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Post by Gary S on Sept 14, 2020 0:03:57 GMT
I also could write really long letters over the course of a few days....
You mean longer than you already write? I thought that Blue Book letter was pretty hefty actually I'm not trying to steer you in any direction just giving you my personal experiences with letter writing as someone who can get 60 letters behind if he takes a couple month break from writing. Even regular letter writers will take breaks now and then as life gets them down or they burn out on the hobby for a bit. Look back at some of the longer threads like "Did you correspond today?" and you'll see a lot of the more prolific writers posting about their outgoing letters there are gone now. I personally can't help writing new people each February but I know a lot won't last out the year if they respond at all. I shudder to think how many letters I've sent out through the past 6 years that are now listed as failed correspondence in my spreadsheet. Some folks just don't click with your personal writing style and others are just trying out the water and decide it isn't to their liking. I figure you need to write 10 new people a year just to keep ahead of attrition in the ranks.
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Post by allanorn on Sept 14, 2020 0:41:28 GMT
I thought about writing one letter a day for a year, and possibly one aerogram per day for a year - but that’s a significant time effort more than it is a writing effort. You would need to have a list of people to write to in advance that would cover those days where mail didn’t arrive.
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Post by motsamicaux on Sept 14, 2020 2:15:32 GMT
...You would need to have a list of people to write to in advance that would cover those days where mail didn’t arrive. I've already written to the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, my two senators, and my congressman. I could send followup letters to ask what progress they've made on implementing my recommendations....
And, not to forget, my ace in the hole... Santa Claus.....
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Post by michelleg on Sept 14, 2020 12:18:21 GMT
I also could write really long letters over the course of a few days....
Even regular letter writers will take breaks now and then as life gets them down or they burn out on the hobby for a bit. Glad I'm not the only one. I'm so far behind on my correspondence, I won't run out of letters to write for the rest of the year I think.
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Post by rosesnbrambles on Sept 14, 2020 16:26:43 GMT
Even regular letter writers will take breaks now and then as life gets them down or they burn out on the hobby for a bit. Glad I'm not the only one. I'm so far behind on my correspondence, I won't run out of letters to write for the rest of the year I think. I just mentioned in another thread that my reply pile is bigger than I like. I haven't been devastated by the transition to an empty nest after having all 3 girls home again from March to August but it has still been an adjustment. There have been moments when I've looked at the pile of letters and thought about writing but didn't. I guess when you throw house hunting, work, a weekly online class commitment, and 2 affectionate cats in the mix it's not hard to see why my letter writing has been in a lull.
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Post by distractedmom on Sept 16, 2020 2:55:19 GMT
Totally fascinated by this. I’ve been logging my letters since my first InCo 4.5 years ago. One day I started typing the data into an excel spreadsheet but I am no where near done entering the data. Once I get through Pumpkin Fest, I’ll have to do the math to see my numbers. My goal is to get three letters/week written and I end up with a 6-8 week backlog. I’m a slow penpal.
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Post by Rouge on Sept 18, 2020 12:55:15 GMT
I usually received between 3 and 7 letters per week, depending on the month's period so let's Say 5 mer week on average. Then let's say I receive on average .71 letters a day. I usually write one a day, because I simply write rester than my penpals.
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Post by michelleg on Sept 18, 2020 13:30:56 GMT
Decided to time myself (sort of) and it took me an hour to write one 6 page letter last night...
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Post by motsamicaux on Sept 18, 2020 21:07:35 GMT
I usually received between 3 and 7 letters per week, depending on the month's period so let's Say 5 mer week on average. Then let's say I receive on average .71 letters a day. I usually write one a day, because I simply write rester than my penpals. How many pen pals do you have?
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Post by motsamicaux on Sept 18, 2020 21:10:12 GMT
Decided to time myself (sort of) and it took me an hour to write one 6 page letter last night... How many words per page?
It takes me about 20 minutes to write about 225 words on one side of an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper.
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Post by michelleg on Sept 19, 2020 17:06:22 GMT
Decided to time myself (sort of) and it took me an hour to write one 6 page letter last night... How many words per page?
It takes me about 20 minutes to write about 225 words on one side of an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper.
Oh lort, no idea. I like spreadsheets, but not necessarily counting handwritten words. ;-) When I type, I'm much faster, naturally. But handwriting, no idea. May have to count next time.... Wrote a 7 page letter - but it had to span 2 days since I was interrupted.
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Post by motsamicaux on Sept 19, 2020 23:10:45 GMT
How many words per page?
It takes me about 20 minutes to write about 225 words on one side of an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper.
Oh lort, no idea. I like spreadsheets, but not necessarily counting handwritten words. ;-) When I type, I'm much faster, naturally. But handwriting, no idea. May have to count next time.... Wrote a 7 page letter - but it had to span 2 days since I was interrupted. On your 6" x 9" lined paper, you write about 7.75 words per line x 22 lines per page = 170.5 words per page.
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Post by davidv on Sept 20, 2020 22:53:45 GMT
So I did some analysis by looking back through my old letters and noting the dates letters were written to me. Then I determined the number of days between successive letters from a sender. I would have used date received, but I haven't been keeping track until recently. I ignored the number of days since their last letter and now, which essentially discounts dormant pen pals after their last letter. This way also takes into account my typical reply speed since my letter generally goes back to them before they send another. The median number of days between successive letters was 47, while the mean was 72. The distribution is skewed, especially by one long-term pen pal with whom letters have been consistent but less frequent.
I'll use the median for my estimate, and say that about 47 pen pals would yield one letter a day, as long as I was able to keep up my reply rate.
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Post by motsamicaux on Sept 21, 2020 1:31:23 GMT
...I'll use the median for my estimate, and say that about 47 pen pals would yield one letter a day.... That's pretty close to my rough estimate of 52 pen pals needed in order to receive one letter per day.
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Post by davidv on Sept 21, 2020 2:06:09 GMT
That's pretty close to my rough estimate of 52 pen pals needed in order to receive one letter per day. Yes, very similar. Basically equal given the roughness of the estimates.
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