On 1 September, World Letter Writing Day celebrates something that once formed an ordinary part of everyday life but now feels almost revolutionary: sitting down and writing a letter.
Not an email. Not a WhatsApp message. Not a hurried text containing three words and an emoji. An actual letter.
For writers, there is something particularly valuable about letter writing. A letter forces us to slow down, think about another person and decide what we really want to say. And that makes it an excellent writing exercise.
Letters are storytelling
Think about the best letters you've ever received. Chances are they weren't simply collections of facts.
They told stories.
Someone described what had happened during their holiday, complained about an irritating neighbour, shared some family news or recalled something funny that had happened years earlier.
That's storytelling in its most natural form.
Writing a letter also gives you something every writer needs: an audience.
Instead of wondering vaguely who might eventually read your words, you are writing for one particular person. You know something about their interests, their sense of humour and the things they care about.
That can make writing surprisingly liberating.
Try writing a letter that will never be posted
Letter writing can also be used as a creative exercise.
Write a letter to your ten-year-old self.
Write one to yourself 20 years from now.
Write to somebody you miss.
Or let one of your fictional characters write a letter.
What would Sherlock Holmes write to Dr Watson after an argument? What might an astronaut write home from Mars? What would a character in your own unfinished novel desperately want to tell somebody?
Write a fictional collection of letters written between two people over a period of time. Sweethearts during a war, for example.
You don't have to post any of them. The purpose is simply to write.
Letters can reveal emotions and ideas that don't always emerge through conventional storytelling.
Rediscover handwriting
There's another challenge worth trying this World Letter Writing Day: write by hand.
Most writers now spend much of their time tapping keyboards and staring at screens. There's nothing wrong with that, technology makes writing, editing and publishing infinitely easier.
But handwriting feels different.
You can't delete every sentence the instant you become dissatisfied with it. You can't endlessly fiddle with fonts or disappear down an Internet rabbit hole because you've suddenly decided you desperately need to research Victorian drainpipes.
You simply keep writing.
And sometimes that's exactly what a writer needs.
Make somebody's day
Of course, your letter doesn't have to be a writing exercise.
Why not actually send one?
Write to an elderly relative. Thank somebody who helped you years ago. Send a note to an old friend you've lost touch with. Tell somebody you appreciate them.
Imagine opening the morning post and finding, amongst the bills, advertising and official-looking envelopes, a handwritten letter from somebody you know.
That little envelope could make someone's entire day.
World Letter Writing Day reminds us that writing doesn't always have to be about publication, word counts, deadlines or finding an audience of thousands.
Sometimes an audience of one is quite enough.
So, on 1 September, find a sheet of paper, pick up a pen and write a letter.
You never know where those first few words might take you.
Be that writer!
