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You don't have to be a great writer to pen the perfect love letter. Ensure that your romantic correspondence makes your intended's heart skip a beat.

The intimate connection between mind and hand that goes into writing a poignant love letter can do wonders to strengthen the intimate connection between you and your partner.

1. Keep It Personal
To compose a love letter with all the passion achieved by renowned writers, it should be personally penned. The first rule of composing an eloquent love letter is to write it longhand. It heightens the emotional bond between you and your loved one.

Brenda Robertson, director of the Writing Center at the University of Mississippi and instructor for the University's annual love-letter-writing workshop, advises, "Always write with a pen, a fountain pen, preferably. The flow of ink makes much more sensual pen stroke."

2. Don't Mince Your Words
Robertson also stresses that it's important to "use lively and inventive adjectives to describe the way you feel and hope someone feels about you." To help students tap into their feelings, Robertson has them taste fruit and write down their sensations. "Sampling and describing sensory images can inspire the language that builds your love letter," she says.

3. Capture the Moment
To mystically connect brain, hand, fingers, and pen — or in plainer words, compose the body of your love letter — think about a moment that prompted this need to express such love. Waxing poetic about a particular event, which to the casual observer might seem remarkably simple and seemingly small, gives you focus as well as a built-in beginning, middle and end. For example, Sir Winston Churchill skipped vague platitudes and wrote this letter to his wife in 1935:

My darling Clemmie,
In your letter from Madras you wrote some words very dear to me, about my having enriched your life. I cannot tell you what pleasure this gave me, because I always feel so overwhelmingly in your debt, if there can be accounts in love.... What it has been to me to live all these years in your heart and companionship no phrases can convey.

4. Look for Inspiration
Our great grandparents not only understood the fine art of letter writing, they studied it, pouring over instruction manuals to achieve the perfect sentence that precisely expressed an exact sentiment. One such popular Victorian guidebook, The Ladies' and Gentleman's Model Letter Writer, circa 1870s, covered nearly every possible topic, from the brief note sent with a fruit basket to a marriage proposal. Here's how the guidebook suggests a gentleman profess his love to a lady:

Dearest,
Days have passed by now since we have had the pleasure of a few moments' conversation even; how these hours have dragged their slow pace along you and I alone can tell ...

If Victorian instruction manuals prove difficult to find, you can also stoke the creative fire by listening to romantic music. Robertson has been known to play a little Luther Vandross in her workshop, so students feel the beauty and passion of language. "He will smooth the way ..." she says.

5. Borrow with Pride
If a specific love letter-worthy moment escapes you, or if your confidence for writing precludes a proper letter, never be afraid to borrow from another — just be honest and cite the author up front. It's perfectly okay to write that this poem or these lyrics, although written by another for another, express your love more eloquently than you could ever write yourself.

Ready for more? Return to Relationships or get our picks for the best letter-writing materials.