NotATextHow to end a love letter.
How to close a love letter without sounding like a greeting card: the last paragraph, the sign-off line, and 25 closings sorted from plain to all-in.
End a love letter with one sentence about what is next, then a sign-off you would actually say, then your name. Do not end with a quote and do not end with a question.
The last paragraph
The last paragraph is what she is left holding. Make it forward-looking and small: next Saturday, the coast road, "thirty more years of the boring stuff." If the letter is an apology, the last paragraph is "I'd like to talk when you're ready," full stop. If it is a just-because letter, the last paragraph can be the whole letter: "That's it. That's the letter."
The sign-off line
The sign-off is the word or two before your name. The test: would you say it out loud at the door? "Love," passes. "Eternally yours," does not, unless it does for you.
Plain
- Your name, nothing else.
- Love,
- Yours,
- Always,
- Me
Warmer
- All my love,
- Yours, still and all the way,
- Still yours,
- With everything,
- Love you. Mean it.
Sounds like a person
- Okay. That's it. Love you.
- See you Friday.
- Go to sleep. I'm right here.
- Pancakes tomorrow. Don't get up.
- Coffee's on me.
- Call me when you've read this. Or don't. Either's fine.
- Don't throw this away. (You won't.)
- Same time next week.
All in
- I'd pick you again. Every time.
- Thirty more years. Then we'll talk.
- Yours for as long as you'll have me,
- I love you more than I say, and I say it a lot.
- Forever is a big word. I'm using it anyway.
- Whatever comes, you and me.
- Home is wherever you've left your shoes.
What to avoid
- A quote. The letter was going fine until someone else started talking.
- A question. "Do you feel the same?" turns a gift into an invoice.
- "P.S. I love you." Say it in the letter. The P.S. is for "the dog ate your sock."
- Anything with "soulmate" or "other half" unless you say those words in real life.
A P.S. that works
A P.S. is for one small true thing that did not fit. "P.S. I fixed the dishwasher. You're welcome." "P.S. Your mom called. I told her you're wonderful. She agreed." It is the last thing she reads, so make it the lightest.
Then mail it
Type the whole thing on your phone at NotAText. A real ballpoint pen writes it in the handwriting you pick, we seal it, stamp it and mail it. Send a handwritten love letter.
Questions
Should I sign my full name?
First name, or whatever she calls you. A full name reads like a contract.
Is “Love” too much for a new relationship?
If you have not said it out loud, do not write it. “Yours,” or just your name, is plenty.
Can I end with just my initial?
Yes. “J” at the bottom of a three-sentence letter is perfect.