Write a Letter

Few individuals send letters and cards via the United States Postal Service.  For many who feel time-strapped, an e-mail or e-card celebrates Birthdays, Graduations, Weddings and even takes the place of sympathy cards.

Corresponding with a few friends and family by card and letter keeps my fountain pens exercised. Stationery stores attract me into their scent of paper and stimulate the joy of penning a letter.

I do not welcome the day that postage increases prohibit the process.

The epistolary story has a history in literature. Consisting of letters written from one character to another, it moves between characters.  The convention of the story may also include a monologue spoken aloud by one character to another.

The variations include the narrator speaking in intimate confessional to a friend or lover.  Or, he may present his case to a jury or a mob.  The narrator could pour out his heart in a love letter that he knows (and we know) he will never send.

This style is the opposite of what's employed in a story told to the reader.  The listener as well as the teller becomes involved in the action.  Readers become eavesdroppers with all the ambiguous intimacy that position entails.

Many novels have used the epistolary form. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner reveals the benefits.

Creative write:

Write a sketch based on the epistolary form.  Choose either monologue or a series of letters between friends.

Choose one or create your own.

 l.  The narrator is concerned about the choice he made to sell property that had been in the family for  years.  He exchanges letters with a distant relative.

2.  Develop four letters among friends attempting to settle an argument.  First letter details the problem. The second responds to it. The third attempts reconciliation. The last letter puts it to rest or leaves it unresolved.