Ann Finley is so correct when she says that you have to commit time and effort to improve your writing. This is true of anything in life. We have all been there; never enough time to work on the LITTLE things we really wish to excel in because of so many other urgent matters that get in the way. Throughout my working life, it seems that the hobbies I really wished to excel in were always relegated to the back burner for other activities that gave instant gratification, such as individual sports, eg, cycling, running, x-country skiing, etc. Being that my profession was in engineering (technologist), to be able to write legibly and quickly was of utmost importance. So over a period of 40 some years, my writing style was PRINTING, capitals and lower case. Before the advent of computers and CAD, drawings were all prepared lovingly by hand and with great pride and over the years, one developed his own style of printing. As a matter of fact, one could tell who prepared a drawing by the writing. I am retired now, since 2004, and am slowly getting back into writing, calligraphy and chinese brush painting. This is a wide ranging hobby and one can get lost in projects that lead nowhere. Recently, I have been concentrating on improving my handwriting and am practicing cursive hand to improve my awful style. Right behind this is more practice with uncials, foundationals and Roman. It is one of the first things I do in the morning (I get up at 6am plus or minus) with a cup of tea and while I have the house to myself while others are sound asleep and I work at this for an hour or more. I have generated a dozen different calligraphy templates on my computer using MS Publisher and I print the templates on various types of paper to experiment with spacing and surfaces. For general practice, I find 24lb bond 100%+ brightness (the stuff used everyday in inkjet printers) to be the best and cheapest as I go through a lot of paper in a week. My pens vary, italic, copperplate, fine medium, broad and Speedballs of all sizes and shapes and regular fountain pens. Out of all this will come some special greeting cards for Christmas, note cards, writing paper with personal monograms, etc, etc, combining my digital photography of the area and environment I live in. I also maintain 4 diaries using fountain pens only. Story writing is another of my ongoing projects, short stories about myself throughout the years, special events or happenings (and usually dramatized a little!!!), people I've met and places I've been. I have worked in Africa, Middle East, Carribean, Turkey and a few other places, so there is no shortage of topics.

This site is really great and I thank those who manage it. There is a lot to browse through and is a lot of fun to share with others. All the best. I just posted a photo of myself, uuuggghh.

Usually cursive (a mix of French and American styles) but I print some things such as email addresses, addresses, and website addresses.

My handwriting style originated from the Victorian Cursive style of handwriting of the 1980s & 90s.

Another Engineer here! I had the worlds worse scribble for a hand writing. I remember a 5th grade teacher making me do remedial handwriting work but it did little to help. When they taught lettering in drafting at University I finally found a way that I could write where others could read it. So printing ruled for many years. When I dove into fountain pens (last 5 years) I decided to try to revive some form of cursive writing. Now when I write slowly and with deliberate effort I can write legibly in script. I have purchased several Italic nibs and have been trying to learn cursive italic. However when I am in a hurry and am trying to quickly get a note down, I have to rewrite it neater, very quickly or even I can't read it when I come back to it an hour later.

A form of cursive that I found works for me as a lefty who prefers medium width nibs. Some elements are taken from styles I like, or even individual letters I see that I like. My capital A actually comes as a slight variation on the "A" in Andrew Jackson's signature.

My cap "C" comes from old 18th century handwriting- it has the double loop effect.

My cap "L" comes from an example of the word "Liberty" I'd seen in Jefferson's handwriting.

Though I will say that my cap "S" is dead plain.

These are just some examples. My small letters are pretty plain and normal- my flashier letters are my caps. The reason for this is the use of caps is pretty sparing compared to lower cased letter. I guess I get the benefit of plain lower case letters being nice and simple, and the occasional flashier uppercase letter. Of course, my variations are NOT perfect copies of the letters that inspired them, but rather are my own approximations.

'Cause I grew up learning cursive handwriting, I reckon I developed a lot of 'timesaving' writing thingos. Like, I will write lower-case 't's, 'f's, etc, in one fluid motion and then link it to the next letter (say 'the' or 'fat' or 'flat').

With lowercase Ts, I start about 'middle-point, curve upwards, make a loop to the right, make a downstroke, a loop to the left, up again to whatever level I need to go to to form the next letter. The tail of the topmost loop in my 't' forms the cross-stroke.

Ummmm, I'd go with spider dipped in ink and let loose on the page but I am tring to improve it

David

Parochial school survival handwriting...
Basically we were taught Palmer style cursive via the use of a ruler or pointer applied to the hand if you did not do it correctly.
To this day, I still have a very nice handwriting...

Also an engineer, but drafting wasn't required for electrical engineers at my school, hence my major, and the fact that my printing isn't much better, although usually, it can be read.

My handwriting is a very poor approximation of whatever they tried to teach in the 50's and could be described as "messy, illegible, looks like a third grader's."

Hey Old Griz..........you reminded me of the days in rural primary school, sitting in an old desk made of oak and cast iron legs with an ink well, about 40 to 50 mischievous kids in a class. We used steel nibs (sharp pointed) in a holder and practiced cursive under the ever watchful eye of the teacher who did walk around with the wand or ruler....ha! ha!!! I recall my scribbler full of ink stains, embarassingly blotted and were to remain forever as evidence of our efforts and my fingers black with ink stains. Then there was the occasional ink bottle spill on the hardwood floor which had to be cleaned after class by the "perpetrator", down on hands & knees with a brush and lye solution. My pen cost my parents pennies. Today, kids have $2000 laptops............poor parents!!!! I almost cry when I see today's kids deprived of the simple tools of communication.

any chance of seeing a sample of your handwriting Griz... would be nice to see...

cheers T

Trevor, here's a link to a sample of Griz's handwriting. He does indeed have beautiful handwriting!

Best, Ann

Griz, I checked out the link in Ann's post. You do indeed have nice handwriting. I also went to parochial school, but my handwriting suffered greatly from neglect over the years. Getting better, though.

Thanks for that link to Griz's handwriting Ann... much appreciated... VERY NICE handwriting indeed has own ol'Griz

somehow I just can't seemt to be able to do those Cap I's like that... that twist back to the right after the bottom curve just never wants to look right for me... need a step by step for that one it seems despite being able to pick up almost any hand...