What is the point of writing a unsent letter? To write a letter to someone without the intention of sending it gives you the ability to completely open up, to let your emotions run free. You will not have to worry about holding back anything out of fear of the other persons feelings, or even out of your own embarrassment about what you feel.  So even if you are overy angry about something that you know in your head you shouldn’t be upset about, you need to get those feelings out, being able to submit a letter anonymously allows you to do that.
Take the popular site “Post Secret” for example, people send in random post cards about confessions, secret loves, hates, etc. Sharing that information can make you feel less alone, and possibly even help someone in your situation.  Many feelings that we have, whether it is anger or guilt or even love for someone we can’t (or shouldn’t) have, are not ours alone. You may be thinking that you are crazy, that no one else could possibly feel the way you do about a situation, but you would be suprised at just how many others secretly share the same feelings.
Your letter does not have to be heart warming and sweet, it can be full of anger, sadness, or even rage. That is the joy of writing under a pen name, no judgment, no regret.  I hope you enjoy reading the letters, and I can’t wait to read yours!
Related posts:
8 Responses to “Unsent Letters – What's the point?”
Nov 20th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I really love this blog – I have a feeling I will be submitting a few!
Nov 21st, 2009 at 4:39 am
You have nice blog! I can’t see any thing to make a bad comment on it. Just keep it up! You are like a pro.
Nov 21st, 2009 at 4:41 am
Good to see your articles!
Nov 24th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
RT @letters2breathe Unsent Letters – What’s the point? | Letters to Breathe http://bit.ly/6QOLHIReply – Quote
Nov 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Writing a letter, whether you send it or not, can be a very cathartic experience. I love this site! What a wonderful concept.
Nov 28th, 2009 at 1:45 am
I absolutely love this! I have a box full of unsent letters dating back to highschool (and no they arent on scribes, LOL) I think it is a terrific idea to cleanse your soul. Awesome blog and I look forward to checking back often!
Dec 13th, 2009 at 4:19 am
If you ever watched the show “Raven” there was a hilarious episode (featuring Macy Gray) where Raven’s mom wanted to get out her frustrations about an absent minded professor who kept losing her assignments. The Dad recommended something that he saw on Oprah which was to write about it to get it off her chest and make her feel better. Well as any silly episode of Raven goes, the professor ended up getting the letter by mistake but he was so absent minded that he forgot to read it…
Wow, I feel so much better now that I shared this with you. See it really does work…
Thanks for the link to the site. See you at Blog Engage!
Dec 14th, 2009 at 8:28 am
[...] a father that had committed suicide years ago, that one was hard to read, but beautiful. One of the posts I made explains the concept in more detail if you are [...]