Writing Activity

Alex is a letter writer. She says nobody writes letters any more but that they should because letters are special. She says you can hold a letter and keep it close to you and read it any time you want. Emails can be wiped and texts are gone if you lose your phone – but letters stay forever.

I totally agree with Alex. When I was a child, I used to love the sound of the postman pushing the post through our front door. I lived in eternal hope that there might be a letter for me, and sometimes there actually was. My nana and my granny used to write to me and later, when I was at university, my mum and my little sister wrote to me all the time. I’ve kept all those letters and they are really special to me.

We don’t send as many letters today – I suppose it’s just easier (and cheaper) to email or send a text. I still think letter writing is fun, though, and it’s a good way to practise your writing skills and make someone’s day a bit nicer!

Try these letter-writing ideas – and if you haven’t got a stamp just leave them on the pillow of someone who lives in your house. It’ll give them a brilliant surprise and, if you’re lucky, they might write back …

  1. Write a letter to someone who is important to you. Tell them why they mean so much to you and why you’re glad that you know them.
  2. Write a funny letter describing the most embarrassing day of your life. You’ll make someone laugh and, you never know, it might be therapeutic for you to put down your excruciating experiences on paper. (I know what I’m talking about here. Let’s just say that the basketball scene and Izzy’s subsequent total humiliation was based on a VERY personal experience. Except I wasn’t twelve – I was sixteen …)
  3. Write a letter to yourself in the future. Include details of everything that matters to you now: the TV programmes you watch, the music you listen to, the books you’re reading, the people you like (and don’t like). Then describe what you’d like to be doing in ten years’ time – your hopes and predictions for yourself. After that, seal it up in an envelope, put your name and the year in which it can be opened on the front and put it somewhere safe. You’ll be really glad you did this when you stumble upon it in the 2020s!