How to write love letters

June is the popular choice for weddings – thus the phrase “June bride.” Max and I were married on June 1, 1957. I still keep his numerous love letters written by hand. I’m glad our generation then had no computers and cell phones. Until Max passed away in 2006, he would send me endearing Valentine, birthday and Christmas cards. Below are the sentiments of early admirers and lovers, which should teach this generation the value of expressing one’s true love through hand-written letters.

The first time…

Can you imagine if I’d decided not to go to the party on Friday night! I’d never have met you and everything would be different. All night from the moment we were introduced, I saw only your face. I heard only your voice. If you had stayed five minutes longer, I’d have been forced to kiss you.

Something about you – I’m not sure what it is – makes me want to know you better. But I don’t want to scare you off by asking too much.

Step-by-step

When we first meet… we will part with a gentle kiss. When we next meet, I will be bolder. You will tell me “go slowly.” At a café by the fountain, I will touch your hair. We will talk with laughter, learn more of each other. We will part with a tender kiss.

The third time we meet, we will have a whole evening, which we know will turn into a night. Remember we said that we would “go slowly.” We will talk for hours. You will tease. I will banter. As we walk through the streets with you holding my arm, you will see reassurance that I will not hurt you. I will ask you to trust me. When it’s “beyond friendship” write:

Can you feel this extraordinary thing happening between us? Can you feel friendship transforming into love? Can you feel strength dissolving into tenderness? You’re becoming a part of me.

I find you in every poem I read and I hear you in every love song on the radio. My heart turns to honey when I think of you. This letter is the best I can do, the only way I can capture what I feel.

Practical advice in writing love letters

 Most advice is probably needed by a first-time love letter writer, or by lovers who want to use letters to progress, enhance or save their love affair. The most important piece of advice about any love letter? Just make sure you write it! Not only on Valentine’s Day or when you have a particular reason, but any time.

Write by hand, unless there’s a good reason not to. Your penmanship will say things about you.

Paper. Your choice of paper tells tales on you too. A thick, luxurious texture will add a sensual element to your letter. It’s also harder to throw away a thing of beauty and obvious value, especially if it’s the work of a loving hand. Avoid anything decorated to the point where it’s hard to read text over it. Keep away from lined papers.

 Love letters usually come in series

 Remember, love letters usually come in series, so keep something back for next time. Make your lover see how utterly desirable she is. Be very specific about what attracts and delights you. If it’s her way of bursting into laughter or the way she brushes her hair back from her face just before she makes her point – describe it.

Always thank the lover who has written you

Always thank someone who has written to you, this graceful act should be rewarded every time. Doing so also helps to allay common fears about letters not arriving. If you’re replying to a letter, answer all the questions and points it raises. Don’t write in all capital letters. IT LOOKS LIKE SHOUTING. Use the word “you” as often as possible, especially in sentences containing the word “I.”

Sample love letters of today

A rush invitation. Tina, dearest, look out of the window, please. You’ll see a taxi. It’s for you. Get in and it will bring you to me. The menu is already on the back seat. Choose what you want to eat on the way. I don’t want to waste a minute when we’re together. Your Danny.

Love in Victory Liner. The travel temptation: Do you remember how we huddled together at the back seat of the Victory Liner bus? Hand in hand, soul with soul, we had no sense of anything that wasn’t our love. When we arrived at our destinations, the major landmarks of our past history heightened our feelings! When we visited Barasoain Cathedral in Malolos, the Manaoag Shrine in Pangasinan, and Burnham Park in Baguio, we admired everything through a prism of emotion that made a rainbow in our hearts.

What astonishing firework when we set off together

You set my heart on fire. I love you. Whenever I breathe the same air as you, my heart bursts into a million pieces and scatters. The room shrinks and the air grows thick with sparks. Your kisses explode like hand grenades and your not-given kisses are like bomb-craters.

Forgive me – I can’t behave like a normal person when I’m with you. Everything goes up in flames. What do you expect when you keep dropping your lighted matches onto my dry tinder?            

Be careful when you reseal the envelope – a million kisses will come flying out to wrap themselves around you. Can you hear those kisses detonating? And taste the smell of burning?

By all means, be funny

Lovers are notoriously thin-skinned. A love letter should be a treasury of bright and happy thoughts, not a cauldron of seething despair. Be very careful of teasing and irony.

(Reference: Love Letters by Michelle Lovric)