Yahoo Lifestyle 5 Writing Tips for the Ultimate Valentine from WWI Love Letters
As we head into Valentine’s Day weekend, what to write in a card to your S.O. and other loved ones is top of mind. You can turn to famous love letters for inspiration, but there’s another trove of love letter-writing wisdom you’re most likely overlooking: The National WWI Museum and Memorial’s collection of wartime love letters.
“There’s something absolutely wonderful about being able to tell the story of a time of global conflict through the eyes of somebody in love,” says Lora Vogt, museum curator and vice president of education and interpretation. “You see the richness and the fullness of life, because they managed to take the time to share that with pen and paper.”
So make your own history. “Take the five minutes,” Lora says, whether you write an actual letter on paper or send a text or video. The following tips gleaned from the century-old letters between WWI servicemen and women and their loved ones will help you write one for the ages.
Pepper in terms of endearment
It might be a shortened pet name based on a person’s actual name or “something with a whole other story behind it, kind of a sweet wink and an eye,” Lora says. And don’t be afraid to pile them on. She points to a letter from a systemist stationed in Siberia.
“He’s writing to his wife, and he has so many lovely pet names: my love, my dear, my truest. You can just see that there’s this closeness, this reaffirming of bonds just in one word. Even though we don’t know the rest of the story, you can tell in that sweet sense of familiarity. It’s a way to remind, even while they’re so far apart, that they are, in fact, still so close.”
Examples from the museum’s archives: Honey Dear, Darling, Snookums, My Little Liberty, Dearest Little Bunny, Love Drops
Lean in to poetic language
Take a page from the book of Dr. Charles Glen Irons, a dentist serving in Russia. He wrote nearly every day to his wife and daughter in Chicago, and his collection of letters is one of Lora’s favorites. He filled his letters with emotion and poetic imagery, interspersed with talking about his day and asking questions about what his wife had done in hers. Often, he signed off with the poignant line, “With oceans and oceans of love and a kiss on each wave.”
More examples from Charles:
“How I would like to be with you on this day, [t]he day on which seven years ago I was made one of the happiest men alive….May God shorten the days as much as possible until the time when I can clasp you in my arms again.”
“I think to hear one say that they love you and really mean it is one of the sweetest messages that could be spoken and unlike other things does not grow old with constant repetition, honey dear I love you more than anything else in the world. In fact, I worship you I have never fully appreciated you and your wonderful qualities in the past, but with God’s permission, I am going to try and make up for past neglect.”
Say a little…flirt a lot
Is it just us, or are things getting awfully flirty between the lines in these exchanges between young Corporal Reid Disman Fields and Clara Wrasse?
Reid to Clara: “No kid you [didn’t] ask me too many questions, of course you know what I would say if you did. Ha! I guess I haven’t done anything to ruin my reputation though. Ha! Ha! Get that? Puzzle, where is the reputation? You know what you always told me.
Yes, the card you sent is real clever. A few words can mean a whole lot sometimes.”
Clara to Reid: “P. S. I must ask you what do you mean you know nothing about the other kind of a kiss but you have a great imagination? Don’t forget to answer. So long.”
The use of ha!, Lora explains, leaves this space where they’re writing a thing and then they just pause so that the unwritten part seeps in.
On the other hand, it’s okay to be direct too: “Of course, you’ve got these sweet husband-wife letters where people are talking about (things like) ‘I miss being close to you,’ and ‘I miss putting my arms around you,’ ” Lora says.
Don’t Skip the Everyday Stuff
Genuinely sharing your life experiences can help bring you closer.
Especially in the longer WWI letters, you get a get a sense of the everyday-ness of life: “You’re talking about the good time you had playing cards and getting a drink,” or conversely, “You are so bored. It is so muddy. Please send more of this,” Lora says of the letters in the collection. “We’ve even got a letter that talks about Valentine’s Day and vaccines.”
In these mundane details, from the weather to what someone ate, “You can tell so much about who the person is,” she says.
Get creative! Include a photo or drawing
It could be a special memory between the two of you or a touch of home. Or, you might send your long-distance love a pic from your travels—some place they’ve never been. Or, it could simply be a photo of you.
Though it may not be so obvious now in the days of FaceTime and modern travel, during WWI when more than two million American men and women served overseas, getting a picture of your loved one to carry with you, whether a studio portrait or something informal, was so important, Lora says.
Put an old-fashioned spin on it. Turn your photo into a postcard. Lora says: “A hundred years ago, you could take your film to be processed and they would put postcard paper on the back of it.” How fun!
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