Deployment Idea 8# – Turn Your Letters into a Book
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When my husband (then fiance) went to basic in 2008, I decided that to support him I would write him a letter each and every single day that he was gone. Because I find it easier and faster to type then to write, I left a Microsoft Word document open on my computer and every day when I had a minute or two or more I would sit down and write a few sentences about my day or maybe sit down and write a whole letter.
Sometimes I would include quotes or photos that I found online. Sometimes music lyrics that were encouraging or about love. Each night when I was done including everything I wanted in that day’s letter, I would print it out and the next day mail it. Every day I mailed one to him and each letter was safely saved on my computer in that one document.
Toward the end of the 6 weeks that he was gone I had already made plans to go visit him for graduation. I wanted to give him a special gift and I spent several days trying to think of the perfect gift. Then it came to me! All those letters I wrote to him combined into a book would be the perfect gift! He could take them with them wherever he went and they would always be there saved and safe in that book.
I searched for a website that would do exactly what I wanted to do, but that was not going to cost me too much money. I somehow came across lulu.com – a self publishing website and was able to easily upload my document of letters into their publisher. I was able to choose a cover and what kind of book that I wanted it turned into, and in turn they printed it out and sent it to me for roughly $30.00 or less. Not bad!
Now this was over 5 years ago, so I am not sure if that website still works the same and what the prices are like now, BUT there are so many different ways to publish things out there on the web now. Photo books, scrapbooks, etc. I am sure there are many creative ways to get your letters into a book!
Turn Your Letters Into a Book!
If you husband is deployed, writing letters is a great way to show you care, to support your spouse, and to give your spouse details about your day and your life while he is gone. Maybe you have some letters saved that you have written over multiple deployments, or maybe you have just a few and want to start writing more, either way this idea can be implemented in so many ways!
Remember: Emails are letters too. If you and your spouse have written emails to each other over multiple deployments maybe going through and transferring them into a book is a good way to save them and be able to look back on them.
What You Need:
- Microsoft Word, Email, or some other way of writing or typing letters.
- Quotes, pictures, lyrics and any other encouraging words that you might want to include. (See: 40 Long Distance Love Quotes for Deployment.)
- Letters about your day, life and/or love.
- Creativity!
Yes, the picture above is my book to my husband… It’s awful I know. I am not creative at all and had no idea what to do with the cover. BUT I am sure there are so many ideas you can incorporate into yours! Maybe you could include pictures of you and your spouse or even something else personal. And yes, I did not know how to spell “Airman” back then. Give me a break I didn’t know a single thing about military life back then! *grin*
What about YOU? Do you like writing letters to your deployed spouse or boyfriend?
I’ve always been stuck on what to do with letters. My husband wrote me one hand written letter from his first deployment that was so beautiful. I ended up putting it in a scrap book along with photos from his deployment and homecoming 🙂
Right now I have copies of my letters to my husband and his letters in a binder, roughly in order. He’s got my original letters. This might be a cute idea for a future anniversary–all our correspondence while he’s been away!
Thanks for the idea, and don’t feel bad about not knowing terminology. I’m over a year into the Navy thing and still have no clue about half of this stuff. haha.
Great idea! I write letters during deployments A LOT! (And I usually receive a pretty good amount, too!) Right now, we store them in keepsake boxes, but I just adore this book idea!
I even have some letters from my great-aunt written to me as a child. They are filled with wonderful stories she told my mom when she was young and wanted to pass down to me. A boom of those letters would be amazing!
Thanks for the idea!
During my husband’s (then fiance’) last deployment I made a “deployment journal” I wrote in it every single day he was gone about what I did, how I was feeling, and about what I was looking forward to. I ended up with roughly 400 pages for his 200 day deployment and attached a picture for each day as well. I gave it to him once he got back, but I think it would be awesome to type up and make official. The one I did was just on plain notebook paper with pretty colored pens. This is such a good idea! We didn’t write many letters because he could e-mail me every day, but for those that have a lot of letters, I think this is the perfect thing to do with them!
What a brilliant idea. I don’t have a army man, but when we were dating, we rarely lived in the same area, and wrote a lot of letters. We have both saved the letters, and it would be great to put them together into a book. We could do mine then his response. I love this idea!
I love this idea, I wish I would have typed my letter but my man loves a hand written letter so when he comes home at Christmas time, I am going to scan the letters and make a book from him for when he leaves for Germany in January. This will be his first deployment 🙁
Hand-written letters are beautiful too, and you can always type them up if you don’t mind the work! Good luck, hope it all works out, and good luck on your first deployment, you can do it! 🙂
Thank you so much for this amazing idea. I have tons of my husband deployment letter from him and tons of mine to him. I’ve been wanting to do something special with them for awhile. So I decided on this wonderful idea. Then I’m going put the original hand written letters into a shadow box. And give them to him for valentines day. Then when he ha other deployments I’m going to glue them in the book nicely. Thank you again
This is wonderful idea but if I just want to keep the original handwritten letters to make a book(without scanning or emails) can I do it like that. If so how can I ?
To be honest I am not sure. Might be something to look up on Pinterest!