February Will Soon Be Here

February is almost here, folks. February is a BUSY month in our letter-loving world. There's that funny old Valentines thing some people like, but we've also got International Correspondence Writing Month (AKA InCoWriMo) and Month of Letters(AKA LetterMo)! Both websites operate on the same basic principle- send one letter every day* in the month of February. (*Or every weekday. It's the shortest month; you can do it!) Respond to all the letters you receive. Talk amongst yourselves about the sending of mail through their forums and gain a bunch of internet kudos. It's a great month to be a letter writer! Who's playing along? How are you preparing? Got any fun tips or downloads to share? Let's share in the comments!

Comments

[Eunice]

I usually only do Lettermo, but this year I decided to throw caution to the winds (and we have a lot of them in Wales) and do both! Madness! I tend to write at least one letter every day anyway.

[Chloe McNaught]

I'm playing! Having just set up a national Women's Institute penpal group in the UK I can't wait to get writing to all the lovely ladies who have already signed up.

[Victoria]

This year's InCoWriMo will be spent responding to last year's letter debt... which may take a letter a day for the rest of the year to get through! :-P

[jenclair]

Not me. The last two years of these challenges always began as fun and ended up stressful. I'd love to see challenges that featured something like a letter a week and kept up with ideas, examples, interviews, on a special site with weekly posts. I write a lot of letters and postcards and enjoy it--but with less pressure. :)

[Lori]

It’s a pity is got stressful. I participated one February but had to give up on the 2nd time February came around. I plan to participate this year. I took a day off for President’s day. Some days I wrote 4 letters to make up for missing four days.

This time I’ll do my best. But, if I miss a day, I miss a day. I think the point is to write more than you normally do. It should be enjoyable. If you can’t keep up, that’s life.

I’m going to try and keep up. I have some delayed Thank You notes I owe, pen pal responses owed.

[Joe F.]

As far as tips go, the thing that made it possible for me to do it successfully last year was preparation. The year before, I figured I could play it by ear -- I was out of it in the first week. Last year, I made sure I had all the materials (cards, stamps, envelopes) and information (checklist of people I wanted to write to, addresses for same), and had a great time.

This year, I kinda fumbled; I've got the stuff and a mental list of people I'd like to get in touch with, but didn't make it formal. Let's see how it goes. :)