InCoWriMo 2024
The month of February is a special one in the letter writing calendar, as it marks the start of 'InCoWriMo' - or 'International Correspondence Writing Month' - an initiative set up to encourage us to write one letter per day for the month of February, and help spread the joy of letter writing.
After the news that letter deliveries may drop to down to three days a week due to a fall in numbers, this year it felt all the more important to shout about letter writing. And as our goal, always, has been to create beautiful stationery pieces that encourage you to put pen to paper more often, we couldn't resist the temptation to participate!
And so, we asked for x28 lovely volunteers to be a recipient for one of our letters.
We asked, specifically, for volunteers who have liked the idea of letter writing, but not yet dipped their toes into it, in the hope of showing them how easy and enjoyable it can be. The response was overwhelming! Giving us encouragement that there's a huge audience of you letter writers out there just waiting to get started.
So each day this month we've written a letter to one of our recipients, and posted about it over on our Instagram stories using the hashtag #incowrimo. There's been so many lovely reasons why people wanted to receive a letter, and you can read all about them when you click through our story highlights. The process has been wonderfully cathartic, and we're excited to see if it works its magic and encourages former non-letter writers to get started.
As this year is a leap year, we needed one final recipient for our last letter, which we decided to make an important one. And so, we wrote down all the reasons why we love letter writing, and feel its importance in the modern day, and sent it off to Martin Seidenberg, CEO of Royal Mail, in the hope it reaches him and persuades him to prioritise our letters a little more. We eagerly await a reply...
If you've missed out on this year's initiative, then don't worry! You can still spread the joy of letter writing yourself by simply starting to write to your friends or family.
Letters are special, and your written words are important. The way you write, your handwriting, your formatting, your notes, and even your choice of pen and stationery are completely unique to you. Your personality shines through your writing! When you receive a letter, it’s almost as if you can hear the sender’s voice reading it to you. Your written words have meaning, they carry sentiment and weight and passion and cannot ever be replicated with instant messaging. And in a modern world that’s so focused on technology, this is only becoming more important.
Here’s a few easy ways you can get started;
Send a birthday card to someone special, or a thank you letter to someone that was kind to you. Send out a batch of notes to your closest friends, with a few fun memories you have of them, or the reasons why you value them so much. Write to a loved one that has been poorly, in the hope that your words bring a moment of relief to their day. Or, simply pen a few short words of greeting to your partner or roommate and leave it around the house for them to discover.
Once you get started, you’ll find how taking a moment to do something tangible and creative with your hands is a brilliant distractor to our everyday worries and is a meditative process for the mind. Spending time away from your phone, and engaging with pen and paper is a calming experience for you the writer, and in return your recipient will receive something wonderful and unexpected in the post that will cheer up their day. And you never know, you might receive something back in return.
And so, why not head over to our writing and notecard sets, and try sending a letter today, and see where it leads you?