In the News

by Nancy Casey

Begin, as always, with a pristine sheet of paper.  Smooth away its imaginary wrinkles.  Wipe away all the imaginary dust.  Roll your forearms back and forth to make sure your wrists and fingers are relaxed.  Then take you pen and write the letters of the alphabet down the left hand size of the page.  One letter per line.  A to Z.

If you run out of lines before you run out of letters, you can start a second column, or start a second page.

Then think about your day.  Your whole big day.  Everything you’ve done so far, everything you’ve seen, the places you’ve been.  All that you’ve procrastinated, all that you’ve forgotten.  Think about what’s yet to come in this day, what you could do without, what you are looking forward to.  What will be satisfying? What will boring? What people pass through?

As each of these things floats into your mind, write down the word for it next to its letter.  You can write more than one word for each letter.  The letter ‘L’ could get:  lunch, laughing, and letters.  While ‘S’ could have sleep, sugar, stairs and a secret.

Don’t force yourself through the alphabet starting with ‘A’.  Just fill in words in whichever order they come to you. Here’s an example of what your list could look like.

Think up at least one word for each letter.  When you start to slow down, you might have to squeeze your brain a little to wring out a word for letters you haven’t used yet.  Some letters can require a little imagination: ‘Q’ for instance, or the dreaded ‘X’.  Use creative spelling as needed.  Nobody is going to come by with a red pencil and tell you something isn’t right.

When you have finished spilling out words for today’s events and experiences, look over the page and ask yourself if there’s a theme.  Are there groups of the same kinds of words?  Do they revolve around a topic or an event? If there is a theme, make up a title that reflects it.  If there is no theme or pattern to what you’ve written, make up a title anyway. Put the date on the page as well.

This is a very good exercise to do any time your mind is overfull and scattered.

It can get so chaotic inside our brains sometimes. We get overwhelmed when there are so many things on our mind that it doesn’t seem like they can all fit into the one life that we have. You try to organize your morning and are flooded with thoughts about what is coming in the evening. Maybe you should make a grocery list, but really you should clean the bathroom.  You have to remember to meet a friend later, but you haven’t forgotten how that friend made you mad last week.  What about the laundry? The electric bill?  Have you tied your shoes?

As each thought flits at light-speed through your consciousness, grab one word and write it down next to its letter. (S is for Shoes, L is for laces, B is for Bill, L is for laundry, W is for Washer, M is for mad, G is for Groceries, B is for Bathroom…  You get the idea.)

No matter how out-of-control something feels, you can always put it in alphabetical order.

Any time you feel like you don’t have the focus that it takes to “write something,” write the letters of the alphabet down the left-hand side of the page and start filling in words.  Sometimes it’s nice not to have to explain anything.

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.  

Writing classes will be coming to the Recovery Center in April!  Watch the calendar for more information.

by Nancy Casey

How do you spell the word for that sound you sometimes make when you get out of a chair?  Would it be unnh? Or does it need a “g” in it, something more like aagh?  Does it have an “r” sometimes?  Arnh? Urrh?

It doesn’t matter so much how you spell it, but it matters that you say it.  Or more accurately, since it’s not quite something you “say,” it matters that the noise comes out of you.  We often laugh at ourselves when we make these noises.  But what do they mean?

Only you know for sure, of course, but grunting when you stand up has something to do with the fact that it’s hard to get out of the chair.  If you make one of these noises at the end of your writing practice, it means that your writing practice ends with some kind of a struggle.  Can’t have that!

