escorpio
Pencils
Posts: 86
Looking for Penpals?: Perhaps. It depends...
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Post by escorpio on Sept 28, 2022 14:37:42 GMT
One thing I've been thinking about, when seeing the ouput some people have in the "Did you correspond this week"-thread, is hpw long time you spend on a letter. There is the effective time, that the text (/decorations(etc.) takes a certain amount of time, but also spread out.
Myself, I write a letter over a few days, depending on my schedule, and inspiration, although I rarely start a letter knowing I won't have at least some time over the following days, I write something every day for a letter, but I very rarely finish a letter in one sitting. This, of course, also effects the turnaround, I have usually one letter out per week.
One of my penpals wrote that she likes to write her letters in one sitting, which she then meant reduced her output as, if she couldn't finish a letter in one sitting, she wouldn't start it and that became a hurdle in itself.
So, I got to thinking about different styles of writing and wondered how others are writing (and everything else involved with penpalling)
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Post by ginny on Sept 28, 2022 17:05:45 GMT
I write some letters in one sitting, and for others, I take a few days. It all depends on how much time I have, how long the letter will be (i.e., I won't write six pages in response to a two-pager), how long the intervals between letters with a particular person are etc. It also depends on whether I write in long hand or choose to type. I can see what your penpal means - when you won't start because you know you can't finish within one sitting, you end up delaying letters.
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Post by radellaf on Sept 29, 2022 3:58:18 GMT
I guess I prefer to write in two to three sittings over as many days. When a 10 pager ends up taking two weeks, well, I like the result, but it seems a bit much. OTOH, if I were writing to just half a dozen people, that'd work out fine. With the last one the funny part was the question about do I grow sprouts (for food)? Of course not, was my answer, too much work. By the time I wrote the last page, I'd bought a sprouter and some alfalfa seeds and was almost ready to harvest my first batch (takes about 7 days from seed-to-sandwich)
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Post by allanorn on Sept 29, 2022 21:15:28 GMT
I've thought about this topic a lot, in different ways.
I generally go with "finish the letter in one sitting" but sometimes that doesn't work out. Letter responses depend on how much I have to say and how much was written to me. Some letters may take between thirty and sixty minutes to write, and others may take a couple of hours. If writing a letter is expected to take more than three hours by hand, I'll switch to a typewriter. Longer letters get reserved for the weekend when I have time to think about them and write them, but I can usually crank out a one-hour letter during weekday evenings if I'm up for it.
I found out this year that I can only complete letter-writing events like InCoWriMo when I limit the length of a letter, and thus the time spent on one. That limit is generally three sides of A5 or half-letter, which takes close to an hour to write by hand. Any more than that and I start resenting being at the desk, especially as I'm tied to the desk as part of my day job.
I have a theory that letters are getting longer in general because they're not a primary form of communication. When the post office was the only way to communicate cheaply, sending letters often was the priority so each individual letter could be shorter. In the USA, twice-daily delivery was a thing so it was plausible to write really short correspondence to turn it around the same day. That's no longer plausible with once-daily delivery, especially if your deliveries are later in the day.
Because my time is also limited and correspondence is a hobby, I don't necessarily think of having a set maximum set number of people to write to. Currently I am more inclined to think of how many letters I can reply to in a weekend or week and then calculate a rough yearly output that way. Depending on how often someone writes, they're loosely classified into how many "slots" they take up in a year strictly from a scheduling perspective. I've noticed that my letters tend to be different depending on how quickly someone replies and how much they put into the letter. It's difficult to describe here, but perhaps I could think about how to verbalize the differences if anyone is interested.
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Post by Rouge on Sept 30, 2022 13:19:39 GMT
I guess it depends on how much free time I have, but I usually take one to three days to write a letter on paper. When there are very long letters to answer, I usually type a first version on computer, so at least I can organize my mind and write my letter fluently, without confusion : otherwise, I think I'd get lost somewhere, as some of my letters can reach 20 to 30 paragraphs. Then, there is the letter's envelope making. It depends on what I fall on, because I craft my envelopes all by hand, just with a ruler : if I fall on cookies boxes ( ), old magazines, plain white paper, origami paper, this is good to go. Once I've done everything, I send it.
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Post by stompie on Oct 1, 2022 13:17:49 GMT
All depends on the letter for me. Some I do in one sitting, others can take days and even weeks. Some are just quick responses to what I received, others are more like a diary of events and stuff. I am never in a rush either way and I do not mind if the person I wrote to takes weeks or months to respond, it is all fun!
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Post by tramplingrose on Oct 1, 2022 14:33:34 GMT
Like stompie says, it all depends on the letter. Some, I can knock out in an hour or two, others will take me several days. That doesn't include time for coordination of stationery and/or mail art - I can kind of go with a theme if I'm doing a bunch of letters in one sitting, but I also like to personalize each letter. It also depends on whether I'm hand-writing or typing my letter.
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Post by penguy on Oct 3, 2022 4:05:32 GMT
It really depends. If the letter is short, sort of a note, I usually replay with a page. If it is a 12 page letter I'm replying to it may take three days to a week. And, sometimes I have more to say and the letter gets longer. On average I would say my letters are 4-5 pages long.
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Post by Mia on Oct 3, 2022 19:07:23 GMT
It varies. If I can get a letter written in one session, great! If not, but still manage to finish a letter, great! We all know life/events/happenings can interrupt when we are having fun letter writing (or partaking in other hobbies)..
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Post by InsomniaQueen on Oct 6, 2022 0:45:49 GMT
I write in one session. Depending on the length of the reply, each letter takes from 30 minutes to two hours. I normally average about three letters per day, give or take. I try to make sure my turnaround time is within 48 hours, though that can be a little longer if there is a holiday thrown in there. I expect that all of this will change when I get my license and begin working. The time I spend decorating can sometimes add to the reply time, though I normally try to have everything ready and planned out before I begin.
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Post by Gilly on Oct 6, 2022 18:31:01 GMT
Some letters I will reply to in a single sitting - usually during the evening - and take around two or occasionally three hours as I do have a tendancy to waffle on Others I'll pick up and add to over the course of a few evenings if I'm busy with other stuff.
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Post by radellaf on Oct 7, 2022 17:29:47 GMT
two or occasionally three hours as I do have a tendancy to waffle on If I could get down to three hours for a reply I think I would be caught up, and have a <3 month turn-around. It's a good goal, I just don't know how to write a long enough reply in that time. That might get me 4 sides of A5 and I keep waffling on for 6-12 lately.
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Post by distractedmom on Nov 14, 2022 2:41:46 GMT
I try to write about as much as I have received. As I tell my husband, I have "short letter pen pals" and "long letter pen pals." Now that I have started working outside the home again, I may need to be a little more concise.
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Post by radellaf on Nov 14, 2022 15:59:19 GMT
Doing a record 50 days on my current letter. Had the whole last week off with a mega-cold. Felt functional during the days (could barely sleep though) but wasn't good for much past couch-potato Netflix. Still don't feel that great but there's some work backed up so I'm going in late. Tuesday off, then maybe that night I can sleep without benefit of cold medicine. I have a few reasons to believe it's not covid. If it's flu, then that flu vax didn't help me much. I had a plan to do inkvent on an every-other-day-until-christmas schedule, starting Nov 7, and have only opened the first bottle. Man, I enjoyed not having ANY respiratory illness, past some allergies, for the past two years. Even the non-covid ones can be awful.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2022 19:01:03 GMT
radellaf, I hope that you'll feel better soon.
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