Small example of how writing letters can make someones day/life

http://www.lettersofnote.com

<3

Oh, it's all going to pot! I was in a week-long grump last week and didn't want anyone to open an envelope full of my grumpiness transferred onto paper, so I didn't write to anybody.
I'm wondering if 52+ letters in a year rather than a letter a week would be more in keeping with the way my brain engages with projects like this (i.e. when I'm on a letter writing roll I can write tonnes in one sitting, vs. being apathetic and uncorresponsive for a couple of weeks on end before the roll comes along again)
In the spirit of the above, I'm up to letter #21: LL (London)

Week 13: DW (Bristol), JH (London)

Still to write (in no particular order!):
MH (Leeds)
CS (WSM)
LL (London)
ECA (Berlin)
HP (Manchester)
HS (manchester)
SW (Manchester)

My letter writing is falling by the wayside a bit at the moment, mainly due to the fact i've been busy organising things for Calm Air All Ice present: 52.

I do have letters ready to go out for: Bria and Nadine, but I keep forgetting to post them!

Week 11 (or have my weeks totally gone to pot now?!?):
EG (Leeds), BM (Rotherham)

To write by the end of April:
DW (Bristol)
MH (Leeds)
JH (London)
ECA (Berlin)
HP (Manchester)
HS (Manchester)
SW (Manchester)
CS (WSM)
HL (Todmorden)

Week 10 (it is week 10, right? I'm all confuzzed!): PS (London), AR (Manchester), KS (Chester), and DB (Hull)

Previous weeks: AW (Leeds), CT (Manchester), EL (Doncaster), SJ (Leeds), AW (Leeds), BM (Rotherham), HP (Manchester), SJ (Leeds), GH-G (Leeds), AW (Leeds), MW (Bristol), SC (London)

keeping up (just!)

Week 9: SC (London)

Previous weeks: AW (Leeds), CT (Manchester), EL (Doncaster), SJ (Leeds), AW (Leeds), BM (Rotherham), HP (Manchester), SJ (Leeds), GH-G (Leeds), AW (Leeds), MW (Bristol)

I'm loving the amount of return post that coming through my letter box at the moment :)

Little Letter writer

Well he got his letter from me, and was very possessive of it apparently. I think i'm going to have to send him another letter to thank him for visiting me this weekend, it's nice to think that something so simple can make a nephew so excited. I'm looking forward to the first letter I get back from him, I think I might have to wait a while yet.

Someone else I wrote a letter to this week was my Grandma. She had a knee replacement earlier in the year and I haven't been able to visit her for a while, so I decided to write a letter instead. Phone calls are all very well, but letter's are nicer sometimes. (That's me in the dungarees and the baby is my sister (mother of the toddler in the other photo))

Updated list: 

Week nine: Sara and Grandma
Week ten: Bria
Week eleven: Nadine
Week twelve: Melanie
Week thirteen: Wooloomooloo

Week fourteen: Gill and Trevor

letter writers of the world, unite!

Another kinda neat letter writing project: Mysterious Letters

In April 2009, we sent a personal, handwritten letter to each of the 467 households in the small Irish village of Cushendall. We hoped these unsolicited letters would prompt neighbourly discussion, spreading across the town, promoting community curiosity.

Trying to organise my brain (a problem both us Letter Writers seem to have!) with a master list of letters written and not...

Week one: Ryan
Week two: Claire
Week three: Michal
Week four: Amelia
Week five: Jordana
Week six: Rafferty
Week seven: Deth, Ryan, Liza (?)
Week eight: Jason, Joanna

Which brings us up to date, so the timetable for the future is something like this...

Week nine: Sara
Week ten: Bria
Week eleven: Nadine
Week twelve: Melanie
Week thirteen: Wooloomooloo

But as i've already addressed a whole lot of envelopes I can see those five going out pretty soon! It's actually so addictive writing letters again, I don't know if Melanie has found the same thing, but I am really relishing cracking open the paper and pen and sitting down writing to total strangers. I don't know if it's cheap therapy or something, but the routine of pen, paper, envelope, stamp, walk to post office is really lovely- it makes me feel a bit more alive! I started this project with the aim of writing a letter a week, every week for the entire year, two months into it I seem to be doing ok at that. I didn't set out with the plan to make a million new penfriends, so i've not been searching for people who will write a reply- for me the point is just to write, to connect with someone via a letter, without any expectations of a response. Of course some people are replying, and that's really nice- there's nothing better than getting a real hand written letter in the mail, but I am happy knowing that somewhere out there someone has received a letter from me that may or may not brighten their day.

