The song was written by Fran Healy, who admitted that he had written this song while listening "'74–'75" on the radio and took the guitar chords from Oasis' "Wonderwall"; as an overt acknowledgement of this, the song contains the lyric "and what's a wonderwall, anyway?". In 2004, both "Writing to Reach You" and "Wonderwall" were mixed with Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" in the popular mash up, "Boulevard of Broken Songs". The single was the group's first release in Japan and Australia, following their success in the United Kingdom. The song also earned Travis their first appearance on Top of the Pops. The single peaked at #14 on the UK Singles Chart. Fran was reading Letters to Felice from Franz Kafka while he wrote this song.

The video was directed by John Hardwick. It features Healy walking in the countryside and being attacked by a pair of innocent looking schoolchildren. They pelt him with stones and shoot him with arrows, only to find that he is wearing body armour, which he takes off with the arrows still embedded. They then ambush him with a Bf109 fighter aircraft.

The song's intro is used as bumper music on the Ring of Fire radio program.

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