When you read a letter from someone, we are immediately transferred into their world, experience, and physical reality. You can capture the same feeling by writing letters to yourself or about other people in your journal. Letter writing is the easiest form to use in journaling. On occasion, you might have already dabbled in writing letters in your journal.

There are three major benefits to journaling with letters. First, the experience helps organize the event more clearly in our mind. Second, letter writing makes it easier to see cause and affect sequences of our actions. Third, because of its intimacy, it loosens up our writing style.

Whether you have or haven’t experienced letter writing previously, here are a few ways you can expand the experience.

Step 1: Compile a list of people who you want to write a letter to. You can do this as a journal entry and mark the page with a post-it note.

Step 2: Select a letter style, purpose, before you begin writing. Since there are various types of letter writing styles, let me present four types that I have found most helpful and have received the most positive feedback in my workshops.

Style 1: Milestone letters. Writing about milestones is about picking an event that changed your life. Whether the milestone was minor one or one that turned you around 360 degrees does not matter. Even the smallest ones have truth to be released. The milestone will have either altered your way of thinking, change your relationship with yourself or others, or even shaken your physical or spiritual being-ness.

By writing about a milestone, you weed through and determine what is important in your life. Additionally, the exercise helps you understand what formed the person you are today and explains what shifted that path.

Style 2: Release letters. Release letters allow you to vent and express your deepest emotions. This style frees buried energy, in turn, allowing you to think and feel through things, rather than keeping it corked. Please note that your experience may not always lead to a resolution, however, it does lead to change. You can’t help but clean house of those leftovers.

Here are a few examples on how you can use release letters.

Example: Have you ever finished a conversation with someone that ruffled your feathers or left you still hearing their words like sounds of chalk going backwards across a blackboard? The conversation tumbles repeatedly in your mind for hours, even days. This is a perfect time to write a release letter. Set a timer for 10 minutes and let it rip across the page.

What you do with the release letter afterwards isn’t important. If you feel comfortable leaving it in your journal, do so. If you prefer to use separate paper and burn it, do so. If you prefer to tear it out of your journal later, do so.

Example: You can use this same exercise to curb over spending. This process came to me years ago when I was an accountant giving advice on how to curb over spending.

Have you ever been in the position of feeling you just “got to buy” something. Let’s say you are watching television and you see something you “got to have.” Alternatively, maybe a friend recommends a book and you still have 10 others to read but the recommendation is haunting you. How about seeing something, someone else has that you just “got to have.” The urge, just doesn’t want to relinquish its grip even with conscious “fighting it” thoughts. By writing a release letter, you can release this urge at least the majority of the time.

You can also use release letters to move you past the urge to eat something that isn’t on your food plan.

After several release letters you can even see what need is expressing itself and triggering these reactions. Once you identify the trigger, the process need usually subsides. There is no guarantee that this will work all the time; however, you will probably find it provides the release the majority of the time.

Style 3: Wisdom letters. A wisdom letter is writing to your wisdom self. A wisdom letter works well after a release letter because it enables the process of moving on. The experience allows the wisdom transition into learning and usually into a more positive light.

Adding dialogue, either in part or as the whole letter, is an excellent way to enhance the experience. Initials will help you transition between wisdom self to other self.

Style 4: Thank you letters. Since my parents passed, I’m always coming across things I want to thank them for. Even the small things seemed important to share. Now, in hindsight and wisdom, I can see how even the small things rippled through my life. These letters are also a special way for keeping their memory alive.

We both know that an attitude of gratitude is a peaceful place to be and thank you letters is one avenue you can use to be on that path. Our gratitude feelings fuel our spiritual connections with the universe and with all living things. Peacefulness is attractive to others and what we want to manifest in life.

You can also use one of these letter styles to let go of the “wish I had said that instead” thoughts and feelings or to share unfulfilled wishes and dreams that no longer fit but can’t seem to move on.

Letter writing is an excellent way to find closure or complete unfinished business in order to heal or learn. Whether you have or haven’t already been using letter writing in your journal, dedicate a whole week or two to the exercise. You might think that when you finish one letter, there isn’t another reason to write another. Be patient, another will probably appear because you have uncovered what was on top. When you get tired of the exercise, stop, and switch to another technique.

Based on the feedback that I have been getting from visitors
to my writinghelp-central.com Web site, letter writing is
definitely the area where most people are looking for help
or guidance when it comes to day-to-day writing.

