Do any of you still write them? Or receive them? Is the letter writing culture dead? Do you miss the feeling of handwritten letters? Because I do. I write a lot of emails, I make phonecalles, I chat. When I don't count postcards and Christmas post, (not to talk of bills, and stuff like that, but personal post) I get about a douzen handwritten letters each year. I used to get one or two each week fifteen to ten years back, from friends whenever they would travel, friends I had left behind in other towns when we moved, relatives I was corresponding to, people living next door when there were special occasions like a birth, a death, a marriage (not just a small card, and certainly no email), people I had moved on travels... No more. And you?
ooh, i definitely love letter writing. i've often said that if i ever meet a boy who can keep up with my letter-writing, he'll be my soulmate. but in reality, nobody can, not even when i set a slow pace. it's sad that letter-writing has been so forgotten.
I used to write letters to a couple of girls that I billeted once but i always found it hard to think of things to write that would be interesting enough for someone to read... today was much like yesterday...does not make for interesting reading. I gave up when one of the girls wrote back including a photo of herself and she kept going on about how pretty everyone kept saying she was and how her boyfriend loved her and aren't I fabulous. She may not have intended to come across that way but it seems that writing letters telling someone about your life is frought with the danger of coming off like a self-centred bitch.
I love receiving letters and I do enjoy writing them - but I have the bad combination of being a terrible procrastinator and having a stupidly busy life, which means that I make a poor correspondent.
Yay letters! I used to send heaps when I first moved out of the UK, to just about every person I knew there...I always loved sending letters, there is something special about going for a walk down to the post office and sticking a handwritten letter in a letter box then collecting the mail a few weeks later and realising, ho! I got a letter. I always found recieving letters so exciting. I think it's the fact that someone had to put in some time and effort in order to write it out and send it. It wasn't just fired off at a moments notice. Letters are more personal. Now, if I sent someone a letter I would recieve an email in reply...*sigh*
Just on this topic, I too would like to get more letters. . . maybe we could set up a letterwriting thing here? It could be cool. Especially because some people live "far far away", and letters from far away are always fun to get
I used to write loads of letters when I was at school, because it was boarding school and I would miss my friends from home when at school and my friends from school during the hollidays. Also it was a graphics course for the last 3 years and some of the letters my friends sent me were real works of art ! However, be it by mail, e-mail or phone, I'm pretty lousy at keeping up with friends, not that I never think of them, but it's more motivating myself to actually physically get around to picking up the phone/pen/keyboard and doing it... For those who like to get postcards from all over the world, there's a great project that I have had loads of fun with, called Postcrossing, and I have had many many postcards from around the world and sent many too. Boardposting ? yeah, why not...
I would give it a try, with all the tons of unused good letter paper I've got lying around, but Buzzfloyds post made me also realize that someone in a letter exchange with me would, in the present, have to be willing to wait one or two months for a reply. I did have more time in my excessive letter writing days...
I used to be pretty lousy at writing letters. After having a cuple of LDR's I seem to have gotten back into a nice habbit. I really do love sending and recieving letters. Well, fat lot of good it did me huh?
Grace - maybe I'm just being somewhat pedantic (or just trying to out-grammar the Spelling Bee) - if you are a "terrible procrastinator" does that not mean that you are very bad at procrastinating and therefore should be a good correspondent?
I miss the art of writing letters. I have nothing at all against the e-mail age, in fact I love a lot about it, but there's just something fun about receiving a handwritten letter in the mail. If anyone wants to try to start up a letter-writing group or something of that sort, count me in. I'd be up for it!
I'll try and set one up. . . anyone got suggestions on how though? Random matches, or by locations? And pairs? or what?
In terms of postage prices location might be good for those of us with limited funds, but random selection could be interesting too. I don't know, just my two cents. Anyone else interested in an old-fashioned pen-pal group? Any other suggestions folks?
Hm - I might give it a try actually - although as of yet, I have no idea how to organize it ideally. Ideally would mean taking everyone into account who is interested not only at this point but also later, and easy to organize.
I'm interested in writing occasional letters to people, but not in having to sustain a correspondence.
How about anyone who is interested pms me with their location, and whether they want a random partner or one located near them, and ill just pair them up? If we get loads o people, then maybe someone could help, but it doesn't seem to probable, so I should be able to do it myself.
Just to revive this ancient thread, which I left alone when we moved... Did anything come of this? (Where is Angua_rox anyway? ) Because even though I can't promise to be a regular writer, one of the side effects of our move is that I got back into letter writing -so that the whole family and friends can read lengthy descriptions of our new place and all- and it was actually quite fun to get back into training. That, and there was the broken TV... makes you revive old hobbies... So, if anyone is still interested in reviving the ancient culture of actual letter writing, pm me.
I'd definitely be interested but I'm affraid I'd be a bad pen pal until August. I might sign up when I'm more stationary (no puns about pens and letters please)... I need to have an address for people to send a letter to first!
