To write a love letter, you do not need to be a great writer: your partner wants your own words. Choose good paper, collect your thoughts with a few questions, start with what makes them special, and copy the final version out by hand.
Valentine's Day, an anniversary, or no occasion at all: any day is a good day for a love letter. Many people feel nervous at the thought of writing one, but you do not have to be, and you should not let that stop you.
You aren't William Shakespeare, and your partner already knows that.
The first step toward writing a love letter is to understand that your partner does not want a letter written by someone else. They want something from you. They want to know what you think and feel, and how you feel about them.
If you take the time to sit down and write one, it can become one of the best presents they ever receive. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Choose good paper
Think about what you are going to write on. A love letter is a special occasion, so don't just grab a notebook out of your junk drawer. Take a moment to get some thick, good-quality stationery from a craft shop or a stationery shop; it's an added bonus if you can find some with roses or hearts on it. If you do this right, your partner is likely to keep your letter for a very long time, so you want paper that is going to last. (Stationery is the paper; stationary means standing still. The two are easy to mix up.)
Questions to think about
Once you have the paper, the second step is to think about what you are going to write. Don't start writing on your good paper right away, though. Use ordinary paper while you work out exactly what you are going to say, and only move to the good paper once you have a final version.
Here are some questions to get your thoughts flowing:
- What is their greatest strength?
- How do they make you feel? What do they do that makes you feel that way?
- How do they show you, day by day or week by week, that they love you?
- What is the most romantic thing they have ever done for you?
- When or why did you fall in love with them?
- What are your favorite memories together?
- How has your life changed since you met them?
As you think about these questions, you will probably be flooded with ideas to share. Be as specific as you can. You may even tell them about things they did in the past that meant a great deal to you, and that they never knew about.
How to start
Now that you have some good ideas, all that is left is to find a way to start. A good opening names a specific quality that you appreciate about them. It also sets the tone if the first lines make clear that this is about them and no one else, for example: "I have never met anyone else who makes me laugh the way you do" or "No one else has ever made me feel so at home."
Why it has to be your words
It may be tempting to skip all this and have someone else, or a chatbot, write the letter for you, but that would be a mistake. As mentioned above, your partner doesn't want a love letter from someone who writes better than you do. They want something that sounds like it came from you.
There is one thing you should do that professional writers do, though: check your draft before you copy it onto your good paper. A typo is easy to miss in a draft you have read ten times, and hard to fix once it is written in ink. The Spell Checker points out spelling and grammar mistakes in your draft before they reach the good paper. Shakespeare had no such help, and his spelling was famously inconsistent; yours doesn't have to be.