The biggest inspiration
Last month we celebrated the success of the Big Letter Write where you sent us 843 amazing letters to share with those living with cancer. It was such a lift and a big boost for our recipients before we began our campaign for Christmas.
There were so many great ideas and wonderful words shared with us, so we wanted to give you a taster (or a reminder) to help you with the next steps on your letter writing journey.
The biggest letter we received
Let's start off with a bit of a giggle. The brilliant Dinah Johnson from The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society wrote this HUGE letter as her donation to the BIG Letter Write...and we loved her literal take on it. At a whopping A2 size, Dinah's "waffle" was a beautiful way to share her day and recent experiences with a very lucky letter recipient.
What it feels like to write a letter
Fiona works in audiology at Northampton General Hospital. She started writing letters for us last year, and she spoke to BBC Northampton in October about her experience. You can listen to the interview here.
What it feels like to receive a letter
At our Big Letter Write event, Colleen joined us to share her own experiences of receiving letters from From Me to You. You can listen and watch via this recording.
How to begin letter writing...
At the event, we shared a few tips and tricks that you can bring into your own letter writing this Christmas and beyond. The following exercise is to get you thinking about different words that can inspire you and your letter writing.
Start by drawing around your hand, to create an outline. Then spend 20 seconds writing words that you connect to "caring" or "support" filling up the thumb space. Next, you'll fill the forefinger space with words connected to the colour blue. On your middle finger, spend another 20 seconds writing down the emotions you're feeling now. On your ring finger, spend 20 seconds writing down words connected to winter (or the season you're in). Spend 20 seconds filling your little finger space with words connected to anything that is shiny. before using the last 20 seconds to fill the palm with all of your favourite words.
If any words jump out at you, ring them in a circle - you could use another colour for this if you wish!
Take one of these words, and write a letter to that word. Eg. My word was tangerine. So I wrote...
Dear Tangerine... I want to tell you why I love you is not because of your taste. It's not because you're easy to peel. But it's because all my childhood Christmases you appeared at the bottom of my stocking. And I knew that you would be the worst present I would get and that every present beyond you would be a better present. But you made me think of my mum and my dad and leaving me my stocking etc, etc.
This is just a silly exercise. Nobody's going to see your letter. Nobody's going to read it. It's not going to be sent anywhere. But this gives you an idea of how easy it is to write about anything and how entertaining you can be.
For your next letters, that you may like to donate, take a word or two from your hand, and let your imagination take you from there...