April is National Letter Writing Month

Okay, gang! I know you’all get jazzed about InCoWriMo in February but letter-writing is not a once a year occurrence. Did you fall short in February? Did you lose steam? Did you not even know about InCoWriMo at all? Whatever the case may be, going back as far as 2001, the USPS made a statement that it wanted to expand its previous weeklong card- and letter-writing campaign tradition beyond the first week of April to the entire month of April. It hoped  to encourage school-age children to write cards and letters along with the rest of us by giving us a whole month to put forth the effort to put pen to paper.

In 2014, the Letter Writers Alliance documented that other dates have been chosen as of letter-writing significance. But let’s decide that April is as good a time as any to develop, hone or polish our letter-writing skills. Whether its dashing off a few Easter cards, writing some birthday wishes this month instead of just posting messages on Facebook or finding some like-minded friends to start up a correspondence with – take this month to do a little letter-writing.

One of the most inspiring things I heard this week that got me wanting to write was the podcast Nerdette interview with Tom Hanks talking about typewriters. Go forth, listen, enjoy and get to writing!

You also might want to consider the Egg Press and Hello Lucky collaboration project, Write_On Kit to help you stay motivated.

Write_On is a labor of love. Each year, we offer Write_On Letter-writing Kits because we believe in the power of letters to bring people together in a meaningful way. This year, we invite you to invest in Write_On too – by paying what you can for a kit – so that we can continue to supply you with the tools and inspiration you need to keep your letter-writing practice strong. We really couldn’t do it without you. Free kits are still available to those who need them, but please consider purchasing yours if you can. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

And don’t forget to check out the Think.Make.Share. blog which will be “getting serious” throughout the month of April with posts focused on letter writing, printables, inspiring stories and other excuses to use the tools you love. I love it when my day job and my night job cross paths!

The best thing about the April Letter-Writing Challenge is there is NO challenge. It’s just letter-writing month. You are not being challenged to write a letter every day or set some heroic goal. You can set a realistic, doable goal. Is it to just answer the letters from February? Or finally write those Christmas thank you cards? Maybe just send a couple sweet nothings to your spouse or your child so they get a real card or letter in the mail? Invite a couple friends over for a mini-letter writing social? Or give yourself an excuse to spend an extra hour at your favorite coffee shop and dash off a few notes to old or new friends.

Happy writing and don’t forget to use all those pens, inks and papers you’ve been collecting!

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2 comments / Add your comment below

  1. Last year was my first InCoWriMo experience. I was going to try again this year, but circumstances…

    I hope to write my month of letters in April for National Card and Letter Writing Month. A year ago I posted about it on Fountain Pen Network, but didn’t stir up much interest.

    This year I really want to participate in the April letter writing event. Plus I owe some pen pals letters, so I hope it works out.

  2. I’ve always loved writing letters. I managed to do a letter a day for InCoWriMo and I’m hoping to send out more letters in April. In fact, I had 3 arrive this morning 🙂

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