Writing Exercise: The Letter
January 18, 2012
In this exercise, one of your characters is going through some papers, cleaning out a drawer, whatever, and comes upon a letter written by someone they love. It may be a romantic love interest or not, maybe a parent or a long-dead grandfather. The letter changes things.
The easy way to do this is for the letter to be a love letter from a romantic love to someone unexpected. Alanis Morrissette does a pretty good job of that in the following song.
Let’s not do the easy thing–you can if it works best for you, but if your story doesn’t demand it, try for something different.
Otherwise, shoot for a scene where the letter isn’t obvious, where it uncovers something unknown that changes everything.
Time limit: 25 minutes
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Gina tossed me the envelope like it was a trifle, unimportant really. Something she found and thought I might glance at before I threw it away.
“What’s this?”
“Open it.”
It’s great for mutual trust when people answer a question by not answering it.
“What is it?”
“I’m taking a shower.” She closed the door behind her and entered the bathroom. Bitch.
I’d just had my car breakdown, been picked up by her–which turned out not to be a coincidence–then was serially dunked icy water until I talked about some flash drive I didn’t know anything about. My legs were still numb almost twenty minutes later. And she has to take a shower. I considered charging into the bathroom, then remembered the only reason I wasn’t being dunked in icy water was because she’d shot the people doing it. Maybe charging into the bathroom after her would be career limiting.
The envelope looked like it had been beaten severely. It wasn’t creased, but it was wrinkled, as if it had been stuffed different places repeatedly over a long period of time. It had no name on it, no address. It was just a small white envelope.
The way the day was going, I’d open it to find harmful white powder.
“Open the damn envelope,” Gina called from in the bathroom.
I took a breath and followed instructions. It would be good to do so, for now. Later, when I understood what was going on, I could…what exactly?
It seemed empty at first, then I saw the paper. It wasn’t very big, maybe about the size of a large sticky note. Folded in half then in half again.
When I unfolded it, I saw the scrawl and anger, relief, happiness, and disbelief overwhelmed me the way the icy water had less than an hour before.
Hey Jay. I guess you figured out I’m not dead. I know you’d have liked it better that way. Sorry to disappoint you. Thing is, you have to listen to Gina. She’s the only chance either of us has to walk out of this at the end. I’ll explain everything when I see you. In the meantime you have to trust me and trust her. I’m counting on you.
I laughed. It was a bitter laugh and one I heard as if it belonged to someone else. The day my twin brother walked out of my life was the day things started falling back together for me. It makes me an evil son of a bitch, but it was the best day in my life in the last five years.
Trust him? Trust her?
Wet clothes or not, I know a death sentence when I see it.
I put the letter down and turned toward the door. Before my hand hit the knob, Gina spoke.
“You touch that door and I’ll kill you.” She must have gotten the gun out.
I spoke without turning. “If you wanted me dead, you’d have let me die at the lake.”
“Having you alive makes things a little easier for me. If you make them harder, I’ll take the easier route.”
I pulled my hand back.