by Casey W. Robinson

As an English major, I wrote A LOT of papers in college. Whenever I’d get stuck, I’d pull E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 off the shelf, flip open to any random page, and point. I loved e.e. cummings because he threw words together in unexpected combinations, often smooshed together with no spacing, or dangling one letter at a time in between hard returns

d

o

w

n

the page.

There was something about his word choice though, the jolt of the unexpected, that almost always jostled me out of my creative funk and got me back to writing. I think this little trick worked because it did two important things: it changed my visual surroundings and it asked me to pay attention.

When I’m looking for new manuscript ideas, the first thing I do is change my surroundings. More often than not, I go for a walk around my neighborhood. Even a well-worn familiar path can show you something new if you are committed to the mindset of observation. I remember reading about one celebrated author (pretty sure it was Hilary Mantel, but I couldn’t find the reference) who went for a walk every morning and tried to write one sentence in her head to describe what she observed. Maybe something about the slanted morning light, or the crisp snow underfoot, or the windchime of icy tree branches. Anything to practice noticing and capturing. It’s more challenging than you think! But when I’ve remembered to do this—first, looking for something noteworthy and in the process really noticing everything around me—I’ve come home with the start of a poem, or an interesting phrase. At the very least, I come home clear-eyed and ready to write.

You can also change your literary surroundings. Read something by someone new, and if you can, read it aloud. This works particularly well with picture books, thanks to their brevity and musicality. But the beginning of a novel or a poem can work as well. Pay attention to how the words sound, how they make you feel, the images they conjure. How and when does voice emerge? I’ve started spending Wednesday mornings at my local library, and my first order of business is gathering a stack of 5 or so new picture books to read. If one of them really strikes me, I’ll retype the text into a Word doc, studying as I type the author’s word choice, the page turns, the pacing and narrative arc. By the time I’ve finished the stack, I am in the right mindset to start playing around with an idea or two of my own. Kind of like listening to the right playlist to get you in the mood for creativity.

Most writers I know are, by nature, endlessly curious, questioning creatures. I think we are collecting ideas all the time, even when we’re not meaning to. I wrote my first draft of SMALL THINGS MENDED after a chat with my friend Heidi Stemple.

We had been talking about comfort TV shows to counter our pandemic blues. She mentioned a British show called “The Repair Shop,” and I got off the phone wondering whether someone would ever accidentally start a repair shop. And if they did, what would they fix? What would kids consider treasures worthy of repair? I sat down and wrote the first draft in one go. I never even watched an episode of that BBC show!

Most of what I need to do to bring new ideas to the page is get out of my own way. Our unconscious brains are full of trickery and potential if we would just let them play! What is that Mary Oliver quote we all love . . . “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” Well that’s good advice for us creatives, too. Notice, wonder about things, and see where it takes you.

Casey W. Robinson’s latest picture book, SMALL THINGS MENDED, illustrated by Nancy Whitesides, was a New England Book Award winner, a Christopher Award winner, a Crystal Kite Award winner, and received a 2025 Massachusetts Book Award Honor. Casey’s debut picture book, IVER AND ELLSWORTH, illustrated by Melissa Larson, was a finalist for the Crystal Kite Award and Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award. Her next book, THE SHARING HOUSE, illustrated by Mary Lundquist (Rocky Pond Books/Penguin), will be out in May 2027.

Casey grew up in Maine and used to keep a shoebox of favorite words and phrases under her bed. She now lives with her family just west of Boston, in a yellow house overflowing with books. When she’s not writing, Casey manages book events for her local indie bookseller, The Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton, MA. Find Casey on Instagram @cwrobinson or at caseywrobinson.com.