Today, before you begin your writing practice, experiment with finishing it.  Write the date on the page and then before writing anything else, stand up. Do it like this:

• Set down your pen. Put your hands in your lap.  Look at the world.
• Move your feet around to remind them that they will soon have to get to work.
• Jiggle or slide your body forward in the chair and move your feet to a place where it feels like your feet and legs are solid under you.
• Push one foot into the floor, and then the other. Gently. Back and forth.  Roll your hips a little bit to the left and right in the chair.
• Look at the world. If you are inside, use your eyes to “draw” the lines where the ceiling meets the walls.  Trace them slowly, back and forth.  If you are outside, use your eyes to draw around the edges of all the objects that touch the sky.
• Shift your feet around one last time. Get them under you in a way that makes you feel sturdy from your hips to the floor.  Notify all systems to get ready for lift-off.
• Scoot the chair back a little bit if you need to.
• Finally, using all of the big, strong muscles of your legs, lift yourself to a standing position. As you lift, inhale. Imagine that the air you take in floats you up.
• Once you are on your feet, don’t go anywhere. Shift your weight from your right leg to the left and back a few of times.  Just in case your body has forgotten what walking is like.
• Tap your left heel on the ground a couple of times. Gently.  Feel the vibration go up your leg and into your torso.  This helps your body remember how sturdy you are.  Tap your left heel.  Then tap them both.
• Take an interest in the horizon again.
• Walk gracefully away. Look all around you.  Try to feel yourself gliding.

Return to your writing spot, and write a sentence or two about what that was like.  How was it different from the way you usually stand up? After a couple of sentences, go through the stand-up procedure again.  Return to your writing and write a few sentences about what you have seen since the last time you stood up.  Stand up again and glide around the room.

When you sit down the third time, write about the day ahead.  What do you have to do?  Are different parts of the coming day more appealing than others?  What part of the day promises satisfaction?

When you have finished, give your page a title.  Use the stand-up procedure to glide effortlessly from your chair and into the hours ahead.

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.

Would you like to attend a writing class?  Nancy will begin teaching at the Recovery Center in April.  Stay tuned!

By Nancy Casey

Choose an interesting place in your house to write about.  Walk around in that place and take a look at all the things that make it interesting.

Everything you can see is interesting in and of itself. A melted candle. The dent in the couch cushion.  A book called I’ll Sell You a Dog. The stapler.

Some things are interesting because of what we know about them.  The clock that hung on the wall in my mother’s house.  The only boots that don’t leak.  The doormat from Nevada.  The cat food that is almost gone.

A whole lot of things become more interesting because of where they happen to be, or what they have landed next to.  The shoe on the desk.  The spider in the shower.  The bright yellow napkin on the doorstep. A ten-penny nail in the coffee cup.

Action is always more interesting than no-action. Water dripping outside the window. Birds.  Wind. The computer fan. The snoring dog. All the sounds.

After you’ve taken in what’s interesting about that place in your house, go somewhere you can’t see what you’ve been looking at and sit down with your writing materials. Describe the interesting things that you saw.

After you have finished writing, go back and wander around the spot you were writing about.  Notice what you forgot to put in your description.  After you’ve taken a good look, go back to your writing and describe more things.

Get up and take a third look. What more can you write down about this particular spot in the world?  Has anything changed?  Could anything change?  Has anything become more interesting, or less so?

Keep alternating between looking and writing until there is nothing more to say.  Is that possible?  How can you be sure you can’t say anything new? Here is an example of what someone could write.

When you have finished with this writing, put the date on the page and give it a title.  Then think about a place you could write about next time.

This is fun to do in your house because it helps you appreciate how rich your surroundings are how unique they are to you.  In a day or two, you can visit the same spot in your house and write about what has and hasn’t changed.  You can do that a month from now, too.

You don’t have to limit yourself to the inside of your house.  You can write about a new place that you visit, or describe a place you see every day in your usual routine.  All you need is something to look at and a place nearby where you can write down what you have seen.

An art gallery, for example, is a fun place to do this exercise.  Interesting rooms are not hard to find, and usually there are places to sit.  Libraries are like that, too.  You could do the writing in a café or park and do the “looking” on a walk around the block.

If you do this exercise a half-dozen times, you will be certain of at least one thing: the more you look, the more interesting things get.

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

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.