In the News

By Nancy Casey

Where have you been lately?  Think about the places you go regularly.  To work or school, perhaps, or to buy groceries or visit a friend.  Maybe you like to take walks and go noplace in particular.

Pick one of those places, just one, and go over in your mind the route you take to get there.  You go down one road and then another, turning left and right, crossing streets.  Maybe you travel on a bike, a skateboard, or your own two feet.  Maybe you ride in a car, a bus, or a taxi.  It doesn’t matter how you go.  Somehow or another, you get there.

What do you encounter along the way?  That’s what you are going to write about today. 

Get your ideas flowing by using this writing prompt:  “Down the road called …[blank]…, you will find…[blank]…”  Write out the sentence and fill in the blanks, telling all the things that you can  see, hear, smell, touch, or taste as you travel down that road. 

For instance, you might write something like, “Down the road called Hayes Street, you will find wet sidewalks, parked cars, a mustard-colored house with blue trim, squirrels, and the smell of somebody’s barbecue.”  Then, imagine yourself crossing the next street or turning the corner, and write out the sentence again for the next road you go down.  And the next.

Keep it up until you get to your destination.  When you are finished put the date somewhere on the page and add a title.  You can illustrate the page with pictures of what you encounter on your many roads.  Or you could draw a map.

If you are old enough to read this, you have definitely traveled down the roads of life.  Over the course of the week, you can write about those roads, too. 

Certainly you have been down roads called “bad weather” and “school” and “family.”   Maybe you have taken special trips down roads with names like “dandelion” or “mushroom soup” or “mosquito.”  You’ve been down easy roads and hard roads, silly roads and strong roads.  Some of them are roads that everybody goes down sooner or later, and some of them are roads that only you have traveled.

Throughout the week, keep returning to the prompt:  :  “Down the road called …[blank]…, you will find…[blank]…” and describe some of the roads you have been down.  Here is an example.

No matter what road you take, a couple of things are guaranteed. You always end up somewhere.  And from there you can go someplace else.

Nancy Casey is a writer and teacher who has lived in rural Latah County for many years.  You can see more of her work here.

 If you like the idea of writing every week, but want to do it with others in a class setting, you are welcome to attend “Writing Journeys” with Ginger Rankin on Wednesdays from 4-5 in February at the Latah Recovery Center.  The class does exercises from this blog and other things as well.

by Nancy Casey

One thing that is certain about having a life in the world is that from start to finish, you do it in a body.  Your body. It was issued to you at the start, and it’s yours throughout.  So many heartbeats.  So many breaths.  So many steps taken and meals digested.

Your body grows, changes and ages.  When it gets ill or injured, you call yourself “sick” or “hurt.” When it heals, you call yourself “better.”

The most common way to discuss your body with others is to complain about it.  Maybe your thighs aren’t skinny enough, or your hairline is in the wrong place.  Then there are the aches and pains!  Or more dramatic events that require medical intervention.  When our bodies go haywire, we notice—and we have a lot to say.

But your body is you.  All those thoughts about how your body is inadequate or wrong go inside of you somewhere and affect you somehow.  We all know we’re not perfect.  You probably also know how hard it is to get through a day if somebody is constantly listing your imperfections for you.  No matter how much we criticize our bodies, they don’t quit.  Despite all the ways we talk bad about them, our bodies keep working for us.

You can say that you ought to quit saying derogatory things about your body, but really that’s just another way to add something to the list of what’s wrong with you.

This week, use your writing practice to notice what’s good about your body.  More specifically, you will ask yourself how your body is useful.

Begin with a clean sheet of paper and draw the outline of a body on it.  Your body.  You don’t have to strive for artistic perfection.  Just draw it well enough that you can tell it’s a human body—and not a dog or a tree. Then label the parts.  If a body part doesn’t appear in the drawing, simply make an arrow that points to the spot where it is.

For each body part that you label, add a short explanation of what that body part does for you.  Label as many body parts as you can, telling how each part makes your life better—or possible!  Don’t stop until you have run out of room.  Then add the date to the page and give it a title.

Throughout the week, do this several times.  You might want to do it once for “outside parts” and another time for “inside parts.”  Each time you do it, you might be surprised by how many pieces and parts your body has and how absolutely useful they are to you.  Here is an example of what such a drawing could look like.

Some parts of your body aren’t “parts” at all, but they are in there somehow.  Where is your memory?  Where does the ability to try harder live in your body?  What about anxiety and calmness?  Or emotions like sadness, anger, or joy?  What parts of your body give kindness?  Which parts receive it?  If you can’t exactly draw an arrow to something, try shading in an area with an appropriate color and label that instead.

