Happy new year.

Well, farewell 2020 and hello 2021. 

One of the surprising things about the pandemic is how much more I have enjoyed writing letters. I do my best communicating through the written word. Letters are something to hold. They can also hug. Electronic missives and perhaps phone calls demand to be dealt with there and then. A letter is patient; it has to be. 

One question I get asked is, "Where do I find people to write to?" There are many websites out there offering penpal-matching, or profile browsing, to find penpals, for free or paid. There are websites associated with snail mail projects where you can also look for penfriends. Some of my lovely penpals have come from barely having anything more than an address to write to, through a project called InCoWriMo. I've written about INternational COrrespondence WRIting MOnth before. But it is almost that time of year again, for this project fills February with letters. The challenge is to write a letter a day. https://incowrimo.org/

Another question I get asked is, "What do I write about in letters?" While some topics can be a bit of a taboo or more uncomfortable to write about (e.g. religion, politics, the private side of life), almost anything else goes. Postcrossing has a monthly writing prompt, if you are stuck for something to write about on a postcard (this month, what skill would you like to learn?). A World of Snail Mail offers another suggestion: Five Questions, Answer by Snail Mail where questioners supply 5 Questions, and people can write their answers in a missive. 

A World of Snail Mail has come up with something else if you want to take part in Incowrimo but can't manage a whole letter-a-day to send? Maybe you could compromise and do this challenge instead. It doesn't matter if you can't do it every day. The main thing is to enjoy writing letters.

28 challenges for this month, one for each day. When writing a letter, please answer the question or use the writing prompt or do the task for that day. The letter need not be finished that day.

1st: Write a sentence with your eyes closed
2nd: Do you have any pictures hanging on your wall(s)?
3rd: Writing prompt: time
4th: Doodle the weather
5th: What are you looking forward to this year?
6th: What are the best 3 things about where you live?
7th: Writing prompt: games/sports
8th: Write a sentence with your non-dominant hand
9th: Where do you imagine you will be this time next year?
10th: Writing prompt: gardening
11th: If you had an autobiography, what would its title be?
12th: What is your best member of childhood?
13th: What is the weather like?
14th: Have you written Valentine's cards to pets (or even received one from a pet)?
15th: What are three of your favourite films?
16th: What book(s) are you in the middle of?
17th: What has made you smile recently?
18th: Write a sentence backwards
19th: What time do you have breakfast?
20th: Writing prompt: radio
21st: Doodle some eyes
22nd: What is a favourite quote from fiction?
23rd: Do you keep a diary or journal or scrapbook?
24th: Writing prompt: spring
25th: Have you written any poetry or verse?
26th: Writing prompt: music
27th: Do you volunteer for good causes?
28th: When did you send your first ever email?

Goulet Pens and others do writing prompts for types of people to write letters to. blog.gouletpens.com/2020/01/how-to-participate-in-incowrimo-2020/

Still writing

 I'm still here, writing letters, trying to keep away from the elephants in the room topics. Five Questions, Answer by Snail Mail helps. After the current letter I am in the middle of writing, I will answer someone's Five Questions, posted on the A World of Snail Mail forum. 

1st October was World Postcard Day, and where do I know that loves postcards? Why yes, Postcrossing. And so, for it, I requested a couple of addresses and posted them, as well as another postcard to reply to one from Russia sent during February for A Month of Letters. 

There isn't much space on the postcard for many nice stamps. I wanted to use up some of the older stamps than buy the new stamps of the new value for sending by international standard / Air Mail / Post Awyr / Par Avion!

I had slowed down on writing letters recently, as there were days I just didn't feel like picking up a pen. Ideally, I want to reply between a fortnight and a month, but was running at 6 weeks for a few letters last month. I've found my mojo again.

I have written and sent over 365 letters this year, and it feels great! I should surpass 400 before long. I do tend to slow down in December, but whether I will this year, I don't know. Letters bring joy. 

To The Letter.......

