The Anatomy Of A Love Letter

by Edward A. Bordi

Most letters have the following basic format: a date, a greeting, a body, a closing, a signature and optionally, a postscript (PS).

Date

Put a date on all your letters. That date ties the letter to a specific time in your life and relationship. You’ll be glad you did, especially when you’re digging through those old letters 25 years from now.

Greeting

Your greeting should match the context of your letter and maybe even more importantly – your personality. For example, if you’re writing about her beauty (context = “beauty”) then you might greet her as “My beautiful Linda.” Get the idea? But make sure that your greeting is natural. When you write your love letter, you must not transform into some other person. The key is to be you. Just greet her in your letter the way you would greet her in person. Then it won’t seem fake, stuffy or forced.

Body

The body of your love letter can be as short as one paragraph or as long as 10 or more pages, depending on what you have to say, of course. There are no rules on the length. That is all up to you. For help on writing your body, learn the WRITE system.

Closing

Your closing should pull all your ideas together into a summary or closing statement. It can be anywhere from a short sentence to a paragraph.

Signature

Your signature identifies your mood (e.g. “Joyfully yours”), or your feelings (e.g. “Missing you”), or your emotions (e.g. “Deeply in love”), or your expectations (e.g. “See you soon”), or whatever wraps up your message.

Postscript

Your postscript (PS), which is optional, goes last. It adds one or more thoughts that you may want to either highlight from the body of your message or add as an unrelated note. This is a good place to say, “Don’t forget about …” or “By the way …”

No Rules

Now this is the traditional format of a letter. But you are obviously free to write in any format you wish. As for me, many times I’ll write the love letter body and present it “as-is” with no greeting, closing or signature at all. Maybe I’ll post it to her Blog or frame it and hang it on the wall in our bedroom. This works well for love poems or “If you were…” love letters. And other times I’ll add the greeting, closing and signature afterwards and then simply stuff it into an envelope.

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