#letterbook

ANDD there will be a whole heap of cool stuff on our stall... see you there

It's in a way exactly what it sounds like, a book full of letters. In the past, I've attempted to address the letters to an imaginary stranger, romanticizing the idea that I would leave the book to be found and kept by someone I'd never have the chance to meet. Doing things that way, you come to feel like you're telling a story out of your life. And well, your life isn't really a story. And it's not as compelling as a real epistolary novel. Mostly I just pasted in lists, little tidbits of myself. I might have actually completed the book, too...if it wasn't stolen/lost. Anyway, I'm going through a time when I'm full of emotions or thoughts I don't necessarily always have an outlet for. Some of these feelings involve other people: things they've said or I've said or done, etc. It's easy to omit names on a blog and vaguely rant because it's important to be wary of unwanteds reading your words and gossiping about them. So...I grabbed a blank journal, and decided to direct my emotions at the people behind them. I'm sharing this because I think it might be of use to others to go along with this. With this project, each letter is addressed to an actual person in my life. The letters don't have to always be to people though. You can write them to inanimate objects, to things that don't exist, to things that used to. Whoever or whatever you want. But I established a few "rules" - the first being that: 1. No names are allowed. I guess it's to preserve a certain aspect of anonymity (in case anyone were to eavesdrop, for example) but also to direct focus away so much from who the letter is to and onto what the message is. With mine I usually just start "Dear You" but "Dear __" or any variation might also work.  2. There are no dates. I stopped using dates in a lot of things I write, because they tend to have more weight in a way they wouldn't if you could neatly plot them on a timeline. Besides the fact that dates clue you on content, allowing you to violate #5, they aren't needed. In the future, these feelings won't matter. You won't remember when these things happened. The minute, the month, the weekday of a feeling is irrelevant. Time only matters in the now of you writing what you need to say, so let your words be the timekeeper. Omit dates, and just write. 3. Write to a given person/thing as often as necessary. No extra explanation really needed here. 4. It's personal! Remember that these letters are for you and don't have to be made known to anyone else unless you choose so. Simply because I'm an open person, I feel that after a while I would have the urge to perhaps share some of these letters with the people I wrote them for. But right now, it might not be the best idea. I don't know if I'll choose to share my thoughts with those people later, when it stops mattering, or if I'll use the letters as a sort of prequel to a conversation we'll have in person. I also don't know if this rule excludes people being allowed to read letters that don't involve them at all. But I guess you can interpret "it's personal" to mean that what you say is confidential. Share in accordance with your own discretion. 5. Don't reread old letters. At least, not right away. With writing, freewriting especially, it's suggested that you put down as many words as you need to, without thinking, and you set them aside for a while. Let yourself heal from whatever anger you've just vented or be humbled by the gratitude you've expressed to a friend.You want to leave your thoughts (good or bad) alone for a while, not go back to them and let them fester in your head as you think about what you left out or what you shouldn't have said. With my book, I just open to a new page and move on, not stopping to look at old feelings. Which is why it helps not having names or dates--I can flip through pages and I can't even accidentally be reminded of what says what unless I bother to peruse the content of each note.  It's a great project for venting in a way that isn't just..."I feel angry" or "I'm sad." Instead it's taking a feeling and tracing it to a source, or retelling the way you would in person. I find it's relieving in a different way than just throwing out anonymous thoughts. Stronger, too. I really just try to find better ways of understanding myself or what's on my mind.  So if you decide to try this (all you need is a notebook and something to say!), I'm sure you'll find it relieving, too.