Letters and Stories

There was a story I once read, I can’t remember where, (maybe Highlights magazine?) about a girl aspiring to be a writer.  She described her preference to writing by hand and letting the ink of the pen hit the surface of the paper, giving her story character and personality through just the writing – which proved to be another motivating creative force behind her story-writing.  She contrasted this picture with the process of typing a story on the computer, where words and letters were became cold pieces of concrete. 

I don’t remember why exactly this story stuck in my head, but I knew it always bugged me that I couldn’t remember where I read it because what I do remember is the feeling that the written word conveyed so much more than just the words itself. 

Written words (in contrast to typed or computerized) offered more depth than just the definition and comprehension of the words and phrases put together.   Now a lot of this is arguable since perhaps many of us would look at old typewritten letters or word-press books as mediums with “character.”  However, when you look at handwritten notes, letters, or signatures – there so much of a story that can be found.

A few weeks ago I was in an antique shop and just as I was about to leave, my eyes fell upon an old green Victorian guestbook, filled with notes and letters to a woman.  For ten bucks I was able to read through all these notes, imagine stories, assume relations, mysteries, maybe secret likings to this woman who asked all her friends to write a small note in order that “whate’er befall, The names of all my friends’ recall.”

Each of these notes had characteristic handwriting, beautiful lines of elegance that portrayed a little bit about the person who owned them (you can read my blog about how lines portray energy).  Some I would recognize and go back and realize that some friends had written more than one note of sincerity.  I mean, this was back in the day when people would study the art of writing in order to convey a certain image of themselves.

One particular handwriting that caught me was that of the woman’s daughter.  In one of the first pages a beautifully written note is addressed to her mother.  However, I came across another note from the same daughter but in much more crude handwriting.  it must have been written years earlier since it conveyed the characteristics of a little girl in her first years of learning to write.  What a story that has!  Just by the handwriting alone I started to imagine what their relationship was like, and how it might have been for the daughter, years later, to come back and write again in her mother’s book.

            I think that written words are kind of like an art – somewhat like painting.  A person’s handwriting can convey a little bit about themselves and maybe a little more about a story.