Introduction

My dear Reader,

As I look back over my years of writing - beginning in adolescence with my laboriously handwritten thank-you notes to grandparents, aunts, and other family members and later on to magazine articles, columns, and eventually to many manuscripts both published and unpublished - a surprising and satisfying truth emerges.

And it's this: Of all the ways to communicate with another human being, it is not writing the great American novel but rather the little, pristine gem called the handwritten note that touches our hearts the most.  It's that small missive of love and hope that - whether we write it or receive it - has the remarkable power to transform our state of mind and alter our emotions through a precious, soul-gratifying experience.  Even in sad or disturbing circumstances, the handwritten note is deeply personal, sometimes moving.

When a handwritten note comes into our day, it lifts our spirits, tickles us into a smile or a laugh, revives a milieu of memories, announces some good or bad news, or informs us about an event or experience - and for a short span of time, we are held captive by its effects.  Our is a truly wonderful world for written communiqués - handwritten or computerized, mailed or faxed.  The main point I want to make in this book is simply this: I want to encourage you to write out (by whatever means) your heartfelt thoughts and ideas.  Write them down on something, and send them to the person of your choice.  Use either or any method - just do it.

Personally, I love the delicate ambiance of the handwritten notes and letters, so this is my bias.  But even as I write these words, I can hear in my head all the CCL (completely computer literate) people in my life - even grandkids - shouting, "Excuse me?  Handwritten notes in this age of computers?"  Or, "Grandma Joyce, get with it!  We're in Computer Country now.  Even first graders know that a mouse is not some furry little animal in 'Hickory Dickory Dock' who runs up the nursery rhyme clock!"

Okay, I know their admonitions are all true.  We do live in the wonderful age of computers, faxes, answering machines, mobile phones, and personal beepers, and I certainly don't mean to exclude computer-aided writing - nor do I want to imply that a message not written by hand is impersonal and can't be effective.  It definitely can touch the heart.  Maybe my preference is due in part to the fact that, as a music major, I couldn't see any sense in taking a typing class in high school or college.  To this day, I cannot understand even the simplest computer instructions.  Each of the twenty-four books I've written, including this one, has been written out (several times) in longhand - one of my peculiar idiosyncrasies.  Also, for me, typing and computers move at too great a speed for my mind to keep up.  I think better with the slow-paced flow of the ink from my pen.  Or - perhaps I'm just getting old and set in my ways!

At any rate, to motivate you to write out your notes, here are some reasons to explore the beauty of writing notes by hand.

First, unlike those generated by computer, handwritten notes become very personal.  Between the scaled-down size of the stationery and your handwriting, your note announces that it is not an advertisement, a business letter, an innocuous form letter, or junk mail addressed to "occupant."  And when people see your individualistic handwriting, they glimpse a very special part of your personality, far more than they would see from just your signed name (even if you've been accused of being a doctor because your handwriting is so illegible!)

A few years after C.S. Lewis's death, I had a personal conversation with Walter Hooper, who had become the great scholar's official literary executor.  Walter recounted the fact that Lewis was once asked why he continued to handwrite all his correspondence when the volume of mail kept escalating each time he wrote another book, especially after his hands were deeply affected by the pain and crippling effects of arthritis.  Lewis's profound answer was, "I write in my own hand because of the worth of the human soul [who wrote to me]."

I believe that when we get a handwritten note in this, the age of computers, we tend to catch our breath, sit down, and take the message.  Don't ask me why this happens, I just know it does.

A second reason for writing notes is this: We all know that everything in this world takes time.  But putting a few well-chosen words down on paper and sending it to someone tends to get his or her attention, reaches the heart of the subject matter quickly, and goes a long way toward saving time, after all.  I believe that notes "reach out and touch" people in a better way than the phone company advertises - perhaps because the recipient of the note doesn't have to respond immediately but can reflect on the written words privately.

Here's a third reason for you to consider: I don't think for one single second that published writers like myself have the market cornered on stringing words together to convey the joy or the sorrow of the moment.  Years of receiving notes from people all over the world have convinced me.  These handwritten missives from nonprofessional writers run the gamut from cute, amusing, and clever to articulate, sincere, and even profound.  In fact, many thoughts written my "nonwriters" are among the most comprehensible and articulate I've ever read.  But maybe if you don't think you know how to write, you just need a nudge here and there, so you might want to think of these pages as a "nudge" book.  I've provided many letters and notes on a variety of real-life topics that I hope will give that nudge to you in the same way cue cards or 3 x 5 cards prompt a speaker.

These examples have been inspired by thirty-five years of correspondence and conversations with the thousands of people I've encountered during my public and professional life.

All these years of writing books and speaking engagements have given me the delightful opportunity to "listen between the words" and to "take the pulse" of my readers and of the people in my audiences.  So this book is not merely a collection of generic model letters but is a compilation of personal responses to very personal experiences and situations.  They are totally fictionalized in terms of connections to particular individuals but are intensely true to the ways I have experienced and observed life to be.

Read the simple lines offered in this book, and who knows, you may feel a wave of inspiration, change your viewpoint, or gain a new perspective.  Then, so armed (and without fear of copyright infringement!), you can tailor-make these notes using your own pet phrases or personal illustrations that will add the "sound" of your voice to your writing.  Perhaps these pages of prompters may even awaken the dormant gift of writing within you - a gift that may have been sleeping or hiding way down in your soul.  This is especially likely if you are thinking, I know I should write a note, and I want to write, but I just don't know where to start of what to say.

In the past year as I've been dealing with biopsies, surgeries, tests, chemotherapy, and all that goes with breast cancer, it's been the avalanche of handwritten notes from people (only a few of them authors or practicing writers) that have showered my daily existence with tiny waterfalls of exquisite joy.  Those notes have  brought moments of much-needed relief from the relentless pressures of dealing with cancer.  In the seconds it took me to read those notes filled with expressions of love, offerings of hope, and spoonfuls of encouragement, I was enabled somehow to set aside a few of the monumental horrors like nausea, fatigue, setbacks, and long waits in doctors' offices for treatments or lab results.  The notes were interludes - brief but beautiful.

So, with great affection I say, when you can't find the words or you don't have an idea in the world about how to start a note (especially if you're struggling because it's a difficult subject), then read through these pages.  Pick and choose; reject or accept; revise, add, delete - whatever.  But find the note or letter that prompts you to write out of your heart in the very best way possible.  Let it propel you, motivate you, into the almost-forgotten realm of enhancing relationships by means of your special, personal handwritten note.  Experience the rewarding joy of writing.

Love,
Joyce

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