Letters...you know, the good, old-fashioned pieces of paper with scribblings on them, folded up in an envelope (en-vah-lope....not on-vah-lope...), with your name addressed on the front, and stamp in the upper right-hand corner.

What is so lovely about a letter? It's a piece of magic, that's what. There's something intriguing and at the same time, exciting! about receiving an envelope with your name on it.

And yes, while texting, emails, private messages on Facebook, IM, Skyping, and all other electronic means of communicating ARE definitely much more handy and quick and easy and immediate, they just aren't as romantic and lovely as a real, written letter that travels across the states or world to get to you. (And don't try to tell me that a romantic text beats a romantic love letter. It's just not possible. Let's not even try to contemplate it.)

But, oh, darn...where to start? How does one write a GOOD letter?? I cannot speak for my own writing habits...but hey! my friends still respond to my letters! Anyhow, firstly, what are a couple things I love about receiving letters and can be used as tips to create a great letter?

- A sweet, interesting, funny, and DIFFERENT form of address.

Instead of the boring "Dear Sam," my best friend begins her letter with a "My dearest Sam". It is sweet, touching, makes me feel loved, and is not at all a boring way to begin a letter. Don't follow the formal, impersonal address of just a "Dear ". Show straight off how you feel about them...show your reader that you do care about them. (Unless, of course you're writing a hate note. Then, by all means, use the sarcasm behind a "Dear ". Or better yet, "Dear Scumbag"...that'll get the message across. Joking...)

- Personality!!

What I Love about my bestie Amy's letters is just how MUCH of her sweet, quirky, funny personality shows through her letters. She writes in LARGE letters to emphasize something, she uses smiley faces galore, she calls me by the wacky nickname of Rabbit that she gave me. She uses exclamation points, she underlines things, she uses LOL...to put it simply: her personality just BURSTS from the page. And it makes me smile. Don't restrain yourself. Don't let letters be impersonal...let them BE personal!

- Ramble. Let it all out.

Fact: rambling increases the length of letters. Long letters = WONDERFUL. Plus, rambles make for some of the best conversation starters. And even if they don't, they can be TERRIBLY amusing. The latest letter from my bestie, HannahBeth, is FULL of her rambling on and on about how much she LOVES fall, and rainy days, and cups of tea, and writing letters, and watching movies, and curling up with a book. It makes me smile, laugh, and miss her like crazy. Again, this is personality shining through, and it's like sitting down in-person with a friend and listening to her talk and talk. It is happiness. And don't try to tell me shorter letters are better than long ones. So not true. (Unless, of course, it's that hate note...)

- Questions. Ask away!

What I love about my dear, dear friend Maddie's letters are that they always have questions for me. She's always wondering what I'm up to, what I've been watching, what I've been reading, what I've been listening to, what's new, my thoughts on things, etc. It makes writing back extremely easy. And again, it's personality...just as she would be genuinely interested in person about what's going on with me, so she is in her letters.

Letter-writing was an art for such a long time and suddenly started to die away. Nowadays, so many people don't know the loveliness of receiving a real letter in the mail. Try your hand at it, you'd be surprised just how lovely and fun it can be.