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Post by katiel on Jan 4, 2021 0:26:33 GMT
Holy cats katiel. You must write a lot faster than I do. š I know! I was shocked too! It didnāt *feel* like I sent out that many. Iād have guessed half of that, at most. Guess I was wrong. And yes, I do write uncommonly fast. š Thatās probably why my handwriting is so messy.
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Post by katiel on Jan 4, 2021 0:43:29 GMT
With only 44 letters written in 2020 I wonder if I am still entitled to be a member of the forum š It is below my goal, however I am not unhappy with the figures because I really couldn't do much more and I already feel that the current amount of correspondence makes me neglect other important aspects of my life. Oh yeah, for sure! Real life is so much more important than letter writing. Letter writing is just a supplement, or maybe a way to wind down at the end of a day, and connect with someone in a relaxed conversation. Thatās the nice part about snail mail, you can do it at your own pace, whenever life permits. Definitely not a competition. I mostly shared my numbers because they shocked even me. And 44 letters is still a lot! (Way more than most people write). Iād say itās still a number to be proud of. But if youāre like me, itās probably not the number that matters, but the connections and friendships you form along the way. š
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Post by davidv on Jan 4, 2021 1:28:38 GMT
I wasn't keeping good track for most of the year, so mine is a bit of a guess. Since late August I'm at 25. I know that was a quicker pace of writing than I was doing before, so I'd guess I'm still under 50. I'll say 40 as my official guess.
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Post by tramplingrose on Jan 4, 2021 3:36:55 GMT
Based on the replies I have from the year, I'm guessing around 140-145? I don't really keep track. I sent a few one-offs to friends/family when I was at a slow point over the summer, and I sent around 20 holiday cards.
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Post by radellaf on Jan 4, 2021 6:55:59 GMT
I would have thought I'd have been on the low end, maybe 40, given it seems to take me two weeks to write anything. But, looking at the letter scans folder it was 79, plus 24 for InCoWriMo. 103? Two a week average? Probably didn't scan a couple of thank you short letters to His Nibs and Birmingham Pen co. 105, then. 10 in December.
I'm... floored. I'll have to remember this when I'm criticizing myself for having all these pens and not writing enough.
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Post by purplemaze on Jan 4, 2021 9:25:30 GMT
Mine is about 83, but probably a little more with the ones I didnāt keep track. For 2020 as wrimo was ending thatās when the pandemic hit, and my stay home life began. So I just continued with the writing habit for the rest of the year.
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Post by filpot on Jan 4, 2021 9:32:45 GMT
I was rather surprised to find it's 234, not including birthday cards, lockdown cards, and various cards. katiel, holy moly you must write FAST!!!!! It would have taken me all year to have sent out that much mail!
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Post by richila on Jan 4, 2021 14:31:44 GMT
I didn't keep track consistently, but I have records for over 50 letters. But, I started sending postcards in October and have sent over 250- Thank-yous, You're Awesome, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Thinking of you, and Christmas. I have Happy New Year's cards to go out this month. I plan to buy some blanks and try making my own this year.š„°
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Post by ginny on Jan 4, 2021 16:57:15 GMT
You are absolutely correct, ginny , itās not a competition. I asked out of curiosity, wondering where I fall on the āletter writing addictionā spectrum. š Oh, I know! I didn't mean to imply that *anybody* thought it was a competition - I simply wanted to reassure hoyabella that there's no reason to worry if you don't come up with a specific number
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Post by ginny on Jan 4, 2021 17:06:48 GMT
Oh yeah, for sure! Real life is so much more important than letter writing. Letter writing is just a supplement, or maybe a way to wind down at the end of a day, and connect with someone in a relaxed conversation. Thatās the nice part about snail mail, you can do it at your own pace, whenever life permits. Definitely not a competition. I mostly shared my numbers because they shocked even me. And 44 letters is still a lot! (Way more than most people write). Iād say itās still a number to be proud of. But if youāre like me, itās probably not the number that matters, but the connections and friendships you form along the way. š You know, the stats say that the average household in Germany sends less than one private letter per year. The average household, not the average person. So, it seems that I compensate for a lot of people who don't write any at all A few years ago, I wrote about 40-50 letters a month (admittedly, half of them were typed - I type very fast as I need it for work, so I attended classes on that when I was a young whippersnapper), then things happened, and I was down to ten a year. I haven't counted how many I've written last year, but I do know that it definitely depends on what is going on in my life whether or not I write a lot. I saw a post on Instagram just today (a story, more precisely, with a poll) in which people were asked what they'd consider a tolerable timespan for answering a letter - it was interesting to see how many people thought a month was hardly tolerable.
