Love eCard

Write the reason you are sending it today. The strongest version is often the most literal: what you were doing when you thought of them, and what you thought.

Anything specific and true will outperform a borrowed line, because the point of an unprompted card is that it came from you rather than from the calendar.

Say it plainly and do not bury it. A first "I love you" hedged with qualifiers is harder to receive than a simple one, so state it, add one honest sentence about why, and stop.

Writing it can be easier than saying it out loud, and there is nothing lesser about that. It gives them time to sit with it rather than having to respond on the spot.

Quite the opposite: no reason is the reason. Cards sent on occasions are expected, so they carry less information.

An unprompted one tells the recipient they were being thought about on a day when nothing required it, which is usually the most reassuring thing a card can say.

Be short and concrete rather than eloquent. One true sentence about something small, that you noticed what they did, that the house is better with them in it, is worth more than a paragraph you had to strain for, and it sounds like you.

If writing genuinely is not your medium, record a voice note instead and let the card carry it.

Yes, and long-distance couples use this category more than most. The reveal gives them something to do rather than only something to read, and an audio clip lets them hear you.

Think about timing, too: sending it at a moment you know they will be alone, the start of their day or the end of a long one, changes how it lands.

The occasion, and therefore the tone. A Valentine's card is expected on a particular date and read alongside everyone else's; an I love you card arrives unprompted, which changes how it reads.

Use the Valentine's category on 14 February and this one for the rest of the year.