The lost Art of writing Love Letters
'The frankest and freest product of the human mind and heart is a love letter," wrote Mark Twain in the introduction to his autobiography. Literary history is filled with the unguarded outpourings of lovers, spouses, lechers and romantics.
Do you remember the last thing you wrote your loved one? It's probably the same as anyone else nowadays. A text message, an email, a message on Facebook. Something that involved a keyboard and an electricity supply rather than a pen and paper. Handwriting is slowly disappearing from our lives.
A handwritten letter is a much more intimate and revealing act of affection and devotion. The handwritten postcard from a weekend away; the diary entry from a great night out, the scribbled love note tucked into your sweethearts pocket;, these are all things which haven’t lost the fundamental urge which inspired them, but which have now passed on into a more public, anonymous, flavourless medium.
The next time you feel the urge to express your love for someone, pick up a pen (you know that strange looking object stashed away in your junk drawer), take a piece of paper and just write. You don't need to be able to copy the work of Elizabeth Barrett or Lord Byron to have an effect, all you need is to take inspiration from what or who you love and express what your heart desires.