How to Keep a Letter Journal: Choose Who You’re Writing To

A conventional journal entry often begins with “What happened today?” A letter journal adds one question: Who do I want to tell?

The letter does not have to be sent. An addressee gives the entry a natural voice and an easy place to begin. You might write to yourself today, your future self, another person, a city, or a part of life that has ended.

How a letter journal differs from an ordinary letter

An ordinary letter is written for someone else to receive. A letter journal may remain entirely yours.

You might write to:

• yourself at the end of this day;
• the version of you who will read this next year;
• someone you want to thank or understand, without deciding whether to send it;
• the room you lived in before a move;
• “this week,” “this decision,” or “the part that is not finished yet.”

You can decide whether to share only after you have finished writing. That separation makes it easier to speak before anticipating a reply.

1. Choose an addressee that changes the voice

“Dear me” is one option, but a more precise addressee often produces a more natural opening:

• to me, after making it through today;
• to the first quiet evening after the move;
• to the person I did not get to say goodbye to;
• to the shop I pass every day that will soon be gone.

If another addressee would leave every sentence unchanged, the person on the other side may still be too abstract.

2. Start with what you would naturally say

Formal letter conventions are optional. Try one of these:

• Something small happened today, and there is one thing I want to tell you.
• I do not know whether I will ever let you read this.
• By the time you see this, it may no longer feel important.
• I just came back from that place. The first thing I remember is…
• I left a sentence unfinished then. I want to try it again now.

The opening does not need to summarize the letter. It only needs to begin it.

3. Keep details a reader can see

Instead of “I was exhausted,” write: “I left the office at nine. Only one corridor light was still on, and when the elevator doors closed, I noticed how tightly I had been holding my shoulders.”

Four kinds of detail can help:

• Scene: time, place, sound, light, or weather;
• People: who was there and what they did;
• Change: what you first thought and where it shifted;
• Unfinished business: what remains unsaid, undecided, or unclear.

Years later, the light, the sentence, and the feeling behind it can make the memory recognizable again.

4. Turn some advice into questions

When we write to ourselves, it is easy to start giving instructions: stay disciplined, be brave, do not regret this. Keep the advice you mean, then turn part of it into questions:

• Did this remain as important as it feels now?
• How do you understand who I was then?
• If you could choose again, which part would you keep?
• Did that person ever hear these words?

Questions leave room for a later answer to be different.

5. Decide what happens after writing

• Keep it private: let it begin as your own record.
• Read it later: label it clearly and store it somewhere you can find.
• Share it deliberately: review the content, attachments, format, and recipient first.

Finishing is not sending. If the letter involves another person's private information or feelings you have not yet understood, save it first. Decide after some time has passed.

A complete example

To the first evening after the move,

>

I found an old train ticket at the back of the desk drawer today. The date has faded, but I can still tell it was from the afternoon I first came to see this room. There was construction outside, yet I remember thinking the place felt quiet. Now the boxes are by the door, and I still do not know whether leaving is the right choice. When you read this in the new room, tell me: what did I finally leave behind? What small thing made the new place begin to feel like home?

>

From me, still sitting at the old desk.

Using Inks

In Inks, you can write without choosing a recipient. Finishing a letter saves it as your own content first; sharing is a separate action. When you reopen it, you see the finished letter. Replay shows pauses, deletions, and rewrites only when you choose to start it.

The same method also works on paper, in a plain document, or in another journal app. For more openings, see 24 Journal Prompts. For a longer time horizon, see A Letter to Your Future Self.

6 min read · 2026-08-24 · 2026-08-24

By Wenpeng Wang, Developer of Inks.

Inks feature statements were checked against App Store release 1.1.6 on the date shown above. Adapt the general guidance to your own situation.