E Talking - The Great E Mail Challenge (Part 1)

Remember letters? Scrappy pieces of paper, covered in scrawls of ink, placed in an envelope, sealed with a loving kiss and then delivered by Mr Postman? Yes, in the dim reaches of history people used to send them all the time.

Then the internet came along and everything changed.

Or did it? The basic philosophy of communicating an idea, thoughts, or a message to someone remains the same. Things just got quicker.

Back in olden times Breaking More Waves used to write lots of letters. We used to write to bands, record labels and music publications; but for some reason we seem to have stopped doing so. Maybe we had more time back then. Life wasn’t quite as busy or rushed. There’s a quandary; the internet revolution meant that everything happens quicker, supposedly more efficiently, and yet we seem to have less time to do the things we used to do.

Of course this may not be because of the internet. As one ages, relationships, families and careers expand, demanding more of our time. But here at Breaking More Waves we miss writing letters. So it’s time for a change.

And so it begins. Breaking More Waves great E Mail challenge. It’s a bit of a boy project really.

Our mission is simple; to write like we used to, but in the modern efficient way of electronic communication. An email is still a letter of sorts. In fact, the NME still contains a Letters Page, even although most of the items published are emails.

We used to write to the NME a lot. Several of our letters got published. There was a skill in writing an NME letter. Hit the criteria they were looking for and you could almost guarantee publication. That however was over a decade ago, when the NME letters page was full of intellectual debate and politics. Today however the NME letters page is full of comments such as “OMG NME what the hell is going on??? Alexa Chung is best dressed???” and “Thank you NME! I’ve just discovered MGMT and they’re amazing.” Times have changed and the NME has undoubtedly dumbed down.

So it’s time for a challenge.

The strap line for the NME letters page is You Write It, We Print It, Everyone Argues. That sounds good. It’s time for Breaking More Waves to take that on. I’ll write it, they print it, everyone argues. It’s Part 1 of The Great E Mail Challenge. We shall write to the NME. One email a week. Until we get published. Have we still got the knack? How long will it take? It’s time to find out…… It’s time to get writing.