letter writing

There are 12 posts tagged letter writing (this is page 1 of 2).

Do You Still Write With a Pen?

There is, still, something I like about writing by hand that I miss when I’m typing on a keyboard. There is a smoothness to the pen and paper and I like having good penmanship. There is no penmanship at all with a keyboard.

Today I found a note from Perfect Pen, a site selling pens and etc. They say 95% of people write their name first, when they get a new pen. I don’t know if its true. How would you find out about that. Chances are someone selling pens and seeing people test them before buying, would know. So it could be true. What did you last write, by hand? I wrote a grocery list. But I also sent out handwritten Christmas cards this year.

I write down ideas for stories or non-fiction ideas for posts to my sites. Sometimes they never become posts. Lots of ideas are written and just don’t develop further, or get mislaid somewhere, one way or another. But, I still like writing ideas more than typing them. My brain works differently while writing.  A bit slower and not as directly focused on the idea while I have the distraction of the pen, paper and penmanship. More than likely that changes how the ideas develop. Typing is so instant.

National Ballpoint Pen Day is June 10th. It’s the day the patent for the ballpoint pen was filed.

Have you ever gotten into calligraphy, with fountain pens? I did a little of that. In high school I had a fountain pen. It was fun to write with but not as clean as a ballpoint pen. Of course, there have been pencils since the age of the dinosaurs (not literally). Pencils are just not the same, though artists still draw with an assortment of them.

Today, even though it isn’t Ballpoint Pen Day, take a look at all the pens you have collected, scattered, around your home. Get some scrap paper out of the recycling and test all your pens. Not many have the option to be refillable and reused now. Or, people almost never seem to do that. Too many freebie pens given away to take the time to recycle them. Unless you have a favourite pen. I did have a favourite ballpoint pen but it was kind of exotic and I couldn’t find ink to refill it. If you can find a use for the pens that no longer work, got dried out, or broken, that’s great. Most likely the best you can do is get rid of them and have that much less clutter around.

Happy pen testing. Will you scribble something or ring true to the theory that the first thing you write with a new (sort of new) pen is your name?

 

Handwritten Letters Last a Lifetime (Unless Someone Burns or Otherwise Recycles Them)

When did you last write something by hand. I’d even count a grocery list because people just seem to use their phone for even that small thing now. I miss handwriting. I still send greeting cards with short notes. When I was younger I wrote long letters, on stationary, to my Grandmothers and their sisters. None of them are still around and these days my handwriting is not quite so elegant, or legible, but I do my best and send out cards to nephews and nieces around the holidays. Not just Christmas.

I have postcards and letters I exchanged with people around the world when I was a teenager. Some from the Grandmothers and relatives who travelled and send a card to my parents, or even myself. Some postcards I bought just because I like the historical photos of places I know or would like to know.

Paper doesn’t last forever, but it lasts a good long time, barring fire or other disaster.

Write someone a letter, why not?

Research has shown that the general act of writing by hand can promote quite a few physical and mental benefits, from improving learning abilities to fostering a more positive outlook on life. And when it comes to writing that is used as a form of communication between two people, namely letters and postcards, the impact of such messages lasts far longer than any alternative version offered in our high-tech world. From the careful intentions of the sender to the value experienced by the receiver, no true match exists for this old-time, traditional means of conversation.

Source – 9 Reasons Not To Abandon The Art Of The Handwritten Letter

How to Be Someone’s Secret Admirer on Valentine’s Day

Could you… Should you… Be a Secret Admirer?

You might want to be a secret admirer because you like someone or you might do it to perk up someone who has been alone awhile or feels left out. Be careful, either way. It’s fun to have the mystery of a secret admirer but it can backfire. If you are sincerely liking someone, make sure the person you admire is worth the admiration. If you are trying to make someone else feel admired be sure they wont feel even worse if they find out the admirer was not really a romantic admirer.

Tips and Ideas for Secret Admirers

Pay attention to the stationary you write on. Pick out something nice from the store or… go to a hotel and ask if you can have a couple of pages and an envelope. You can send your letter on hotel letterhead and add to the mystery.

Penmanship counts. Write carefully, take the time to make your writing clear and easy to read – add a romantic embellishment if you can. If you print the letter choose a font with some curls and swirls, whatever seems kind of romantic to you.

Induce a few lines of poetry or write something yourself. You could note down the lyrics from a romantic song if you aren’t interested in poetry.

Draw a heart somewhere on the envelope at the least. If you have some drawing ability create a romantic design, something individual and one of a kind which will be special for the letter you send. It’s nice to have something you created yourself rather than the store bought card art and design.

The greeting should be personal, not impersonal. Direct your note to the person, by name. Don’t try to be mysterious when it comes to who you are writing to.

Don’t give yourself away. Keep your name and any details which could identify you out of the letter. As fun as it is to write a mystery letter, it’s just as fun to get one and have that mystery – at least for the day.

Begin in a complimentary way. Don’t start by telling them you thought they seemed lonely or you like fat girls/ guys or anything else even slightly negative or critical. Write about why you picked them to admire, secretly but be positive to make them feel admired. This also makes you seem far more sincere too.

