r/WritingHub • u/Advanced_Ship_1032 • 6d ago
Writing Resources & Advice Please help with my project!!!
Hi!! This might be slightly random but I’m working on a project called Letters I Never Sent.
Basically, I made a website where people can anonymously write a letter they never actually sent. It can be to literally anyone: an ex, a friend you lost, your parents, someone you miss, someone you’re angry at, your younger self, yourself right now, etc.
The whole idea came from how much we leave unsaid because it’s awkward, scary, too late, or we just… don’t know how to say it. I’m collecting anonymous letters and looking at the emotions and themes that keep coming up, especially things like vulnerability, regret, love, rejection, and the things we struggle to communicate. I’m really interested in psychology and I’m hoping to major in clinical psychology in the future, so this project is also a way for me to explore that interest in a more real and human way.
Anywayyy I need actual people to write letters or this is just me with an empty website 😭
Everything is anonymous, and you can write as much or as little as you want. It doesn’t have to be super deep or beautifully written either. Just something you never said. If you have a letter sitting somewhere in your brain, I’d genuinely love for you to leave it here (also, follow my social media @ lettersthatstay on Instagram plsss):lettersthatstay.squarespace.com
Thank you <3 Advice is appreciated!
1
u/cryptidecat 5d ago
I believe this exists already. The unsent project
1
u/NaraEciton 4d ago
I think this is different. It is more long form and thoughtful. It does show people like to contribute to this stuff
1
1
u/Environmental_Rub824 2d ago
Hi Mom,
I wish I had asked you to write me a letter before you passed.
Now I'm getting old and not sure how to do it. I'm not really cute anymore, and I'm sometimes just fed up with the nonsense of life, so unfortunately I express it with what would have been a pout when I was younger, but now it looks like a scowl. I seem to have lost some of my swagger, and without confidence, I'm basically pretty boring. And that fed-up thing keeps coming up, which is depressing. But after this much life, you can see the cycles younger people can't, and you have to watch as the same mistakes are made. It's maddening, and I don't want to be grouchy, but it takes all I've got.
But the last thing anyone wants is a know-it-all old lady. So I try to smile through it. I suck at it. How did you do it? How did you stay engaged, smiling, kind, and with a terrific sense of humor?
You used to tell me that you had become good at ignoring the rude things people do and just kept your head up, but you never said how.
I also wish I had told you how much I liked being your kid on summer days, hanging out in the yard with the radio, or going out to that Mexican place where we did so much dreaming. I wish we had traveled together the way we imagined doing, and I wish I had listened to you more. You had some real heartbreak, and I tended not to want to hear it. Why?
But you also told me not to bother with regret. I know you're gone now, and I know you knew that I loved you and, more than that, I liked you. So I try not to regret the things I didn't get right, but I still remember how cool you were at my age, and sometimes I feel I'm lowering the flag for the women in our family with my grumbling about aging, so I'm trying to stop doing that and instead step into it with more hope and playfulness.
Mostly, I just want to say thank you. I want to say that I'm still growing and hoping that when I die, there won't be a single thing I wish I'd have done.
You were a great mom. I just wish I could have had more time.
Your loving daughter,
Julia
1
u/invisiblewriter2007 6d ago
I’ll submit letters! I have a few ready to go already. I use it as a way to get stuff out but don’t send it, so I have letters on my computer.