There's an Intimacy in the Very Distance that Births a Letter
In addition to being an acclaimed science fiction author, Samuel R. Delany, has been a teacher of English and writing most of his adult life. In his book About Writing, Delany relates an incident that illustrates the power of the written word to pull us out of our safe zones.
He gave an exercise to a class he held during a summer writing camp. The students were to pair up and interview each other, using written words only. To this end, they were physically separated from from one another by a door connecting separate rooms. One person would write a question and shove the paper it was written on under the door. The other would write an answer underneath the question and slide it back. The first person would write a follow up question and so on.
Everyone, including Delany, was surprised at how detailed and intimate the character sketches that resulted were. In digging for and providing information in writing, much more detail had been revealed than anyone expected.
There’s an Overwhelming Confessional Urge in the Written Word
Whether we’re good or bad people, we want to say what we really feel. We may be half a world apart, but when we tell something personal to someone else in an email or a text message it somehow feels like we’re whispering in someone’s ear.
Whenever I write anything, I imagine only one person is going to read it. Every essay, every story is a love letter to her.