Over 55% of the visitors to my site are seeking some sort of
letter writing information or assistance. The following
lists the Top Ten letters that people request information
on, in order of popularity:

* recommendation letter

* resignation letter

* thank you letter

* reference letter

* business letter

* complaint letter

* cover letter

* sales letter

* introduction letter

* apology letter

The 7 Strategies

Here are a few practical letter-writing tips and strategies
to help you when writing that next letter:

1. Keep It Short And To The Point

Letters involving business (personal or corporate) should be
concise, factual, and focused. Try to never exceed one page
or you will be at risk of losing your reader. A typical
letter page will hold 350 to 450 words. If you can’t get
your point across with that many words you probably haven’t
done enough preparatory work. If necessary, call the
recipient on the phone to clarify any fuzzy points and then
use the letter just to summarize the overall situation.

2. Make It Clear, Concise, And Logical

Before sitting down to write, make a brief point-form
outline of the matters you need to cover in the letter.
Organize those points into a logical progression that you
can use as your guide as you write the letter. The logical
blocks of the letter should be: 1. introduction/purpose,
background/explanation, summary/conclusion, action required
statement. Use this outline process to organize your
approach and your thoughts, and to eliminate any unnecessary
repetition or redundancy.

3. Focus On The Recipient’s Needs

While writing the letter, focus on the information
requirements of your audience, the intended addressee. If
you can, in your “mind’s eye”, imagine the intended
recipient seated across a desk or boardroom table from you
while you are explaining the subject of the letter. What
essential information does that person need to know through
this communication? What will be their expectations when
they open the letter? Have you addressed all these issues?

4. Use Simple And Appropriate Language

Your letter should use simple straightforward language, for
clarity and precision. Use short sentences and don’t let
paragraphs exceed three or four sentences. As much as
possible, use language and terminology familiar to the
intended recipient. Do not use technical terms and acronyms
without explaining them, unless you are certain that the
addressee is familiar with them.

5. Use Short Sentences And Paragraphs

Keep your sentences as short as possible, and break the text
up into brief paragraphs. Ideally, a paragraph should not
exceed two to three sentences. This will make the letter
more easily readable, which will entice the recipient to
read it sooner, rather than later.

6. Review And Revise It

Do a first draft, and then carefully review and revise it.
Put yourself in the place of the addressee. Imagine yourself
receiving the letter. How would you react to it? Would it
answer all of your questions? Does it deal with all of the
key issues? Are the language and tone appropriate? Sometimes
reading it out loud to one’s self can help. When you
actually “hear” the words it is easy to tell if it “sounds”
right or not.

7. Double Check Spelling And Grammar

A letter is a direct reflection of the person sending it,
and by extension, the organization that person works for.
When the final content of the letter is settled, make sure
that you run it through a spelling and grammar checker. To
send a letter with obvious spelling and grammatical errors
is sloppy and unprofessional. In such cases, the recipient
can’t really be blamed for seeing this as an indication as
to how you (and/or your organization) probably do most other
things.

The foregoing basic letter writing strategies and tips are
mostly common sense. Nevertheless, you would be amazed how
often these very basic “rules of thumb” are not employed
when people write letters.

Many years ago most personal letters, after an extremely formal salutation, began “I take my pen in hand.” We do not see that at all nowadays, but the spirit of that saying still lingers. Pick up the average letter and you cannot fail to notice that the writer has grimly taken his pen in hand and, filled with one thought, has attacked the paper. That one thought is to get the letter writing over with.

And perhaps this attitude of getting the writing over with at all costs is not so bad after all. There are those who grieve over the passing of the formal and dignified letter and others who regret that the “literary” letter – the kind of letter that can be published – is no longer with us. But the old letter of ceremony is not really more useful than a powdered wig to a modern man, and as for the sort of letter that delights the heart and lightens the work of the writer – well, that is still being written by the kind of person who can write it. It is better that a letter should be written because the writer has something to say than as a token of culture.

THE PURPOSE OF THE LETTER

No one can go far wrong in writing any sort of letter if first the care is taken to set out the exact object and desire of the letter. A letter always has an object – otherwise why write it? But somehow, and particularly in the dictated letter, the object frequently gets lost in the words. A handwritten letter is not suitable to be too wordy – it would take too much time and trouble to write. But someone dictating may, especially if interrupted by telephone calls, ramble on about what they want to say and in the end have used two pages for what should have been said in three lines. On the other hand, letters may be so brief as to produce an impression of abrupt rudeness. It is a rare writer who can say all that need be said in one line and not seem rude. But it can be done.

The single purpose of a letter is to convey thought. That thought may have to do with facts, and the further purpose may be to have the thought to produce action. But plainly the action depends solely upon how well the thought is transferred or conveyed in the letter. Words are used in a letter as a vehicles for thought, but every single word is not a vehicle for thought, because it may not be the kind of word that goes to the place where you want your thought to go; or, to put it another way, there is a wide variation in the understanding of words. Where an exactly phrased letter might completely convey an exact thought to a person of education, that same letter might be meaningless to a person with less understanding of complex words. Therefore, it is unwise in general letter writing to resort to using unusual words.