After you have made the drawings and labeled them, if you are inspired to write sentences and paragraphs about how useful your body is, go for it!

Nancy Casey is a writer and teacher who has lived in rural Latah County for many years.  You can see more of her work here.

If you like the idea of writing every week, but want to do it with others in a class setting, you are welcome to attend “Writing Journeys” with Ginger Rankin on Wednesdays from 4-5 at the Latah Recovery Center.  The class does exercises from this blog and other things as well.  The class will meet two more times – on February 22.  All are welcome.  If you haven’t attended the class before, you are doubly welcome to attend.

A new series of writing classes will start up at the Recovery Center in April.

By Nancy Casey

After engaging with your writing practice for about six weeks, you have accumulated quite a few pages.  Some pages are written in paragraphs, some appear as lists, and some might have more illustration than writing. Now that you have this much material, it’s a good time to take a look at all of it and evaluate what you have been doing.

First, let’s clear up an important thing about evaluation.  Notice the word “value” hidden inside.  This means that evaluation is about finding the value in what you do.  It’s not about finding mistakes, wondering if you “did it right” or comparing yourself to other people.  It shouldn’t make you squirm or be scared that your shortcomings will be exposed.  When you evaluate your own work, the important question is, “What is the value to me?”

Begin your evaluation by organizing all your pages neatly and turning them one by one to see what’s there.  Keep a pen handy.  Notice how you react to each page.  You probably pass over some of them pretty quickly, because they don’t interest you very much any more.  You linger over others because they please you somehow.  Add things if you feel like it.

Draw stars next to the good parts.  Sometimes it’s not a whole page that’s especially valuable to you.  It could be just a sentence, or a word.  If you find it interesting, draw a star.  Every star marks something in your writing that is “strong.”

Notice your “gut” or emotional reactions.  Do some parts make you smile?  Do you look away from other parts because you don’t want to be reminded of what’s there?  Are there pages that make you excited, annoyed, sad, proud, or surprised?  If a something evokes an emotion for you, draw a little face that shows that emotion.

Here are some things that you can write about as you evaluate your work.

• Write down as many facts and statistics about your writing as you can: total number of pages, number of pages per week, types of writing prompts, number and types of drawings, list of titles, biggest words, list of topics.  What other facts and statistics can you add?  Which of these is surprising or interesting to you?
• Using “I see….” as a writing prompt, describe your writing to yourself.  Tell about the parts that are strong (stars).  Tell about the emotions (marked with faces) in the writing.  Finish it off with a pep talk to encourage you to keep it up.
• Imagine that sometime in the future, after our civilization is gone, archeologists dig up your writing. Pretend you are one of those archeologists.  Write a letter to your boss telling about this amazing discovery and what it shows about 21^st century American life.
• Choose something that is strong (marked by a star) and turn it into a writing prompt. Use it to start out a new page of writing.
• Use the writing prompt, “Since I started this writing practice…” and see what comes out.

Evaluation is all about seeing value.   It’s valuable.  You did it.  You own it.

Here is a sample of some writing that evaluates writing.

Nancy Casey is a writer and teacher who has lived in rural Latah County for many years.  You can see more of her work here.

By Nancy Casey

Imagine a ball sitting still on top of a hill.  With a simple nudge it will begin to roll.  Or maybe, if it sits there long enough, a breeze will get it moving before it goes flat and turns into litter.  Your mind can be like that ball when you are trying to decide what to write about.  You sit up there with a tremendous view–your experience, your ideas, the truths, the falsehoods, the people, the stories.  Thinking about all the things you could write about is enough to keep you from writing anything at all.

A writing prompt is the nudge that gets you going.  In one direction or another.  It doesn’t matter which direction.  It’s always an interesting ride.

A writing prompt is a set of instructions.  It sounds like an assignment, the kind you might get in school, but it’s different.  If you don’t follow the instructions, nobody will say you did it wrong.  If you nudge the ball and after it begins to roll, it bumps a rock and bounces off in another direction, you don’t tell the ball it doesn’t know how to roll.  If the ball bumps a rock and sails away to land on a different hilltop, you wouldn’t tell the ball to quit being silly, pay attention, start over and do it right.

Many writing prompts take the form of a fill-in-the-blank sentence.  Here is one you can try today:  Some people have [blank] but I have [blank].

