In the News

by Nancy Casey

Sometimes it feels like we have nothing to write about.  Other times, we can feel so overwhelmed by how much we have to say that no single “thing” to write about stands out.  Even when we do know what we want to write about, it’s often difficult to figure out where to start.

That’s because a piece of writing has a beginning and an end and is “about” something. But our minds and our memories don’t work that way.  We are full of ideas, thoughts, and stories that swim around in there all the time.  They echo and interrupt each other and are never still. Starting to write about one of them can make the others clamor that much harder to get in.

Rather than enforce the discipline that it takes to “write something,” here is a way to take pen to paper and follow your thoughts.  After your mind has had a chance to wander to all the places it likes to go, it is often much easier to think and write clearly about one thing.  See if this works for you. 

Begin with a clean sheet of paper, and have a second one handy.  Turn the page sideways so it is wider than it is tall.  In the center, write your Start Word.  This can be a topic that has been on your mind, the first word that pops into your head, or a word you point to randomly from a book.  Draw a circle (or any shape, really) around the Start Word.

What does the Start Word make you think of?  A new word? A story? A person who uses the word? Whatever comes to mind, write that thought down in a word or two, draw a shape around it, and connect to the shape surrounding your Start Word. 

Now it’s as if you have two Start Words.  What pops into your head next?  Write down a word for that idea and enclose it in a shape.  Draw a line to show which word it is connected to..  Now three words have jiggled loose from your memory.  Keep going. What pops into your head next? Try to fill up the whole page with shapes that hold words and show their connections. 

You will find that the words inside the shapes and the lines connecting them wander all over the page, just like your mind wanders wherever it can wander to.  It’s fun to see how far afield related thoughts and stories can take you.

At some point when you go to write a word or a phrase, you might get an urge to tell a whole story or explain a big idea. If a whole lot more words want to tumble out about a single topic, take up the second sheet of paper and let the words flow.

Sometimes it turns out that everything you put into this web of shapes is mostly about one topic.  If that happens, use the web of shapes as your “notes” and write about the topic on the second sheet of paper.

You could find that one area of the web of connections really stands out for you.  You can write about that on the second sheet if that’s what seems like the right thing to do next. 

What if you don’t feel like shifting over to writing sentences and paragraphs? Then choose an area of the web of connections you have made and, using it as a rough draft, make a different fancier version of it on the second page.

Give a different title to the two pages you have made.  Add any doodles or illustrations you think they require.  Put the date somewhere on the page as well.  Here is an example of what someone might write.

Try this multiple times throughout the week.  Notice which type of writing comes easier to you, the web of ideas or the sentences and paragraphs.  It will probably be different on different days.

Nancy Casey teaches at the Recovery Center on Thursdays.  531 S. Main St. in Moscow.  Check the calendar for classes and times.  All are welcome.  Call the Recovery Center  208-883-1045 or email latahrecoverycenter@gmail.com for more information.

by Nancy Casey

In order to do today’s writing prompt, you will probably have to take a walk.  You don’t have to take any of your writing materials with you.  Leave them on the table, ready to go, so you can sit down and begin to write as soon as you get home.

The writer Brenda Ueland said that she always began her writing time with a walk.  She walked without any particular destination and only walked places where she was sure she wouldn’t get caught up in conversation with anyone.  She walked fast or slow, whatever the mood, and tried to observe her surroundings.  She said that every time she accidentally walked a little farther than she had expected, the writing always turned out better.

In order to do today’s writing prompt, you will first have to remember the person you were four years ago and recall what was important in your life then.  Think about that on your walk.  That will be much more pleasant than trying to remember all these things while you sit at your desk.

While you are walking, try to recall the place you lived four years ago.  Where did you buy your groceries?  Did you live alone or with others?  What kind of work did you do?  Who were your friends and what did you do together? Did you have a favorite place to go? What did you like best about your life? Did you have a hobby?

Maybe you can remember the person you were four years ago by jumping backwards year by year?  What was going on in your life a year ago today?  How was your health? What kinds of things were on your mind?  Where did you spend your days?  How was your attitude?  What about the year before that?  And before that? Can you remember?

While you are walking and remembering details from the past, watch how your recollection of what it was like to be you four years ago refills itself. As you walk, you can also start thinking about the question you will have to answer when you get home:

What have you learned in the last four years?

