What to Write on a Postcard

Katie Leamon Wish You Were Here Postcard – greeting card – Katie Leamon

A postcard's small size is a feature, not a limitation. There's no room to overthink it, no blank page demanding to be filled - just a few lines, and whatever you manage to say in them is enough. That makes postcards oddly freeing to write, once you stop trying to fit a letter's worth of news into a space built for a sentence or two.

Here's how to make the most of the space you've got.

Start with Where You Are, Not What You're Doing

The instinct is to open with an itinerary - what you did yesterday, what's planned for tomorrow. A more interesting postcard usually opens with a single, specific detail instead: the sound of a particular street, a smell, a moment that stuck.

  • "Writing this from a café that smells entirely of espresso and rain."
  • "The light here does something I didn't expect - everything looks slightly gold."
  • "Sat on a wall by the harbour, watching a man completely fail to fly a kite."

A specific image does more work in one line than a list of activities does in five.

Keep It About Them, Not Just You

A postcard that's purely a travel update is fine, but one that includes a line about the recipient tends to be the one that gets kept.

  • "Saw a shop full of the exact kind of mugs you collect and thought of you."
  • "This place would drive you mad - queues for everything - so I'm enjoying it on your behalf."
  • "Wishing you were here for this. You'd have opinions about the architecture."

Short and Sincere Options

If you're not travelling with much time or headspace to write something considered, these work perfectly well on their own.

  • "Thinking of you from [place]. Missing you."
  • "Having the loveliest time. Wish you were here."
  • "Sending sunshine and good thoughts your way."
  • "[Place] is everything it's cracked up to be. Can't wait to tell you properly."

For a Non-Travel Postcard

Postcards aren't only for holidays - a postcard is also a lovely, low-pressure way to send a quick note for no particular reason.

  • "No news, just thinking of you today."
  • "Sending you a small hello, because I found this and it made me think of you."
  • "Just because. Hope your week is going well."

Katie Leamon Happy Birthday Postcard – luxury birthday card – Katie Leamon

What to Avoid

Don't apologise for not writing more. A postcard is meant to be brief - there's no need to explain the size constraint, since everyone receiving one already understands it.

Don't cram the whole card with tiny writing. A short message with room to breathe reads better, and looks better, than a page's worth of text squeezed into the margins.

The Most Important Thing

A postcard doesn't need to say much to mean something. The fact that someone paused, in the middle of wherever they were, to write and send it, is most of the message. Whatever you write in the space left over is simply the rest.

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