I am still plodding my way through Simon Garfield's wonderful book to The Letter I received for Christmas 2014. It is taking time to 'journey through a vanishing world' as I put clear sticky tabs/page markers at sections/sentences of particular note and interest. I don't always have these to hand and I dislike bent over corners. One of the points of interest I marked was Best Wishes, a sign off once used just for business letters and now, I almost always sign off my letters to penfriends with it. The book mentions correspondence of the Second Earl of Chesterfield and instructions to his daughter about putting the date at the bottom of the page because it is more respectful. When I write letters, I date it when I start. If I am unable to finish the letter in a day, I write the date when I recommence the missive. 

One thing I came across last night, was a description of a cat in a letter from a father to his daughter, as a mobile ginger flower - Ginger-dandelion. The letter writer was Ted Hughes. The chapter of the book was named The Modern Master. A collection of some of Ted Hughes' letters have been published. To The Letter also has a picture of Ernest Heminigway's cat walking across letters and correspondence on a bed. Some of my penpals have mentioned their cats getting in the way of snailmail by sitting on the letter, on the paper to be written on, on the table, or even the chair to be used at the letter writing desk.

Letter-writing - 'excellent training for conversation with the world.'

 I am over three quarters of the way through the book. I should finish it before Christmas 2016 and then, perhaps, I can follow up on selected bibliography and people mentioned, e.g. 

• Abelard and Heloise
• Second Earl of Chesterfield
• Fourth Earl of Chesterfield
• Letters of Ted Hughes
• Letters Home (Sylvia Plath)
• Madame de Sévigné

I wonder if there will be ebooks of the emails of some celebrity / author / entertainer / scientist / person of interest in years to come.

I wonder what people would make of letters answering Five Questions, part of the postal challenge on A World of SnailMail forum. Some of the questions asked can be a little silly. I recently answered a question unable to touch my nose with my tongue. Did you just try to do that yourself?

There is still time to ask Five Questions this month and answer others people's questions. Even some of my long time penpals incorporate answers (sometimes to other people's questions) in their letters to me.

'Maybe the crucial element in handwriting is that the hand is simultaneously drawing.'

Well, that is about all the drawing I can handle - letters!

So, why don't you surprise a family member or friend with a letter. One of the short stories broadcast on the radio last month mentioned a mother writing to her anorexic daughter in a bid to learn and help, and for this story, it worked. Taking time to write down thoughts and questions, without interruptions of, "You just don't understand..." or other speech-stoppers and the written dialogue continues in a calm manner. 

Letters connect people. Letters have brought more joy into my world. 

So much for Write On...

Almost half-way through April and I haven't written many letters. Last week, I was hit by a very nasty cold and this left me without much energy - I had completed and wrapped up some letters for posting before I became ill but did not have any willpower to go out and post them until 3 days later. 

April is the month for Write On, a campaign for daily letter writing, like InCoWriMo is for February. While I managed InCoWriMo with relative ease, I have failed Write On without even trying. I know life can get in the way of writing letters so that is why I like the monthly challenge I started on A World of Snail Mail - Five Questions [you ask], Five Letters [you write answering other people's Five Questions]. Although 5 letters is the aim, it doesn't really matter if you cannot meet that goal - the challenge is supposed to be fun, and participation I feel counts more than winning. Also, the questions asked give you some idea of actually what to write in a letter - this isn't a job interview and your snail-mail letter shouldn't read like a CV. 

I still have yet to think about the 5 questions I would ask for this month, but there is still time. There is time for you to participate too. 

February over for another

February is over for another year and I have thoroughly enjoyed InCoWriMo. I put  my address (now removed) in a spreadsheet for it, and also on the LetterMo profile (also removed). I have received a fair few letters and I expect more to come in early March as post travels around the world.

