According to Q Magazine's 1001 Greatest Songs, Fran Healy of Travis says he basically borrowed this from "Wonderwall" by Oasis: "I just changed the rhythm and melody. You can sing 'Writing To Reach You' over 'Wonderwall,' and vice versa." As an acknowledgment, the song contains the lyric "What's a Wonderwall anyway?"
According to Healy, the song was part inspiration and part accidental intoxication. He told Jaxsta in 2020: "Boxing Day, 1995. The band had moved into a flat together in Glasgow, and it was the coldest winter since records began. I had two propane gas heaters on the go with no ventilation. I think I slightly gassed myself and I got quite high. We were massive Oasis fans, and I was sitting and strumming the chords to 'Wonderwall' and also thinking about a song by The Connells and something just clicked. That's where 'Writing To Reach You' came from."
At the time, Healy was also reading Franz Kafka's Letters To Felice, which inspired the lovelorn lyrics. "He wrote to this woman he was in love with hundreds of times, yet never met her. None of her replies are in the book, so you have to piece together their relationship," he explained. "I'm pleased we managed to draw on Kafka and Oasis in the same song."
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