Every time something changes we learn something.  Sometimes we choose it, and sometimes we are just stuck with it, but changes always teach us something. So when you think about all the things that are different in your life from four years ago, ask yourself what you learned in the process of change.

Things that stay the same teach us, too.  We keep things in our life that sustain us and teach us things we want to learn.  Hobbies, habits, jobs, friends and relations, the weather, plants and pets and everyday objects.  Everything and everyone around us teaches us something, whether they change or stay the same.

Ideas change us, too.  Ideas come to us from the outside in the form of information.  That information can change ideas we already have.  Sometimes we rearrange information in our minds and create new ideas that way.  What ideas to you have now that you didn’t have four years ago?

Every time you learn something, does that mean you have a new skill?

Let your mind wander randomly over these things as you take your walk. Four years ago…  What was your life like?  What were you doing?  And now?  What can you do that you couldn’t do then?  What do you know that you didn’t know then?  When you get back to your desk, write down as much as you can remember.

Here is an example of the kind of thing you might write.

When you have finished, doodle on the page a little bit until you think of a good title.  Put the title at the top.  Write the date somewhere on the page as well.

Nancy Casey teaches at the Recovery Center on Thursdays and coordinates Recovery Radio.  531 S. Main St. in Moscow.  Check the calendar for classes and times.  All are welcome.  Call the Recovery Center  208-883-1045 or email latahrecoverycenter@gmail.com for more information.

by Nancy Casey

Do you ever find yourself starting to explain something and then getting side-tracked because in the middle of it you realize that you have to explain something else first?  Maybe you even notice yourself pausing for a breath and moving your head so you can look side-to-side or up at the ceiling for a few seconds before you launch into the explanation.

Sometimes when you do this, the other person thinks your story is over, so they stop listening and start talking about what they are thinking of. 

Sometimes other people do this and you are the one who starts talking because you don’t realize the story isn’t over and you are still supposed to be listening and thinking about it.

This happens because our minds work in two ways.  When we are thinking linearly, we keep everything in order, first things first, followed by what’s next.  There’s a mental discipline to it.  When you think linearly, you make an effort to “stay on track.”  It’s what you are trying to do when you struggle to “think straight.”  If you struggle too hard to think straight, you can feel like your mind is in a vice.

Our minds also work associatively.  That is, one idea is associated with a second idea which, as soon as it pops up, brings three more along with it.  This is one of the ways we get new ideas.  It also helps us make sense of our experience by putting ideas together so we can think about how they are related.  When our minds go on an associative rampage, however, we end up overwhelmed and exhausted.

Writing in sentences and paragraphs usually requires us to squeeze all of our associative thinking into strict linear thinking.  Here is a way to write in a way that’s both linear and associative:

Begin somewhere.  With your surroundings, or something that happened yesterday, last year, or in your imagination.  Tell about it in the shortest version possible.  A couple of sentences, no more than four or five lines.  Rest.  Relax your hands.  Roll your shoulders around.

Then pick one word or phrase from what you have written and write a few lines about that.  Only a few.  Don’t get carried away.  Rest again.  Gently move your arms, shoulders, and spine.

Pluck a new idea from what you just wrote, and continue in the same way, writing a few lines, resting, and picking out something new for the next part.  Take the resting part seriously.  Don’t strain anything, just notice how nice it feels when something relaxes on its own.

It’s normal to try to plan ahead for what you will write.  It’s hard sometimes not to think about which word or phrase you will choose for the next section.  But when it comes time to pick, ignore your plan and take whatever jumps out. 

Don’t bother paying much attention to how you started out or where all of this might be going.  Think of it as a chance to wander. 

Here is an example of the kind of thing you might write.

When you have almost reached the end of the page, or the end of your writing time, go back to the top and read over everything you have written.  Then write a couple of more lines that “end” whatever story you seem to have told.  You might have to come up with something more goofy than logical, but that’s fine.

Once you have the ending, you want to figure out the title.  While you are thinking about the title, draw a border around the writing or decorate the page somehow.  Once the title pops into your head, put it at the top of the page.  Write the date somewhere on the page if you haven’t already. Then file it away someplace safe.  It’s a good one.  You will like looking at it again a week or a month or a year from now.

Nancy Casey teaches at the Recovery Center on Thursdays.  531 S. Main St. in Moscow.  Check the calendar for classes and times.  All are welcome.  Call the Recovery Center  208-883-1045 or email latahrecoverycenter@gmail.com for more information.