Letters Sent to people met through (although this does not include those I wrote on the last day of the month and posted on the first day of the next):

LetterMo/InCoWriMo 2014 - 2
InCoWriMo 2015 - 14
Swap-Bot - 2
Postcrossing - 1
Reddit - 1
5Q5L - 4
LetterMo/InCoWriMo 2016 - 9
Other - 2
SendSomething - 1

Letters and Postcards Received from people met through:

LetterMo 2013 - 2
LetterMo/InCoWriMo 2014 - 3
InCoWriMo 2015 - 17
Swap-Bot - 3
Postcrossing - 4
Reddit - 1
InCoWriMo/LetterMo 2016 - 13
5Q5L - 7
SendSomething - 1
Other - 5

I didn't keep a tally last year.

A week left...

In my last post, I was perhaps lamenting not receiving many surprise letters via LetterMo and InCoWriMo. Well, it was early days. Now, I have over a dozen letters from penpals as well as new contacts. I had a look through my incoming/outgoing logbook, aka my page-a-day diary, and worked out the breakdown this month, up until and including the 20th.

Sent to people met through:

InCoWriMo 2014 - 1
InCoWriMo 2015 - 9
Swap-Bot - 1
Postcrossing - 1
Reddit - 1
5Q5L - 2
LetterMo/InCoWriMo 2016 - 6
Other - 2

Received from people met through:

LetterMo 2013 - 1
InCoWriMo 2014 - 2
InCoWriMo 2015 - 15
Swap-Bot - 3
Postcrossing - 3
Reddit - 1
InCoWriMo/LetterMo 2016 - 8
5Q5L - 5
SendSomething - 1
Other - 2

If I had the inclination, I could check back through my correspondence logbooks/diaries to see from where I had found people to write to, and work out the success rate. I can tell you that Interpals for me has a 0% rate except that it introduced me to Postcrossing where I have found success with finding penpals. I can say that the InCoWriMo/LetterMo penpals have overwhelmingly been quite successful for longterm correspondence, more so than searching through profiles on various sites.

February isn't far away

Belated happy New Year. remember to write 2016 instead of 2015 when dating your letters this year. I have sometimes forgotten to do this. Sometimes I forget which month it is and have written the previous month. I write the month out in full (and also the year although I may omit the 20 to replace with ' for '16) because I do write to people around the world who may do dates in different order - is it day-month-year or month-day-year or even year first?

Back to the title of this blogpost - February isn't far away. Over the last few years, there have been postal projects in full swing for the month of February. Lettermo (A Month of Letters) and InCoWriMo (International Correspondence Writing Month). The latter one was promoted to fountain pen geeks to encourage them to use these writing implements. I write mainly with fountain pens. I do not know as yet if either side will be updated and opened for this year but there is a thread of interest on the fpgeeks forum. The idea is to write a letter every day (29 letters or a few less if only writing on postal days). Don't worry if you don't think you'd be able to manage this, perhaps you could set yourself a more realistic target instead. Or, as an alternative, you could try the challenge on A World of Snail Mail - 5 Questions (you ask on the forum) 5 Letters (you write to 5 other people answering their questions). This challenge is monthly and you don't have to take part every month. Don't worry if you can't manage 5 letters either. These postal challenges are supposed to be fun - social correspondence is to be a pleasure. In time, treat as friendship. Correspondents / penpals can be friends.

Here's to 2016, to penfriendship, and more.

3rd month of 5 Questions 5 Letters challenge

Over at A World of Snail Mail forum, there is a monthly challenge 5 Questions 5 Letters. The first two months have been great, with quite a few people taking part. November has some questions up already, but I'm still thinking of what to ask - any suggestions? Or better still, ask your own.

There is a thread on the board about laconic penpals, those who barely say anything of consequence or personal - I don't think the ones I've received from knew what to write. What can you write about in letters? Almost anything within reason, for example - the weather, what you've been up to, books read, music listened to, television / films watched, gone somewhere nice, food (although try to be considerate if your penpal is a vegetarian or vegan) or perhaps, mentioning overhearing on the bus a conversation about dunking biscuits - to dunk or not to dunk...