Letter Writers as a blog is open to anyone that wants to join up- leave a comment and I can add you to the list of authors, you just have to promise to write a letter a week for as long as you can.

The Letter Writers Alliance

My membership to The Letter Writers Alliance came in the mail the other day- so exciting! Sadly the special badge had got a bit squashed in the mail and the pin poked a hole in my new paper, but I do get a membership card, so I can feel part of the gang.

Letter writing has been erratic, but I have just put letters in the mail to Jason and Joanna, who weren't on the list originally but I decided to seize the moment and put pen to paper.

My list needs updating as it got a bit muddled up somewhere along the line:

5. Sara in Italy
6. Bria
7. Nadine in Singapore
8. Jordana in Chicago
9. Liza in San Jose

Updating my brain on where I'm at with my letter writing...

Letters sent so far:

AW (Leeds), CT (Manchester), EL (Doncaster), SJ (Leeds), AW (Leeds), BM (Rotherham), HP (Manchester), SJ (Leeds), GH-G (Leeds), AW (Leeds), MW (Bristol)

Still to write:

DW (Bristol)
DB (Hull)
HL (Todmorden)
SC (London)
E CA (Berlin)

Oh, and I wanna write to you Camilla!!

One of the good things about being off sick (maybe the only good thing) is that it has given me a change to write some more letters. So now I think I am all caught up and letters will be on their way just as soon as I get to the postbox.

Little letter

Some of the letters I write are for people who can't read them yet.

Falling a little behind on updating my list...

New names for the list (thanks to posting about #letterwriters on twitter) include:

5. Sara in Italy
6. Bria (can you email me your address please!)
7. Nadine in Singapore
8. Jordana in Chicago
9. Liza in San Jose

Continuing illness means many letters have been written (all complete with an obligatory paragraph about my sickly symptoms on the day of writing!)

Letters sent so far:

AW (Leeds)
CT (Manchester)
EL (Doncaster)
SJ (Leeds)
AW (Leeds)
BM (Rotherham)
HP (Manchester)
SJ (Leeds)
GH-G (Leeds)

Still to write:

DW (Bristol)
MW (Bristol)
DB (Hull)

Letter's written:
1. Ryan in Seattle
2. Claire Platt
3. Michal Cupid

Letter's to write;
Amelia Critchlow

I need some more names on my list

Treating myself

Today I treated myself to a new set of paper from Paperchase- i've used up the last of my old letter sets and thought it made sense to invest in something new and cute. It seems a lot harder to find letter sets these days, I remember when I used to have millions of pieces of cute paper to write on, there were only two sets to choose between in Paperchase. I think I need to do some searching online maybe.

In other news I got a letter from Ryan in Seattle today- our letters crossed in the post, which will mean that the one I sent him will make no sense at all, especially as I seemed to have convinced myself he lived in Portland.

A new name on my list

I've got a new name on my list so here's my updated list of people i'm writing a letter to:

1. Ryan in Seattle written!
2. Claire Elizabeth Platt
3. Michal Cupid
4. Amelia Critchlow

writing letters in bed whilst ill!

Week one and people are starting to sign up

I thought I should keep a record of people who have claimed letters from me, it's only January 4th and already there's 3 people signed up. I think i'll update and cross off the lists when i've written the letters...or something- not sure yet how this will work out, but I wanted to remember which order to write them in!

Letters to be written to:

1. Ryan in Seattle
2. Claire Elizabeth Platt
3. Michal Cupid

An introduction

This blog has been set up as a way for me to document some of the letter writing I do this year. It's a kind of back to front thing to do- one of the main reason's i've set myself the project to write one 'real' letter a week this year is because I want to wean myself off my over reliance on the internet, so what's the first thing I go and do? Set up a blog.

Inspired in part by taking part in Susie Ghahremani's Penpal Party, which popped up on Twitter, I found I really enjoyed the experience of writing letters to total strangers and I thought it might be something I should do more of.

If you want to become part of this project then let me know- either if you want to blog about your own letter writing experiences or if you want to receive a letter from me. I can't promise anything more than one letter, once a week, to someone, somewhere, but I hope that if I find that I have the time I'll be able to build up some great new penfriendships.