The Undiscovered Country

A Lost Art

To help prepare for writing a cover letter to a literary agency, I re-read "How to Write Attention-Grabbing Query & Cover Letters" by John Wood.

He stated at the beginning that writing letters has become a lost art. No surprise considering we now communicate via email, text messaging, and phone calls. With this fast-paced world we live in, we simply don't want to take the time to write a long letter to family and friends who live far away. Mr. Wood said at one point, ". . . we'll drive across country to say "Hi" before we drop anything in the mail.

I know for certain I've lost the knack for writing letters, and not just because I'm daunted by writing a simple cover letter.

I'm sending a bunch of photographs of Thomas to his grandpa, and wanted to include a letter with it. Ha! Talk about a pathetic letter. It's a measly five sentences long, and that includes a P.S. my hubby wrote.

You'd think a writer would have more to say to her dad.

Truth is, I probably do, but don't want to take the time and effort to do it. Well, that's not true. I want to, but what do I say? Write about the weather? How boring is that? I could add all the funny things Thomas does, but he's still not doing much beyond eating, sleeping, pooping and crying.

Like anything, writing letters comes with practice. I would like to master the art of writing letters, just like I mastered (somewhat) the art of writing a blog. Certainly I can even take what I've written here and make a letter out of it.

I like to write letters by hand to friends and family. It makes it much more personal.

For instance, as part of a Disciple III lesson, we had to write an encouraging letter to someone who needed it. We wrote two, and I was the only one who wrote it by hand. Everyone else used a computer.

I ask you a question. Do you appreciate handwritten letters more than typewritten ones?

Before I close, I want to express a little annoyance.

I went to work today for a little bit to pick up some stuff they want done.

I then got a frustrated look from the project manager when I told him I didn't finish other projects they gave me a few weeks ago. For one, they kept giving me other stuff that needed to be done first.

Oh, and I have a newborn to take care of. Yeah, that takes a little time - when I'm not zoning in front of the television watching soaps and eating bon-bons .

Sheesh. You can always tell the person who either never had children, or it had been so long he forgot how much work it is.

Okay, rant done.

Happy Friday!

Now where did I hide my bon-bons?