Five Questions Five Letters - October

I was pleased the Five Questions Five Letters Challenge had participants in its first month. This month, still not over, has some new forum members taking part in this challenge. The questions perhaps are better, more varied, mostly light-hearted, with some needing to be thought about. Last month, I still had to think about which leg I put in my trousers first! These ice-breakers have given first letters more life and excitement.

To Dunk or Not to Dunk, that is the question!
Is it nobler to have a softened biscuit
Flavoured with coffee, tea or chocolate
Or to have it full of crunchy integrity..........?

There is still plenty of time to sign up and take part http://s-mail.proboards.com/ this month, or perhaps wait for the next...

How do you find penpals? - updated.

Back in 2012, I wrote a blog post called How do you find penpals? Although the details there are still valid, I would like to add a few more details. I'll repeat most of that post here.

So, how did I find penpals?

Well, in school, I filled out a form for a youth penpal service, though I can't remember which organisation it was. I paid for some penpals and received some letters. However, as a teenager, I found myself busy with other things, such as homework and being with friends. So, unfortunately, penfriendship dwindled.

Then, as after leaving university, I wanted penpals again. I bought a free ads paper and saw that there was a form to place an ad internationally through their sister papers. I placed an ad in 10 international papers and received some letters. I still write to one of them.

Then, when I got my first computer, I wanted some penpals, but only found people who wanted email friendship. One even got worried if I did not write daily. I gave up for a few years.

Then, in 2008, I decided to try again for snailmail penpals. First port of call was PenPal International and had  found a few people to write to. However, the letters stopped (maybe lost in the post, or they stopped writing). I also tried Interpals and found more people that way. However, it was the same old story, the letters stopped. Also, some who said they would write the first letter, never did (or it was lost in the mail). One thing good about Interpals was that I discovered Postcrossing and this satisfied my hunger for nice mail, with postcards to and from all over the world. I discovered their forums (fora?) and found penpals through that, although not everyone continued their correspondence with me. I have tried other penpal websites but ...

Some penfriends started sending me Friendship Books (FBs). These are little booklets, sent with letters for people to write their name and address in, perhaps a bit about themselves and abbreviations such as NPW (new penpals welcome), NNSP (no new swap pals). I haven't received any letters via this route. I had started to make my own, first sending them around Spring 2009, but none have made their way back home, even 6 years later.

These are a few I have made. I sew the paper into the cover, rather than using staples. I haven't sent many new ones recently. Comments received on the original post had concerns of where these friendship books go, some could be sent to prisoners, or to those who are not really interested in letters.

Another site I found for penpalling, well, is mainly a craft and swap site called Swap-Bot. Almost anyone, over the age of 18, can create a swap, people then join and when the deadline for joining is over, the host of the swap checks through the profiles of the people, and if all is well, tells the computer to assign partners. I have joined postcard, letter and Christmas card swaps. I haven't hosted my own swap (I would automatically join the swap). As I write this blog entry, popular swaps include various ones for Artistic Trading Cards (ATC), postcard swaps and pocket letters (in a 9-section trading card sleeve).

In 2012, there was The Month of Letters Challenge (LetterMo) for the month of February. The challenge was to send an item of post (postcard, letter, ...) every "postal" day, so this was 24 days for USA. I had mail ready to go out every day, but missed the last postal collection on one Saturday, so instead of letting the item be lonely in the postbox, I kept it at home until Monday. I wrote to new people who were doing this challenge, and have developed a penfriendship with some of them. I also took part in 2013. However, outside of just before February and a couple of weeks after, the site's forum was neglected. 

In 2014, I joined my first InCoWriMo (International Correspondence Writing Month) signing up on the fpgeeks forum. This is similar to the LetterMo challenge and I wrote/received letters to/from a range of different people. I might not have written to them if they had instead a profile up on Interpals. It was quite a freeing experience, not constrained by gender, age, preconceptions - just correspondence. I am still writing to some people from the 2014 InCoWriMo. I signed up again in 2015 but didn't take part in LetterMo. 

