Want to be a part of something that makes its way around the world? Are you into creative writing? Do you like sending mail? Well do I have the project for you!

The Chain Letter Short Story Project is quite literally a short story that is written as a chain letter by folks all over the world. I start and finish the story, and then compile everything into a zine. You can check out the first story and the second story now!

The first story was written from 2014 to 2015, with contributors from Malta, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and the US. The story starts with a guy and a gal meeting in a cafe, and turns into a crazy tale of undercover detectives, arson, and lies. The second story was written from 2015 to 2016 with contributors from Australia, India, Pakistan, Spain, the Czech Republic, England and the States. This story starts with a woman in a group counselling session, just about to open up about her story, and it spirals into a dark tale of vices, anxiety, the Olympics, a haunted past, and letting go.

So now I’m ready to do #3, and I’m looking for 6 or 7 contributors! Please note that this really does take about a year to make its way around the globe, so this is a long term project and you should keep that in mind when signing up.

As a contributor, you must be willing to:

1. Write a page of the story. (Like, basic notebook size.) It must be in relation to what came before it. You can handwrite, type, stamp, whatever. As long as it’s legible and in English. I re-type them for the zine, but it’s really need to see all the pages together.
2. Include an accompanying illustration on a separate sheet of paper no bigger than 8.5″ x 5.5″. Do whatever you’d like! But please note the zine is printed in black and white.
3. Include any web links you’d like on your page in the zine. (Blog, Instagram, etc)
4. Have it in your possession for no more than 2 weeks.
5. Email me when you get it and when you’re done with it to get the address of the next participant. And then mail it to them.
6. If you’re posting about it online, please tag @papertraildiary and #CLSSP3. We want to see its’ progress!

Sidenotes:

1. I reserve the right to pick contributors out of everyone submitted.
2. Participants from the last round are disqualified, to be fair.
3. The letter will be sent as the straightest line of destination-to-destination that I can see.

If you are interested, please email me at jessica@papertraildiary.com by April 15. Please include the city/country you live in, as well as links to your website or a social media account if you have any. You don’t need to be a professional writer to take part in this!

So, fun news, my local pal / pen pal (yes we live in the same city and still write letters to each other why not) Andrea (@dreyray) and I have taken over the monthly Post-a-Letter Sundays at one of my favourite places, Toronto’s First Post Office!

We had our first one last week, and it went really well. Some friends came, and we made new acquaintances, and got to talk to tourists passing through as they tried out the Post Office’s quills and ink. I wrote a couple letters, too 😉 We’re really looking forward to continuing to do these! April is National Letter-Writing Month, so you know that day will be full of fun.

Post-a-Letter Sundays are just a few hours for people to relax with a letter or writing project and socialize with other mail nerds. You can bring your own supplies, or use ones that are provided.

Here are the upcoming events, which are (mostly) every second Sunday of the month, and 1-4 pm:

April 8
May 6
June 10
July 8
August 12

The Post Office is located at 269 Adelaide Street East.

RSVP on Facebook!

Hope to see you there 🙂