive. It doesn’t have to be something that fixes everything that went wrong for the person. Just make one thing happen to them that will give them a bit of hope.

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. 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

The afternoon sun is still pretty scorching and the days are still pretty long. The days are getting shorter, though, and the mornings can be quite chilly. In other words: It is August, technically summer, with many indications that fall is on the way.

A season begins to change slowly. Then it picks up speed. That summer-to-fall change is beginning now in subtle ways. In a month, many things will be different.

Your writing today will give you a chance to think about what is about to change with the season.

Leave some space at the top of the page where you can put a title after you have finished writing. Mark off an area of the page for an illustration or doodling if you would like to include that.

Perhaps you would like to take yourself on a short field trip to conduct some “research.” You can go outdoors and amble about for 15 minutes or so. Or you might sit near a window that gives you a good view. Maybe you prefer to travel in your imagination, remembering where you have been and what you have noticed in the past few days.

As you pay attention to the world around you, ask yourself, “What is going to change in the next month?”

You will probably notice many things in nature that will surely change over the course of the next four weeks. There are many changes a person might see. Can you imagine changes in smells or sounds?

What will change with the season in a city or town? Will the contents of shop windows be different in 30 days? Will stores and restaurants advertise for a new kind of “special” or sale? Will the people you pass on the sidewalk be wearing the same type of clothing that they are wearing today? Will the appearance of people’s houses and yards be different?

Think about your home and your own personal routines. Will the coming of fall change them? Will your daily schedule or your chores be different a month from now? Will changes in the routines of friends or family members bring changes in your routines as well?

Describe one thing that you know will be different in a month. Then describe another, and another, until you have filled 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.

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. Here is an example of what a person could write.

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

Set up your page in the usual way by drawing a line across the top where your title will go. Then divide the remaining space on the page into four different areas of roughly equal size. Next, get some scrap paper where you can jot down a few notes.

On the scrap paper, write down the names of four objects that are familiar to you. You can choose something that is right in front of you, or something that you see (or have seen) often.

For each object, write down three descriptive details, that is, short bits of information that tell something about the object. A detail could have something to do with how the object looks or sounds or smells. You could have a detail about the history of the object. You could say something about its function. Any 3 details. A couple of words max. Make them as odd or interesting as you can.

Then begin your actual page. In each of the four spaces you have marked off, write about each of the four objects as if you were an emcee introducing the object for a fabulous performance before a live audience. No need to say what the performance will be, you only need to tell how fabulous the object is.

An emcee must create interest, suspense and excitement in the audience. One trick for doing this is to withhold the name of the object until the very end, so be sure to do that.

Here are some phrases that emcees often use. You can borrow them or think up some of your own.

• Ladies and gentlemen, appearing next on our stage is one who…
• Our next guest is one you would be likely to find…
• … is never a problem for our next guest, because…
• Tonight we welcome to the stage one who comes to us all the way from…
• Without our next guest, the world would be…
• You might find it hard to imagine that…

Your introduction will be short—there isn’t much space provided.  It will only rely on three details. Try to build up the object as something fantastic, marvelous, and perhaps a bit mysterious, before revealing what it is.

When you have finished all four introductions, reread your work. Make small changes if you need to.

If there is not any room for illustration in the spaces where you wrote the introductions, you can add decoration or color to the page by decorating the lines that divide the four spaces.

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.