While writing the letter itself, be specific. Don’t become timid now and write about pretty eyes. Describe the eyes – the eye colour, the way they crinkle when he/she laughs. Write about where you have seen them and what they were doing, not in a stalker way. Describe and be specific about what you liked, what draws you to them. Why are you attracted and what do you admire about them?

Overall, keep the letter short. Don’t start selling yourself and trying to make a romance in just one letter. A simple letter will keep you from getting into trouble by saying too much or taking it too far.

Most of all, when you write as a secret admirer your letter should not be about yourself. Make it a feel-good type of letter for the person you address it to. Avoid mentioning yourself or your interests so you can keep the mystery of the mysterious, unknown, secret admirer.

Sign the letter with flourish, a nom de plume. Create a made up name for yourself, something not a real name but something dramatic, mysterious and/ or romantic.

Think of something you can include, a small gift that fits in an envelope. Stickers are simple but not something everyone would care for. Think about things which can be mailed like a coupon for a store or a gift card giving a free hot chocolate, something like that would be pretty perfect.

Deliver the Valentine in a unique way. But make sure it isn’t lost, overlooked or ends up damaged like falling into a pile of snow when it blows off the door you taped it to.

Bad Ideas for PenPals

I found a list of “Things You Should Not Send Your Penpal” at CityMity Penpals Blog. It was a good, sensible list.

Not many people are writing letters which are mailed though the postal system these days. I did, years ago and I started thinking to do so again. If I find someone I’d enjoy writing with. We used to exchange more than letters, stamps or postcards. There were friendship books, mail art and anything else you could fit into an envelope without too much of it sticking up from the flatness of the envelope.

One thing which is risky to exchange, seeds, or anything plant based. Very sad. Some plant things are ok, usually something which has been processed. I think you can send tea bags, but not loose tea. So, you could exchange seeds if they came from a seed company, but not seeds you collected from your own garden, or seeds you found on a road trip, in the neighbourhood, etc.

Currency is ok if it is very small in value. Very small, being less than a few dollars. I used to like seeing what change/ coins looked like from other countries. I still have some of the coins I collected from penpals.

As a teenager with a tiny budget, my biggest expense for letter writing (other than postage) was stationery. I would shop for boxes of stationery and especially if it came in its own pretty box I could keep long after I had mailed the last of the writing paper and envelopes away. You can still find beautiful or customized/ unique paper and envelopes online but a lot of it seems too girly for me now. I may end up sticking with postcards for awhile.

Love Letter Writers


I was a letter writer until my last older relative died, the Grandmothers and their sisters. I did write to my Grandfather sometimes but it was mainly the women who wrote back and gave me more reason to write back. It is much easier to reply to something in a letter than to break out fresh inspiration each time all by yourself.

However, not everyone answered my letters and I would not have known they actually liked them if it weren’t for my Mother and others who knew the older women I wrote to. Maybe they didn’t know what to say to reply back to a grandchild they would only see a few times a year. Weddings, births and funerals as they say, but I would see my Grandparents at family holidays too.

Writing a letter seems simple enough when you decide to start one. Then the blank page… it just sits there so untouched and unhelpful.

So how do you start a letter?

Salutations! Greetings are a simple place to start. A simple Hello gets you into the letter writing process. Address them by name or title (I went with Aunt Emma, the title and the name, when I wrote to the older ladies). You would likely write something else if you were writing to someone you knew on a casual basis.

Next, remind them who you are in some way. Just like leaving a phone message, you tell people who you are and why you are calling. This is pretty much the same when you put your message into print too. Simply give your own name and title (in the family letters I was usually Diane’s daughter or Violet’s granddaughter). Then say you are writing to see how they are, let them know how Christmas/ Thanksgiving/ Easter/ etc went with your family… there are endless reasons you can think up as the purpose of your letter. (You don’t have to say you’re writing because you thought they might be feeling old, lonely or left out).

At this point you start the real letter, the actual content, like a leap out into space. Don’t get tangled up – just talk about your day. The ordinary occurrences can be far more interesting than you think.

Next paragraph, talk about whatever you said you were actually writing about, your reason for the letter. I don’t start with that. If you get right to the point in a letter you seem to be pressed for time, unsocial and not really wanting to connect with your letter reader. With the older ladies this was especially important. I didn’t want them to think someone had told me I had to write to them. No one had, it was all my own idea.

The body of your letter can go on for as long as you can think of some bit of this and that to write about. Often as I get started I think of several things I can mention in the letter. Trivial stuff is fine. Life is made up of the little things.

Don’t ever forget to ask about your letter reader, how are they doing, what are they doing? Ask questions in the body of your letter too. Make it interactive. It’s not likely you will get your questions answered, not all of them, but it does give your letter the feeling of being directed to the reader rather than your own personal monologue to no one in particular.

When you are reading to end your letter, or when you realize you’re close to running out of paper to write on, give some kind of conclusion to the whole thing. Wrap it up with a bow. Something simple like: I hope this letter gets to you before Christmas. After all, it is traditional for letter writers to talk about the post office and the cost and reliability of mailing a letter.

Sign off with your name. Dating your letter is optional – but you never know where it might turn up far in the future when some relative picks up an interest in family history.

Don’t forget to actually mail the letter.

I usually pick an interesting stamp too. Sometimes I get into mail art as well and doodle/ draw on the envelope before I mail it out into the big, wide world.