There is something of a feeling that letters should be elegant, that if you wanted to express yourself simply and clearly, it is because of some lack of sophistication, and that true sophistication breaks out in long, deep words and complicated constructions. There could be no greater mistake. A person who really knows the language will write simply. A person who does not know the language too well, and is affecting something, which he thinks is culture, has what might be called a sense of linguistic insecurity, which is similar to the sense of social insecurity. Now and again you meet a person who is afraid of making a social error. He is afraid of picking up the wrong fork in a restaurant, or of doing something else that is not done in polite society. They have an uncomfortable time of it, but any one used to social etiquette takes it for granted. It is the same with the writing of a letter.

There is no reason for writing a letter unless the objective is clearly defined. Writing a letter is like shooting at a target. The target may be hit by accident, but it is more likely to be hit if a careful aim has been taken.

CHILDREN AND LETTER WRITING

In this modern age of email and text messages, the act of sitting down and writing a letter by hand is quite a dying art. It’s a shame to think that the current generation of young children may grow up never having to write a letter by hand, so why not encourage them to sit and write to grandparents and family members who may not possess a computer, or even know how to send a text message. These letters will be received with great pleasure and affection, and will often become treasured possessions.

Before you know it, even writing a letter to Santa will be done on a word processor. How much more fun is writing a letter to Santa when you can get creative with paper, pen and colourful crayons.

The World Wide Web is a great resource for information, so why not research some pen pal sites that encourage communication between children in different countries using the traditional pen and paper. What can be better than that sense of anticipation awaiting the next letter full of thoughtful and personal messages from a friend in another country?

Conceptually, writing a sales letter is one of the most difficult things the average person can try to do when starting any kind of online business.

The thing about it is, when that same person applies these seven tricks, writing a sales letter can become as simple as writing an email to a friend.

Here they are…

1. Read other sales letters. Seems simple enough but countless people I’ve interviewed over the years have this one fault in common. They don’t read other sales letters. It’s like trying to ride a bike without ever putting your but on a bicycle and riding it. Is it possible? No, and neither is learning to write a sales letter without reading and understanding how sales letters are written.

2. Swipe other sales letters. I’ll probably get a tongue lashing for this but who cares! From junk mail that comes in the form of sales letters or those little booklets are really a sales letter in disguise in the mail you can start a swipe file of your own. Then save all the pages of websites that are trying to sell similar products or even non-similar products. You’ll know a sales letter when you see one. Save them on a folder called “Swipes.” Read through these and look for language patterns and phrases you can use and edit to suit your product or service.

3. Start Writing headlines. Headlines are the most important elements of any sales message or sales letter. Write between 10 and 50 headlines per sales letter following the A.C.E.S. principle. Attention, Curiosity, Excitement, Specificity. TO learn more about A.C.E.S. search on Google for an article called, “How To Write A Headline That Converts More Visitors Into Customers.”

4. Write to a friend. In other words, write your sales letter as if you are writing an emotional letter to your best friend about your product or service. Keep writing and don’t stop to correct mistakes until you can’t write any longer. If you use informal language, so be it. Anything that makes your sales letter seem more personal will make it more compelling.

5. Write short sentences and paragraphs. Keeping your paragraphs short and simple, will help you to increase the readership of your sales letter. The easier it looks to read the more likely they are to read it and buy your product! People are lazy, make it easy. Please note…I didn’t say, make your sales letter short, I said, “keep your sentences short.”

6. Use subheads. Subheads are like mini headlines. Heck, many of them ARE in fact headlines that you wrote earlier. Just make sure they work seamlessly with your copy. Subheads are used to break up long copy and drag people deeper into your words. Especially people who are skimming your copy. Online, it is also a way to relax the eye and give your sales letter more ‘optical appeal’. Subheads can be compelling statements, confusing statements or positive reinforcing statements about your product or service.

7. Use a P.S. or two at the end of your sales letter. Two of the most important places on any sales letter and the two that get read most often are the headline and the P.S. It seems strange, but the truth is, like I said earlier, “People are lazy!” Many just don’t have the time or patience to read your sales letter so they read your Headline and if it’s interesting to them, they read your P.S.’s So make sure you restate your offer in your P.S. and you also, apply a scarcity tactic to get your reader to take action immediately.

These seven tricks are by no means an exhaustive list of sales letter writing methods but they can and will help you improve your copy and improve your product sales at breakneck speed. Apply them today and profit fast!