^ A super-cute envelope by Ria
***
What could we do, to be a perfect penpal? Well, we all have requests. I've learned to look at requests first of all, to understand what kind of penpal you could be.
I love massive letters. Not medium, not long, but massive. In a world where a long letter is five A5 sides (not sheets!), I can't say I like long ones.
I love massive letters. Not medium, not long, but massive. In a world where a long letter is five A5 sides (not sheets!), I can't say I like long ones.
What is happening, to letter writers? Why can't we write a bit more? Are you really happy, when you receive the "flat, sad envelope"?
Of course, I don't write 50 A4 sheets every time. It depends. I have a life too, and I need to feel ispired, to spend some time on my letters to make them grow and grow. So, I suspect that nowadays we have too many pals to concentrate on every single one. I always try to be quick, to write in a week and to not take months for my replies. But, of course, if I have let's say twenty pals... it could be hard.
Do you have too many pals? Do you focus on every single letter? Do you have the time to write? If not, think about it. What is it better... A very long letter written with heart and care... or two sides of paper with nothing inside?
What a "long letter" is, you decide. You're free, and that's the nicest thing about penpalling. You can search for friends who agree with your definition of "long". But, to start, I suggest to take the amount of pals under control.
Quality, not quantity!!
***
And, about the books challenge, I'm going on!!
Progress: 09/50
Huhu ^^ So you started to post received stuff too? That's a very pretty envelope... I'd like to be talented with drawing, but well... ^.^ I love massive letters and I already wrote a comment at Joana's blog... I'm in a kinda internal conflict... There are some pals that wrie shorter letters and whom I still like, but I think it's so much more fun to write just about anything and everything and not only about what happened lately... to fill pages and pages and just let it flow... not to force your brain to produce something to fill up a page...
RispondiEliminaAs for books, I'm stuck with Amadou Hampâté Bâ's 'Amkoullel', it describes his childhood in Mali and it's very detailed and fascinating... I really want to know more about Africa ^.^ Take care, tanuki =^.^= hehe, I'm folowing you now ^.^
Well, I'll not post pictures of ALL I receive... I like privacy too much, ah ah! I showed that one, because of the amazing effort she put into it. I receive amazing mailart almost everyday though! ^.^
RispondiEliminaI think we all live internal conflicts about pals who we like, but who writes short letters... and it's ok, as long as it's fun. I mean, nobody should feel forced to reply. So, if you're ok like this, be happy! :D
Well im glad u got it and like it. but i be honest. i dont really like my art work that much but i do try and 100 % effort is always what you will get from me.
RispondiEliminaI guess that some people have the idea that massive letter writers or even long letters writers don't have a life and probably write all about non sense and need to squeeze the brain to write 20 sheets about daily life... we know it isn't like that. And one more thing, this is not a statement of medium or any other kind of letters hate. We (me and you Sara)don't write massive letter all the time because not everyone does it too.
RispondiEliminaI somehow felt that my post about this made people think that I am against all the other ways to write a letter, but I am sorry I just like tow rite long, doesn't matter if I am busy or not, or tired, I can stop and write the rest in the next day, I don't need to get mail everyday or to send mail everyday, I am devoted to the pen friends I have and I want to give them my best.
I'm happy you also talked about this issue.
I really would like to meet Tanuki, looks like she is a massive letter writer... well I must say to me, long letter writers are good enough now, since I can't find the others.
Much love my deary Sarita
I wrote you a message at Interpals.
RispondiEliminaI think massive letter writing is something that not everybody can do. I really would like to do it, but I have just 2 pen pals who can do it as well and we try to do it every time. Sometimes it just don't work as we don't have so much to tell and such stuff, but most of the time it works and we all get at least long letters with 16 A4 or more.
I just ended some friendships, as the letters never got longer, even if they told me, that they are long letter writers, which I was searching for. I got one letter with 3 A5 and the ending: "That is a really long letter, or?" I was shocked...but okay. For me a letter gets longer as more as I know my pen pal. The first one can be short, the second one maybe as well, but then you should know each other a bit and should be able to write longer letters, if you say that you are a long letter writer, or?
ah, I finally decided to become a follower, too, after seeing that you added me quite a while ago and after secretly reading your blog posts for quite a while already. :D
RispondiEliminaI really like seeing that more and more people start picking up this toic- I actually planned to blog about penpalling today, too. In the evening maybe, I still have to think about some points I'm not sure about yet.
However. .
when I started writing letters, 11 years ago, I had no idea of how amazing letters can be, that it's more than just an exchange of cultures and some nice words. The first long- letter pen pal I found was my Austrian deary and we still are friends, very close friends. Her first letter was 7 pages long but to be fair, regarding the handwriting, other people would have needed at least twice as much space as she did. I was overwhelmed. But I made the mistake to add dozens of people to my pen pal "list" and needed some more years until I finally understood that exchanging very long and deep letters is worth much more than having 20 or 30 pen pals you can't handle.
I take as much time as necessary for reading and replying to the mail I get, even if this means that I have to spend a whole week's evenings on one single letter, it's worth it.
So these days it normally needs quite a while until I decided if I'd like to become pen pals with someone. I try to make sure first that if they say they love writing they really mean it like that. I read their blogs carefully, see if they add outgoing envelopes to more than 20 people on a regular basis. And if they post "ah, I wrote 3/4/5. . .letters today, hurray!" I already made my decision. It's impossible to write so many deep going and interesting letters unless you stay at home the whole day and forget to sleep. I've been like that, too, but if you really love writing you sooner or later get that THIS is not what friendship is all about and I don't need dozens of people who tell me how nice the weather is, what they ate for dinner and what sports they were doing. Some closer friends are worth much more than dozens of people who won't even remember your name if you stop writing to them. Or even worse- you won't remember theirs. If you match, I guess it's just a natural thing that you write more and more then, isn't it?
I would like to thank you all for your comments. I'm glad to see this topic is interesting not just for me, but for many people!
RispondiEliminaTanja, welcome as one of my followers! ^.^
Well, yes, it's impossible to write five massive letters a day. I use to write in some days, sometimes I do at evening when I'm in bed, or at mornings before to start the day... and usually I need more than two days to finish a letter. So sometimes I finish more than one letter in the same day, but of course I didn't wrote all of them in just one day... Oh, I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say, ahah! Anyway, I've learned two key hints to recognize a massive writer:
- not too many pals
- asking about SHEETS
These two things help me to be interested!
(I guess I wrote in such a messy way... ;O;)