Writing to a situation using the Unsent Letter… what is that all about?
It’s clear to me now the How To Write a Letter Guide workshops are completely out of my control. I have a plan of course. One created with a fierce concentration that showcases my creative talents, and of course my incredible teaching abilities.
But I don’t get to use any of that.
Because as it turns out, the lovely people who attend the sessions bring their own stories. And within those stories there are opportunities. Ideas. New topics to explore that are immediate and provide new ways to explore the Unsent Letter.
Andrea attended our recent event at Paignton Library and when she arrived the direction of the workshop immediately altered because of her current predicament.
“I’ve driven from Bristol to be here,” she said. “I’m thinking I should probably just move there.”
“Why’s that?” I replied.
“Most of my work’s in Bristol but my flat’s in Dartmouth. And I love it there. But It’s a lot of driving back and forth. I don’t know what to do.”
PING! Light bulb moment.
The Unsent Letter: How to write to a situation?
And so the workshop topic was hijacked in a marvellous way and we wrote a Unsent Letter instead of adding to the #10,000 Letter Challenge which requires postage and a completely different type of creative discussion. Thinking in terms of a situation rather than a person opened up the conversation and together we unpacked all the content we might include in other scenarios.
The content in this example is what we would call the Body of the letter. It’s all the juicy bits. Our complaints. Hopes and fears. The ideal outcome. Basically everything we include in a letter to a living person, just reframed with your situation in mind instead. A situation or scenario could be writing to our love of red wine and explaining why during hot weather it’s completely acceptable to drink white wine or even cider instead.
It doesn’t mean I don’t love you Red, it’s just you’re not quite as, and don’t take this the wrong way, you’re not as thirst quenching in the sunshine. And the dry mouth during the night is not cool. But I’ll see you on the milder evenings. See how serious I am? I said “milder” to describe the weather and I never do that because I’m not old enough.
Or there might be something more serious that requires your attention. A change in career? Ending a relationship of some type. Whether to get a fringe. The options are endless – it’s all about how you look at it and shifting perspective from classifying it as a problem to be solved, and looking at the situation from a wider point of view. With all it’s good and bad points laid out in black and white. In certain writing circles, and in life in general I think, there’s something called the Shit Sandwich approach. I recommend looking that up and using it.
Lucky I had a BBQ: Burning our Unsent Letters
Andrea decided to write to Dartmouth and for myself and Steph, it was a house. And what better way to complete the workshop than walking to Paignton Beach and burning the letters! A symbolic gesture we all agreed on and it just so happens I had a portable BBQ with me because I was really hoping someone would be up for it and they were! Which was so brilliant and a lot of fun. You could also keep your letters for a while and read again in a few months? This would be a great way to reflect on your feelings from the time and consider what might have changed, or prevented you from moving forward with any plans etc.
Check out our Facebook and Instagram links at the bottom of the page and see what happened. And of course, follow us on the socials as well for more workshops and other letter writing opportunities.
The 10,000 Letter Challenge
And just when thought there’d be no contribution to the #10,000 Letter Challenge, Steph suddenly revealed another letter which she’d manged to sneak in during the workshop as we all had our eyes down and hands scribbling away. She’d written a letter to her dad.
It gave me the confidence and headspace/focus to write a letter I’d been thinking about writing for a long time.
And then a few days later her dad replied which added another contribution to the challenge. Amazing. Thank you so much.
There is some other good news concerning our CIC status but I’ll get to that another day. Please message anytime about our workshops or How To Write a Letter Guides. I might not be able to reply straight away but you can message whenever you like!
Happy writing