I know. A letter.
When did you last take some actual paper, lined or frilly or otherwise, pick up a pen -- one of those tubular things that emits a liquid called ink -- and wrote out your thoughts to a friend?
With the use of e-mail, we are forgetting something quite remarkable: we are forgetting how to write with our hands ... and not just our brains. Like the keyboard, we can write out our thoughts in ink- giving life to our thoughts, words, deeds, images and feelings. Ink and paper are the beginnings of any writer.
But, ink is truly feeling your words. Ink lets you directly write out not just what you're saying, but how you feel about it through the way we write. Our words, though we can't write them out as fast as we can on a computer, are intentional when printed in ink; our words really mean something.
How about a journal entry? When was the last time you wrote out your thoughts in a notebook rather than a blog post? What about a little note to a friend at work or to a spouse at home, instead of a text? What about a postcard sent from a place you just went? We seem to want to update our facebook pages with our latest "wish you were here" picture, which ends up looking like a "look what I'm doing and you're not" picture instead. Not the same as a postcard. At all.
There is something about ink on paper that means more than any text, e-mail or blog.
There is also something great about writing out your story on paper too. Yes, you'll have to transcribe it to the PC, but so what. To write the way all the great writers of our past wrote is something you can't explain to a writer who only types. It's freeing; it's real ... it's the way all writing began.
Write a letter or a note to a friend or family member today. It will mean a lot to them, and hopefully, renew your creative world without the need for any electricity.
Oh, and just a heads up: you'll need one of those little square things called a "stamp" to put in the corner in order to mail it.