Letters

What did you do??

I have developed a habbit of writing letters to friends and family for the past few years. Today, I made some of them public at orkohunter.net/letters. Some of the letters are responses, and some have responses as well. I have included the complete correspondence in each case.

All of the people involved in my correspondances have granted me the permission to publish them. One of them strongly encouraged me to do so, when I came up with this idea four months ago. I have removed all the names of people and places which could easily reveal their identity. I want to keep writing and hearing from them. I made sure my actions do not affect it.

I will keep updating the space orkohunter.net/letters based on my discretion.

Great! Why did you do it?

1. Accountability

Writing letters is hard. It is a kind gesture from your side but it takes time to collect your thoughts and write them down in succinct words. I have spent from three hours to a few days on each letter. Hence, it is hard to keep writing even when I want to. The awareness that I have a public space on my website, will keep me accountable to update it and to write more.

2. It may inspire someone to write letters

I wish more people write letters. A letter can do wonders if you want to convey a message with impact. We choose texts to communicate daily. People forget messages sent over Facebook and Whatsapp. But people remember letters and often re-read them in future.

3. Some of the correspondences are so good that I want to share

Some letters along with their responses are thoughtful and fantastic read for me. I thought I should share them publicly. Read them as blog posts but in the form of a dialogue.

What do you think about letters?

Sometimes when I get any thought, I kill the urge to text, tweet or speak. I pick a pen and write it down. I think more on it, and when the content and the value increases, I write it as a letter and send it to someone, sometimes to multiple people.

I listen to music while writing (Pink Floyd, post-rock, epic, ambient, chill genre). It helps my thinking. I also use music to get in the mood and amplify the relevant emotions.

There are three steps in which I write one letter -

• Think. This occupies most (~80%) of my time.
• Write bullet points or content subjects. These are the gists of the paragraphs.
• Write. I stick to a conversational tone. It differs when I write a blog post or any other literary article.

Almost all of my letters are in the form of emails. The ones written on paper with ink are either not with me or are too personal to share. And inspired by John Keats, I too believe the words of romantic partners should be "written on water".