Practice: Setting the Scene

Sometimes people say they don’t write letters because they feel they have nothing interesting to say. I completely understand and have often felt the same way. I am the mother of two boys, have a busy life and much of it is filled with routine minutiae that some days even I don’t want to know about it let alone… well, why would anyone else want to read about my day??

Then I have to take a deep breath and remind myself of a trick that works very well and I’ll share it with you if you promise to try it out. Promise?

Much of what makes a letter interesting is getting the sense of the person who is writing it. Writing a letter, receiving a letter, the transaction of a letter is an intimate act and just like anything other type of intimate communication (telling a secret, discussing a relationship, asking a penetrating question) you want to set the stage. You want your correspondents to SEE you, to FEEL your mood, to SENSE you as if they were there with you, or more accurately, watching you through a window.

It’s all about the details. Start with where you are, what you’re doing, what is going on around you. Treat the reader as if he is blind and you are his guide. Give him a beautiful tour of this moment of your life. Do you think your life is not beautiful every moment? I’ve had some very non-beautiful moments in mine, but the trick is to remember that beauty is often your interpretation of the event, not the event itself. Beauty comes in the telling.

Setting the scene is a dual purpose trick. Description ads padding to a letter. Sometimes you just want to tell someone you’re thinking of them, to dash out a quick line or two and need to make it a little more robust than just “hey, I thought of you this morning”. You don’t want to outline how many diapers you’ve changed today or how many dishes you’ve washed or how many photocopies you had to make at work. With detail, you can turn a “thinking of you” into a five-minute vacation for the person you are writing.

Here is an example:

Dear Jane,

This morning I opened my eyes to sunshine streaming in through a window covered with crystal tendrils of ice. I was loathe to get out of bed! I was so cozy under the flowered comforter you helped me pick out at that funky shop on 3rd St.

But I rolled out of bed anyway and after a cup of hot tea and an hour alone before the kids got up, I was “right as rain” and braced for the onslaught of diapers and protests of clothes that don’t match and milk rings from untidy cereal eating and… and… you know it all. That is one of the many things that make me happy in my life — that you are in the trenches with me even though you’re so far away.

Love, your faithful friend,
Sarah

Short, sweet, simple. Nothing really exciting going on, and yet — wouldn’t you love to get a letter like this? I would.

What works here? We get where Sarah is coming from. We can see her clearly — snuggled up, not ready to go yet, but taking the day in stride. We can see her getting up, having tea, see her as a mom of a busy household. We can feel the love she has for a dear friend. Sarah mentions a time in their past, so also brings in a memory for Jane to relive. In two tiny paragraphs, small enough to fit on a greeting card, she makes a deep connection.

You don’t have to write a book to make a letter good or interesting or readable. Less can be more. Try your hand at the details, at setting the scene and see how it works for you.

Practice! Because that’s what they say… that practice makes perfect. And in the meantime your friends and family reap the benefits of you perfecting your craft.

If you leave a comment on this post between now and the end of November, then mail me with your snail mail address I will send you a special surprise. Put in the subject line: SURPRISE ME so I will give those top priority. Also, you can comment and NOT participate in the surprise if you don’t want. Just don’t send me the email and you’re off the hook.

Tags: assignment, letter writing, letters, Practice, quick note, writing