Improving Handwriting

BigMonka

My handwriting is appalling - I don't even do joined up anymore! But as a half-arsed New Year's resolution I would like to improve it and make it not so hideously embarrassing.
Has anyone here worked on their handwriting as an adult? Got any tips for me? Or know of any resources to help me?

Then we can start talking pens, as I seem to remember there's a group of people on here who like fancy pens (to go with proper watches, socks, razors coffee etc that the modern gentleman likes to become obsessed over)

Nitefly

Unable to help with resources, but I'll be very interested in any replies.  My own handwriting has always been appalling, and, once I started using computers, it got even worse.

When I was 9 or 10, I had to do "penmanship exercises", writing out lines and lines of letters on ruled paper.  I couldn't even do that properly.

TTony

My handwriting used to be reasonably neat.

But it has deteriorated hugely with neglect as everything gets typed or prodded nowadays.

So, tip 1 = practice.  Not sure what you'll find to write-by-hand regularly, but I think that's the trick.

Pens are a personal thing.  Some people like them heavy, some prefer lightweight.  Some prefer fountain pens, others are ballpoints or roller balls, or whatever.  If you're serious about it, go into  a pen shop (or the pen department of a reasonable department store) and hold a few, see what feels right in *your* hand.

Ballpoints and rollerballs are then about the quality of the refills that you use .



[edit - and  I think that's a great New Year's Resolution!]

Phil_aka_Pip

My dad tried calligraphy, but his handwriting was so appalling he gave up. Mine used to be a lot better than it is now, but is saved from being a complete disaster because I keep an engineer's log book at work and I usually write something in it every day. As @TTony said - practice!

scrumhalf

I've always found that a good pen helps, I write much better with a decent fountain pen than a biro.

Roland

My handwriting never was good. In my student days I bought a couple of books. The key lessons were to form your letters properly (there will be internet resources which show this) and practice. In my own case I found it useful to use a larger nibbed pen, and make the letters larger. Nowadays I use pens with a large rollerball rather than a squiddy bic type nib.

BigMonka said:

... I seem to remember there's a group of people on here who like fancy pens (to go with proper watches, socks, razors coffee etc that the modern gentleman likes to become obsessed over)

Over the years I've been given a couple of nice pens. My experience has been that nice looking pens have very little to do with nice writing. Once you get past the 10p Bic level it's about what shaft and ball size suit your writing style.

Budgie

Get a decent pen and start a journal maybe? 

midiglitch

A good pen helps, but practise is the order of the day.
Write a few sentences and then try to determine what it is you are unhappy about. 
Compare to some handwriting you admire (I'm lucky, one of my former colleagues had the most beautiful handwriting, and was always making notes, which were a joy to behold.)

Then write a few more sentences, stop and reflect.  What's improving, what still needs work, etc.

Write slowly and methodically, and play with the angle of the page, pay attention to the tension in your fingers and pressure on your finger tips (but don't try to control it), and keep stopping and reflecting.

Over time you will make big gains.

The trick really, is having something to write about!

If you set yourself the task of writing a paragraph a day, and stick to it, I bet you'll see good results.

BigBearKris

Practice. A lot. No different to playing guitar really - it's all muscle memory.

Keep writing your name, your signature, then description of what you've been doing on the day (unless you actually have something to write about - then do it).

Keep writing real letters and post them - it will make you try harder as you know that other person will read it. 

Good luck!

BigMonka

Day 3 - handwriting still looks rubbish. I think that the comments about taking the time to correctly form letters will be where the big difference is made.
I have a suspicion that my updates to this thread aren't going to be too riveting!

TTony

BigMonka said:

I have a suspicion that my updates to this thread aren't going to be too riveting!

But if you handwrote them ...



(or, took pics of the progress of your actual handwriting, and posted the pics here )

Philly_Q

TTony said:

So, tip 1 = practice.  Not sure what you'll find to write-by-hand regularly, but I think that's the trick.

You could try keeping a diary.  Doesn't have to be anything profound, you could just record what you did that day, where you went, what the weather was like, what you watched on the TV...

That said, I keep a diary and my handwriting is appalling, although I haven't been trying to improve it.  It used to be very good, I always used to get the handwriting prize in junior school.

I'm sure the advice on here is totally correct - to get my handwriting back on track I'd slow right down and actually concentrate on forming the letters properly.  And I'm totally confident it would work.  If only I had the same self-belief as regards guitar playing....

BigMonka

TTony said:

BigMonka said:

I have a suspicion that my updates to this thread aren't going to be too riveting!

But if you handwrote them ...



(or, took pics of the progress of your actual handwriting, and posted the pics here )

lol, there's no way I'm posting my crappy handwriting on here... yet
I wanted to get back in to using my old fountain pen, but actually considering I should be slowing my writing down I think I'd end up with big puddles of ink. Might need to find a midground pen that's not a BIC biro or a fountain pen. Time to raid the work stationary cupboard (or is it stationery? To be fair, in this case it's hopefully both!)

TheMarlin

my handwriting is very ugly.  letters all pointing different directions, even I sometimes struggle to read it.  All my professional communication is digital these days, so I'm content with my ugly writing.  It matters not.  I have bigger fish to fry

Bygone_Tones

watch the magic pencil

 

Neill

I'm going to go against the grain here, I don't think practice will make much difference.    

Like many of my generation I had handwriting lessons at school with an inkwell and a plain "quill" pen.  In the days before computers it was important to be able to write neatly, but though I have worked on it for most of my life I have always had awful handwriting.  Whenever I need something written out longhand I get my wife to do it.     

Mind you I'm not as bad as two of our good friends who are ex GP's  - it's absolutely true what they say about doctors.

rocktron

I remember using a Vere Foster hand-writing copy book at school, but I cannot find them now. They had hand-writing like that shown here:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vere-Fosters-Copy-Book-Bold-Writing-18-Models-for-Book-Keeping-c-1890/322969360306?hash=item4b327957b2:g:FBYAAOSwTLlZ18Wt

You can buy a school hand-writing copy book and a line ruled exercise book and practice cursive writing.

If you do that, photocopy the pages so as not to damage the original.

  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cursive-hand-writing-Copy-handwriting-Activity-Book-Age-4-above-running-neat/322978634944?epid=1563533365&hash=item4b3306dcc0:m:m_Eowq-UUcHFC6OkdhXcUsA

Alternatively, you can find text suitable for copying on the internet, and practice using the template on a line ruled exercise book.

crunchman

My handwriting is awful.

My wife is a primary school teacher and blames the teachers I had when I was young because I don't hold the pen properly.  I'm not about to change now though after more than 40 years of holding the pen the way I do.  To change feels unnatural.

bingefeller

proggy

Buy a decent pen and find yourself a pen pal. That should do it.

Sassafras

Start off with a pencil and then work your way up to a fancy fountain pen.