August 20, 2010, Newsletter Issue #177: The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Tip of the Week

 This blog post is not about copywriting. It is about a lost art that has sadly given way to informal emails, facebook posts and tweets.


Now, before the advertising Nazis come down on me with a wrath worthy of its own b-rated movie (which i love by the way) it needs to be said that I find nothing wrong with these forms of communication (except facebook - the jury is still out on whether it is the devil). I simply miss the art of letter writing.


Call me old fashioned but I miss the days when I looked to the arrival of the postman with anticipation. Not the anticipation of receiving the electric bill or a box from Amazon, but the anticipation that builds from knowing that a simple paper envelope may be sitting there...waiting...for you to read and discover. 


See kids, before the days of mass communication and the Internet us old folks (I'm only 32 by the way) were forced to make contact by means of either land line telephones (and high cost long distance rates) or through the art of letter writing  and a 19 cent (less if you are older) stamp.


Why is letter writing an art, you ask? 


Simple. 


When writing a letter you need to organize your thoughts in a clear, concise manner so you do not leave the reader wondering what you are talking about. You also want to provide just enough information to warrant a response from said reader - whether that response is a question or comment back to you. 


And I just realized I inadvertently made a connection between the art of letter writing and the art of copywriting (I promise this was not intentional). 


Anyway, think about this for a while. 


When was the last time you looked forward to the arrival of the postman? When was the last time you opened a letter that was not from Ed McMahon (does he still do Publishers' Clearinghouse?) with your heart beating a little faster than it normally does? 


When was the last time you cared about a piece of paper? 


A piece of paper. 


That is all a letter is. A simple piece of paper with ink or another medium scratched over the surface. 


But...then again...isn't that what a lot of art is?

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