The Curious Creative: Week 18

Re-Imagining a Letter

This is the eighteenth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here. 

My Thoughts:

Letters of Note is a great website that attempts “to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos.” Each week, they update their site with a new letter by all sorts of people, from Anne Frank to Martin Scorsese.

This week, we’ll play around with one of the letters featured on the site. You’ll produce a kind of found poetry or manipulation poetry. Having the restrictions of already written content in place sometimes produces really creative results.

Your Turn!

1.    Visit http://www.lettersofnote.com, and click the bottom left link, “RANDOM LETTER. Click Here!” View the letter and related images it produces for you.

I just did it, and got a letter written by the woman from that famous photo of the sailor kissing a random nurse in the middle of Times Square celebrating the end of WWII.

2.    After the read it, fill in the blanks of this summary sentence: This letter is from _________ to _____________; the purpose of the letter is to ____________________.

For my example: This letter is from the nurse who was the subject of a famous photo celebrating the surrender of Japan in WWII to the photographer of that photo; the purpose of the letter is to reveal her identity and obtain a print of the picture 34 years after it was taken.

3.    Now re-imagine the purpose part of the summary sentence to include a new idea in the blank.

For my example: … the purpose is to confess her undying love for the sailor she has never been able to forget.

4.    Now re-write the letter, using as much or as little of it, adding and taking away whatever you wish, to make the letter fit your newly imagined purpose.

To encourage each other and grow a community of Curious Creatives, sign in from a google account so you can share your creation in the comment boxes below. Also, if you subscribe to this blog (submit your email address in the "Follow this Site by Email" box to the right), you will get an email update whenever a new exercise is added. Thanks for playing!