Postcrossing Blog

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

The year’s flying by, but for now the summery weather is still with us here in the UK, and I’m looking forward to a few more sunny bike rides before I have to figure out where my jacket went and start thinking about warm gloves! So while I’m still holding onto summer, I’ve picked a prompt that seems appropriate:

I actually find it hard to pick favourites most of the time—and I have a solid runner up I really must mention—but my favourite song of the last few years always makes me think of summer: it’s Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer’s “Tanglewood Tree”. It always brings up such pictures in my head: “Young lovers in the tall grass with their hearts open wide / When the red summer poppies bloom…” (You can check out the full lyrics here.)

But in justice to another favourite, let me put in a word for the Cowboy Junkies’ “Crescent Moon” (lyrics), which I really like to sing along to: “Raise your eyes to a moonless sky / And try to wish upon a rising star…”

There are dozens of other songs I could mention (especially old favourites), if I had the space and time and didn’t think it’d get boring, but these two are ones I came across rather randomly, which stuck with me and to me for the last few years. So it seems like an excellent theme for something to write on your postcards this month—there should be plenty to say for a lot of us, especially if you’re as indecisive as I am about what your favourite might be! Feel free to use that as a nudge if you’re stumped, or tell us all about your favourite songs in the comments here!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

August has snuck up on me this year, but it’s actually my birthday month! Which means I’m hoping to get good and spoilt, of course, and that will hopefully include some chocolate and sweets. Which inspired me to pick this month’s prompt: maybe you can all give me some ideas about what to try!

I thought this would be an easy way to answer, but hmmm, what’s my favourite?! I guess at the moment it’s a ridiculously sweet little bar my dad started buying for me: the McVitie’s Gold Bar. They have a biscuit centre, covered in a caramel-flavour coating. They really are very sweet, but I like that, and I especially enjoy how crunchy the biscuit part is.

For a slightly more traditional British sweet, well, I’d have to go with the aniseed flavour chewy sweets called Black Jacks, and the related fruit-flavoured Fruit Salads. I don’t get them a lot, because it’s not very professional to go around with my tongue stained black… but sometimes, as a little pick-me-up!

What about you? What’s your favourite treat? Is it something global, or a local secret? We’d love to hear from you in the comments here, and if you’re stumped for something to write a postcard, you can use this as a prompt!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Sometimes we pick a writing prompt from someone in the forums, and this month’s was posted a while ago, and comes from Helen (aka helenis). She was curious about what painter from past centuries you’d order your painting from—which sounds like a fascinating question to me!

I have to confess that I couldn’t answer this off the top of my head. I’m not a very visual thinker, so I’ve never had a big interest in art. (Cringe! I’m sorry.) But I did know the style I really like, so I poked around the internet and ended up with a very firm favourite: Alphonse Mucha, a Czech artist who had a strong influence on the Art Nouveau movement.

There’s actually a fan artist who does Art Nouveau portraits of people’s Final Fantasy XIV characters, very much in this style, so maybe I really will order “my” portrait in this style. My character has much better style for it, let’s be honest.

Now’s the part where I get to learn more about all kinds of artists across the world! Which artist would you order your portrait from? Maybe someone local, or someone who created a style of their own? You can share it in the comments here, but you can also use it as a prompt for something to write on your postcards this month.

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

When choosing this month’s writing prompt, I’d just happened across some news articles about a pretty weird… sporting(?)… event in the UK. So it seemed like the perfect time to ask you all about unusual and conventional sports you have in your country. Or maybe even really, really local events!

The item in the news that I happened across today was… cheese-rolling. To be accurate, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling event, held at Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester. Apparently there’s a cheese-rolling event in Chester, too, but the one at Cooper’s Hill has been running longer, and gets in the news each year because. Well. It consists of rolling a cheese down a really steep hill, then having people chase after it, and inevitably people get themselves hurt!

Apparently the event hasn’t been run officially in a while because of the safety concerns, but rogue cheese-rollers go ahead and organise it anyway. If you catch the cheese, it’s yours, which admittedly is some slight temptation to me because I do love cheese—except I know that I’d be well behind the competition, and also, I could just get cheese that hasn’t been rolled down a hill on a warm day.

Are there any weird sporting events local to you? Something famous from your country? As ever, we’d love to hear about it in your comments, but also on your postcards this month if you don’t know what to write!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

A while ago, Eva (aka lauranalanthalasa) suggested on the forum that we ask about people’s favourite scents for our monthly writing prompts. Scent can be really powerful and nostalgic, so that definitely made me curious!

I’d say my favourite scents are vanilla and old books, which aren’t quite so different as they sound! Books are made up of paper, which is made of wood pulp; that contains a lot of cellulose and lignin, which are tough components of the original wood. They can last a long time, but they do break down partially—and it turns out that lignin is closely related to vanillin, a compound which gives vanilla its scent and flavour.

I don’t know about anyone else, but some books smell better than others (I have one in front of me right now that smells delicious, though it’s quite new!) so I don’t think lignin breaking down into vanillin-like particles is the the whole story, but it does neatly make sense of things!

How about you? What’s your favourite scent? You can write about it on your postcards this month if you’re stuck for what to write, but you can also answer us in the comments on this post!