I have also found friendship via SendSomething. There are other sites available, e.g.  The Letter Exchange  (something I haven't tried yet, but they have a magazine, and is a subscription service), and Letter Writers Alliance (I am a member).  Instagram and Tumblr are other sites becoming popular to find penpals. You can get ideas there too about snailmail. There are groups on Facebook but caution is needed there too (I recognise some names from other sites where they haven't been reliable senders)

New up though is a forum and monthly project Five Questions 5 Letters. I have some new correspondence from that and it is looking promising.  

more - A World of Snail Mail.

All of my last post's photos were the originals taken before getting the Instagram treatment for A World of Snail Mail and may have also been reposted to Tumblr 

One of my correspondents this week wrote to say they had been stressed out by the sheer challenge of InCoWriMo. Some correspondence via InCoWriMo and LetterMo in the past haven't had much substance to it. Another correspondent enjoyed the 5 Questions 5 Letters format of the new montly challenge set up on A World of Snail Mail as it helps have something to write. I myself have received dreary letters from "letter swaps" saying nothing more than what they had written on their profile. InCoWriMo was great in that there was no profile to copy out, and in some ways, I felt more freedom than via some of the penpalling sites over the years, mainly Interpals. So, if you are fancying a new way to find penpals/correspondents, try the Five Questions Five Letters challenge.

Instead of the 20+ for InCoWriMo / LetterMo, try to answer 5 sets of questions - write five letters.

forum has kept me busy

 A different post box I posted a letter in on a nice afternoon.

 Some incoming post. I love the Tom and Jerry stamp. One of these letters has answers to my Five Questions, for this month's challenge.

 Some outgoing post, including a birthday card for my mother.

 Post received from a penpal in the US. I love the stamps she used. .

 Look at all those stamps on that one envelope! Wow! I just love getting letters!

 I love the flower stamps from Germany  but I also like the other stamp too.

 I found the town the sender of this letter lives in, in my atlas. My knowledge of US geography is poor to say the least!

Well, congratulations to the Queen in becoming the longest reigning monarch. Royal Mail issued a miniature sheet and I was able to get my hands on one!

Five Questions, Five Letters September 2015

I have already received a response to my 5 questions for September. There are at least a dozen (I know, not a lot but this is a new project...) people with questions posted. The more the merrier though.

Five Questions, Five Letters monthly challenges

I had been contemplating an easier (!) postal project than InCoWriMo/LetterMo, one that should be easier to complete. I came up with 5 Questions (you want answered), 5 Letters (you'd at least send answering their questions) in a month. I had initially thought to have the challenge for one month only, but there were people coming to InCoWriMo/LetterMo late so why should they miss out. You don't need to take part every month, and existing correspondents could ask/answer questions too. The challenge is being hosted by a new penpalling/correspondence forum called A World of Snail Mail

So far, the wording I have for the challenge is:

Have you ever wanted to write to someone but found it difficult to know what to write in yours letter? Well, this project could be for you. You could leave your address (or request people to ask via private message) in a thread plus 5 questions you would like answered. Then, you can pick (at least) 5 people (you can include current penpals & correspondents in that number) to write to and answer their questions. It would be nice if letters could be replied to, or at least acknowledged.

FAQ

Q. Who can see my address if I put it in the thread?

A. Only those who are logged in to the forum can see the Five Questions, Five Letters thread for the month.

Q. What sort of questions can I ask?

A. Anything. They can be trivial, e.g. “Which way do you stir the tea in your cup?” to things more ‘serious’, e.g. “Do you live near where you spent your childhood?”

Q. Can I write more than the answers to the questions provided?

A. Of course. You can even ask questions of your own.

Q. Can I ignore questions?

A. Well, you can say that you do not want to answer the question. Answers can also be brief, even one word Yes (or No) answers.

Q. What should I do when I receive a letter?

A. Read it. Then acknowledge the letter. You do not have to write back, but it is a courtesy to thank the sender.


The challenge for September is open and someone has already put their address and 5 questions up for answering.