Don’t plan ahead what to say.  As you write, “Some people have” relax your mind and watch the words spill from the end of the pen. Whatever idea floats into your head, use that. It can be long or short.  Then you have to add something about what you have.  Again, don’t plan, just watch the words “but I have” roll onto the page and write whatever comes into your head next. If more things come into your head, write them down, too. Then start again, “Some people have…”  You can find an example here: http://www.authornancycasey.com/prompts

Remember, however, that you don’t have to follow the directions.  Your mind has a mind of its own. You might start to write about a particular thing that you or other people have and find out you have so much to say about it that you run out of ink, paper or time before you finish. You can even write, “I don’t care what anybody has, today I am going to write about…”  Or just ignore the prompt altogether.  What’s always most important is that you write something.  If the prompt seems dumb, but you can’t think of anything else to write, use the prompt.  What you write won’t be dumb.

Play with this writing prompt a couple more times this week.  Here are some ways you can change it around:

·         Instead of beginning with “some people”, begin with a plant, an animal or an object.  Trees have…  My dog has… Bricks have… The internet has… 

·         Turn it inside out:  Some people don’t have….., but I don’t have….

·         Change “have” to something else.  Some people like…  Some people eat…  Some people want…

·         Reread what you have written using this writing prompt and write about what it makes you think.

When you are finished, make sure the date is somewhere on the page and give it a title.  Decorate the page as needed. 

Pay attention to your writing hand.  Is it tired?  Does it hurt?  Where? Don’t punish a hard-working hand by shaking it or pressing your thumb into a spot that hurts.  Lay your hands on the table and gently roll your shoulders.  Think about that ball sitting on the top of a hill ready to go in any direction.  As you wait for the pain and tension in your hands to dissipate, imagine yourself sitting next to that ball.  Imagine the view.

Nancy Casey is a writer and teacher who has lived in rural Latah County for many years.  You can see more of her work at http://www.authornancycasey.com

If you like the idea of writing every week, but want to do it with others in a class setting, you are welcome to attend “Writing Journeys” with Ginger Rankin on Wednesdays from 4-5 at the Latah Recovery Center.  The class does exercises from this blog and other things as well.

By Nancy Casey

Before you begin to write today, walk around. Pick up a few objects and set them back down again. As you do so, notice your hands. How do they know what to do? Watch how your fingers get ahold of something tiny, like a coin. When you pick up something a little bit heavy, notice how your hand grips it, each finger holding on the exact right place and the exact right amount.

Sit down and lay your forearms on the empty surface of a table. Turn one palm up and the other one down. Then rotate your wrists gently left and right and roll your hands back and forth so one palm turns up as the other one turns down. Don’t stretch. Let them flop. Move the rest of your body a little bit, too.

As your hands move on the table in front of you, think of the many things a pair of hands can do. We use them to operate zippers, cars and snowshovels. Hands know how to catch, throw, point, scratch, and wave.

Drum your fingers on the table. Watch them go. Pretend your fingers are little people and let them walk across the surface. Float your hands in front of your face. Wiggle your fingers and watch them do tricks.

Imagine the insides of your hands. Such little bones! A knuckle is such a tiny thing compared to a knee. The muscles, ligaments and tendons in there must be as skinny as strings, yet they connect and criss-cross like complicated machinery.

Your precious hands. They have been working for you all your life. Helping you get what you want. Helping you hold onto it. You never even have to tell them.

When your hands hurt, you probably make them do things anyway. Most people do. Now you are asking them to do this writing thing. There has to be a way to do it without making your hand cramp or ache.

Take up your pen and write about what your hands have already done for your today. What have they touched? What have they brought? What have they made? What have they told you?

As you write, do not allow your hand to experience any discomfort. If it feels tired, or begins to hurt, write bigger, or sloppier. Hold the pen with different fingers or in your fist. Change the way you are sitting. Use pillows. Write with the opposite hand. Make a mess of the page if that’s what it takes to fill it with writing without straining your hand.

When you have finished, put the date somewhere on the page and give it a title. For an extra touch, lay your hand down on the page and trace it. You can see an example here: http://www.authornancycasey.com/precious-hands

Throughout the week, pay attention to hands—yours and other people’s. Collect details that your can write down later. Notice what hands do and how they do it. Notice what they look like—bumps and bruises, veins and fingernails. Pay attention to what people say about their hands.

When you write this week, make it all about hands. Begin by doing something kind and relaxing with your own hands. Recall some of the hands you have noted in your daily life. Write about them. As you write, do whatever it takes to make sure your hand never hurts.

Tell yourself this—
No pain.
No pain.

Nancy Casey is a writer and teacher who has lived in rural Latah County for many years. You can see more of her work at http://www.authornancycasey.com

If you like the idea of writing every week, but want to do it with others in a class setting, you are welcome to attend “Writing Journeys” with Ginger Rankin on Wednesdays from 4-5 at the Latah Recovery Center. The class does exercises from this blog and other things as well.