Epistolary – The tale of letters

One of the most challenging and creative forms of writing is compiling sequence of letters or other forms of correspondence such as journal entries, emails and blog posts into a cohesive piece of literature. Interestingly, this form of story writing is called Epistolary, with a varying number of characters.

The theme of the book could be a love story, a memoir or even a series of correspondence with God. Yeah, you read it right; God. Another interesting aspect of a literary work written in the form is the number of participants / protagonists in this communication. Frankly, epistle books offer sublime reading experience when the plot revolves around single or dual characters. However, it doesn’t mean that stories with multiple players are considered literary blunders.

My current work, titled “Dear Elisa” is a series of letters written to a nonexistent fictional character and doesn’t really fit any particular genre. In fact, it is a wordy ribbon that shines in saga and romance glitters.

One of the advantages of this form of writing is the brevity of letters or chapters as they are known in their native form. It allows readers to stop and start at will, unlike traditional writing where a reader tends to flip through earlier pages to reconnect with the story. Epistolary is also a boon for writers who are unusually fanatic about first person point of view. Whether it is letters, mails and journal entries writing in first person is a default way of expression. Does it mean that other forms of POV’s cannot be exploited? Not at all!

Incidentally, epistolary comes from a Greek word, epistolē, which means “letter” and therefore devoid of dialogs or in most cases reflects limited presence. Recalling chat events or conversations verbatim while writing letters or blog posts can be quite a daunting task, especially when written after a long hiatus. The idea therefore is to write the essence of the conversation, extracting highlights from recent or past memories.

Epistolary is all about compiling letters into a manuscript. While some writers make a deliberate attempt to adopt this form ( like me ), most of the renowned works actually began as an innocent collection of personal records. Google search and you will discover some amazing literary works belonging to this category. The Color Purple by Alice Walker is one such example.