Letter Writing as a Tool

"Before the advent of email, many writers maintained a healthy relationship with their correspondence; they found letter writing to be a useful complement to their main literary projects. Letters were not only a way to stay in touch with colleagues or test out ideas and themes on the page, but also a valuable method of easing into and out of a state of mind where they could pursue more daunting and in-depth writing." - Mason Currey

I'm guessing you aren't writing many letters nowadays. I had never thought of the role letter writing may have played in the past quite like this. I think I mostly assumed letter writing was simply a communication tool and not a method for warming up and shifting into other work. This made me think about my own work methodology and whether I have an equivalent of letter writing to "ease into and out of a state of mind where [I] can pursue more daunting and in-depth writing."

I've been journaling using Day One every morning for awhile now, shifting between stresm-of-consciousness and the recent Art of Manliness journaling prompts. That serves as a bit of a warm up but maybe there is something else I could be doing?

Do you have an equivalent of writing letters to ease you into the state of mind that allows you to do deeper and more daunting work?