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Post by radellaf on Jan 4, 2021 17:18:08 GMT
With only 44 letters written in 2020 I wonder if I am still entitled to be a member of the forum š We're happy to have you. That's plenty of letters to keep in touch with some people. By my ambitious schedule, that'd be good for 10 penpals, one letter every 3 months. My life is not exciting enough to have much to write after 1 month, IDK about you. As for the question about pandemic effect on writing, I'm not sure. I would guess it has been about the same, considering that my job schedule has been the same. If I had more time to write, it would be from not going to restaurants. I would sometimes write at the coffee shop, so that's neither here nor there. How much I play World of Warcraft and watch TV, vs letter writing, would be the main variable, I think. I'd guess that has been about the same. The balance shifts between game and shows, for what I think is a relatively constant total of maybe 2 hours on workdays and 4 on days off (+/- 2 hrs). My attempt at quitting the gaming so I would, I dunno, learn a skill or study something professionally related, were an utter failure. Brain-in-Neutral activities don't swap with trying to learn stuff. Writing is not exactly brain-taxing but it is at least on the level of the parts of gaming that take thinking, or annoyingly complicated TV shows. The letters, at least, are always rewarding to write. The complicated TV shows are more often not worth the effort for the lack of reward. Like, trying to figure out what exactly went on in Westworld. I enjoyed it, but if I have to get out a pen to work out the "timelines" then, well... no. ginny: "a poll) in which people were asked what they'd consider a tolerable timespan for answering a letter - it was interesting to see how many people thought a month was hardly tolerable" Yeesh, I guess if I was writing to, say, three people, I might manage that. Or if I was doing 10 and writing one side of an A4 sheet. When I get a reply in one month I think "wow, that was darn fast!". I think of letters more like ordering from eBay with economy ePacket shipping from China. Probably 3 months, could be 1, could be 4, maybe never.
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Post by ginny on Jan 4, 2021 18:03:10 GMT
ginny: "a poll) in which people were asked what they'd consider a tolerable timespan for answering a letter - it was interesting to see how many people thought a month was hardly tolerable" Yeesh, I guess if I was writing to, say, three people, I might manage that. Or if I was doing 10 and writing one side of an A4 sheet. When I get a reply in one month I think "wow, that was darn fast!". I think of letters more like ordering from eBay with economy ePacket shipping from China. Probably 3 months, could be 1, could be 4, maybe never.---******************** That's a good way to look at it! Mind you, my 'oldest' (= longest standing: 42 years this month) penfriend has only one other penfriend besides me. It takes her 6 to 8 months to respond to letters because of things happening in her life. Would I ditch her because of that? Certainly not.
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Post by hoyabella on Jan 4, 2021 18:16:36 GMT
Thank you all for your feedback. As I have hinted, I am not displeased by the number of letters itself and I agree that it's not a competition. My goal was 52 and I am not so very far from that, after all. ginny I bet that, here in Italy, like in Germany, the average household sends less that one letter per year. radellaf adds: My life is not exciting enough to have much to write after 1 month, IDK about you. Mine neither, unless one is considers the exciting (imho) books I read š.
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Post by sails on Jan 6, 2021 17:05:14 GMT
Also, with the pandemic, do you feel like you wrote more or less? I have never before counted or kept a list, but recently, I can't remember a thing. (Thanks in part to the unwelcome visit from Lady Insomnia). I just now started writing down which pen pals I answered.
if I owe anyone a letter, please forgive me.
But I would say that I'm writing about the same amount.
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Post by motsamicaux on Jan 7, 2021 2:52:58 GMT
I wrote 274 letters (to pen pals) in 2020....
Edit: Oops! I forgot about the 29 letters I wrote for InCoWriMo 2020, so 29 more for a total of... 303 letters.
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