Friday 19 February 2010

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.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Camilla,

    This is such a lovely idea. At the moment I don't think I could commit to writing a letter a week, so I won't sign up, but I would really appreciate it if you would be willing to write me a letter at some point in the year.

    Julia x

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  2. HI Julia- i've already got your address I think, so consider yourself added to the list!

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  3. Camilla - what I'm enjoying about this project is not necessarily writing to strangers, but rather taking the time out every week to sit down and write a proper letter to friend(s) who I haven't seen for a while, or who I haven't had the time to communicate with for a while - beyond a quick click of 'like' on their facebook profile every now and again.
    It's teaching me how much I love and respect my friends and how much we still have to share with each other through thoughtful communication; and that often, a hand written letter makes up for months of friendship neglect, making me feel like we never had those months apart - the ink on the page kinda erasing the busy-ness that kept that communication unsaid or unwritten for a little while. Written communcation as re-connection.

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  4. great idea!! i would love to write a letter a week, just let me know what should i do to join this project!
    viva la mail art!

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  5. i love this idea so much!!!
    plz let me know if i can join ,too!

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