Hello, #InCoWriMo!

Thank you so much to everyone who’s been liking and following this blog. It’s nice to know this barely disguised nerdiness is finding an audience in some surprising corners of the world.

I do try to return the favour, and it was while checking out Skiye Mail’s blog [edit: now kaput] that I stumbled across the concept of InCoWriMo. How have I never heard of this? It’s totally what I’m all about!

Inaugurated by a fountain pen enthusiast called Eric Schneider and unashamedly tipping its hat to NaNoWriMo, InCoWriMo is short for International Correspondence Writing Month. Participants pledge to spend the month of February handwriting one letter a day to recipients of their choice. This came a year after a similar challenge, A Month of Letters, was launched by author Mary Robinette Kowal when she took herself offline for a month.

The rules state that it doesn’t have to be a letter. It can be a postcard or anything else that counts as ‘correspondence.’ You can mail it,  hand-deliver it, leave it to be discovered, or whatever. The only rule is that it must be hand-written.

Screengrab of InCoWriMo.org’s rather wonderful website

I bang on about stamps, but I hate seeing them hidden away unused in a musty album. They are most noble when doing the job they’re meant to do: accompanying in item of mail through the post. The more thoughtful the touches on an envelope, the more beautiful the result, and the greater the delight for the recipient. Beautiful, mailed covers are works of art and joys to behold.

In a world where the only things that turn up in the mail are bills, scams and guilt-inducing charity begging letters, how wonderful it is to think that for every person participating in NaNoWriMo, as many as 28 others are experiencing the rare delight of receiving an old-school hand-written letter.

InCoWriMo tags itself as a celebration of ‘vintage social media’. This idea (as well as A Month of Letters) makes my heart dance so much that I’m offering my 100% support and awarding this maximum Respect.

I would write a letter to these inspiring people to tell them so, but I am very busy writing a blog on the Internet.

This blog is brand new! If you enjoy my work, feel free to like, link, share, and generally big me up to your friends. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Thank you so much! x