History Main / DeliveryNotDesired

Not the case of the sender expecting to be dead by the time the message is received (which is nearer DeadManWriting). Also not the case in which a message is written to be sent, but ends up not sent for one reason or another. DiscardedNotDelivered is a digital version.

Not the case of the sender expecting to be dead by the time the message is received (which is nearer DeadManWriting). Also not the case in which a message is written to be sent, but ends up not sent for one reason or another.

!Examples

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' #480 "To the Father I Never Knew" is titled after a heartbreaking letter Tim Drake wrote to his father describing just how little they knew each other due to the fact that Jack had essentially abandoned him for the first fourteen years of his life, a confession that Tim was now Robin and his wishes that they could start over even though he knows they can't. His father never saw it as Tim never truly intended to give it to him.

* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' posits that the postcards in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' are actually [[https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/stress-traumatic-post-disorder written by a stressed man who copes by writing hate-filled letters to his friends and family]] and never sending them. Too bad Sora doesn't realize this and mails them anyways.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': One chapter reveals that [[TheChick Lucy]] has been writing letters to her deceased mother about her adventures with the TrueCompanions. She stored them in a small drawer in her house.

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* Creator/IsaacAsimov described a variation on Lincoln's advice. When sufficiently provoked, he would write an angry letter, prepare it for mailing, and then tear it up (making sure to destroy the stamp in the process).

* ''ComicBook/{{Gen 13}}'': At least one story (written by Adam Warren) had Caitlin Fairchild 'narrate' the events of the issue after the fact through writing an e-mail to her recently-deceased father. The final panel of the story is her hitting the 'Delete' button once she's done.
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' #480 "To the Father I Never Knew" is titled after a heartbreaking letter [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]] wrote to his father describing just how little they knew each other due to the fact that Jack had essentially abandoned him for the first fourteen years of his life, a confession that Tim was now Robin and his wishes that they could start over even though he knows they can't. His father never saw it as Tim never truly intended to give it to him.

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* The Franchise/GIJoe fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9515153/1/A-Ninja-Commando-s-Christmas-Letter A Ninja Commando's Christmas Letter]]'' is Snake Eyes being coerced into writing his dead family as therapy.

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* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'': Satchel writes a letter to Ray Charles, thanking him for this music, because listening to it makes him happy. Rob then takes Satchel to the edge of a cliff overlooking water for him to mail it by folding it into a paper plane and sending it into the air.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov described a variation on Lincoln's advice. When sufficiently provoked, he would write an angry letter, prepare it for mailing and then tear it up (making sure to destroy the stamp in the process).

* UsefulNotes/RichardFeynman, noted physicist (How noted? He has a page here), wrote a [[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/02/i-love-my-wife-my-wife-is-dead.html love letter]] to his wife 16 months after she died. It remained sealed until after his death, making it perhaps a rare real-life case of both this and DeadManWriting.

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3'', Kairi writes letters to Sora that she never intends to send to him. When Axel points out that Merlin would send them for her, she replies that she writes them more for herself then she does for him.

* In ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeBeforeTheStorm'', Chloe writes unsent letters to her best friend Max who left her years ago.

* When Trixie goes to WanderTheEarth near the end of ''OfMaresAndMagic'', she writes many letters about her adventures, the majority of which cannot be delivered because she's too far away from Equestria. They also reveal her private feelings for Twilight Sparkle, which she wants to keep secret.

* UsefulNotes/FranzKafka wrote a letter to his father, which ended up being so long that it spanned 103 handwritten pages... only to never actually have it given to him.

* Played with in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Thirty Days", which has a FramingDevice of Tom Paris dictating HowWeGotHere to his estranged father who's on the far side of the galaxy. Tom tells his friend Harry Kim that he's going to erase the letter, but in the end he saves it to Voyager's computer with instructions to transmit it to his father if they ever make it home.

* Played with in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Thirty Days", which has a FramingDevice of Tom Paris dictating HowWeGotHere to his estranged father who's on the far side of the galaxy. om tells his friend Harry Kim that he's going to erase the letter, but in the end he saves it to Voyager's computer with instructions to transmit it to his father if they ever make it home.