Hi Everyone!


I'm looking for critiques and suggestions/recommendations on how to make my handwriting better. I've been using FPs now for about two months, so I think I'm past the initial "Why won't the thing write" phase. I used to have the handwriting style I called "Serial Killer Slant". I think I may have passed that finally.....

Legible, bold, personal, and animated! From "serial killer" to "wild and crazy guy." Keep posting as you progress -- we'll warn you if you're getting too staid.

Doug

What's "Serial Killer Slant?"

Will & Grace -- "Coffee & Commitment" Episode Number: 55 Season Num: 3 First Aired: Thursday January 4, 2001...

Grace: (to Will) You didn't sign for me, did you? Your handwriting has a serial killer slant.

I could be wrong, but isn't a "serial killer slant" the backwards slant? (i.e. - \ vs. /)

I can't remember which book it was or when I would have read it, but I distinctly recall reading a book in which the main character is in awe of some parental figure or teacher's handwriting because it slanted backwards instead of forwards like everyone else's.

So backwards-slanting handwriting is known as having the serial-killer slant?...How'd it get that name?

Legible though I had difficulties to read a and n letters.

'Graphologically speaking', serial killers probbably don't often have that many psychological traits in common, so their writing would probably be very varied.

One might, I guess, look for secretiveness, cunning, brutality, the need to control/dominate....or maybe extreme lack of self-esteem.... ask a criminal psychologist...any out there?

I used to have a book with examples of the writing of psychopaths, but it got 'lost in the move' to Spain, I think!

I heartily agree with the favourable comments made above about your writing but I am afraid I must point out one thing that is a particularly important shortcoming, in my mind. It is not writing. It is printing.
If this is something that you were consciously doing to "progress" to a cursive style that works for you, then I applaud your efforts and encourage you to keep working. You appear to be on the right track.
However, if this is something that you, like so many people seem to do today, have decided to use this printing style because it is more readable and easier for you than learning to "write properly", then I find that .... disappointing.
It seems to me that the aesthetic and the character values (two separate values) that we are collectively embracing and pursuing through the use of fountain pens and quality papers and inks, includes the skill of Cursive writing.

First - Very nice "printing" style (I do the same thing)

Second - I agree with TimRoscoe. This is printing, and I am guilty of this. However, I have to write fast and legible, and this "print" style is best suited for that type of writing. If I slow down, then I may be able to write properly.

I wouldn't have described this sample as 'not writing but printing'..... it is very much like the style of lettering I was taught in school, before we learned to 'join-up' the letters.
It isn't 'cursive', but it most certainly is 'handwriting'.

I am sure that someone like Kate Gladstone could give the writer some useful advice on making his writing faster and a bit more legible.

I do like the ink colour!

Hi

Unknowledgeable comments, to improve the overal 'look' some consistency is required. Initially trying to get most letters running in a similar angel, or at least the same letters at a similar angle. Your 'h's for example sometimes slant forward and otherwise backwards (in a serial killer manner?!). This will help to make the overall look of the page intentional.

Whatever angle you choose is, of course, up to you. I'm afraid I'm one of those who does not believe in rules for handwriting, unless you want to apply them. If you want your writing to look like copperplate then those are the rules you need to apply. If you want it to just be your handwriting then you make up your own, which, to my mind, is fine. However if you want the page to look tidy then you might like to apply some of your own rules. Another rule you may like to consider is size. Your 'a's, for example, have a range of different sizes.

The important thing is that you are now paying some attention to your handwriting style and so it will improve so long as you do so. It is currently full of character and life, but you may like the overall impression to be more presentable, hence my comments about consistency. You may not!

Last comment concerns the nib. It appears to be an italic style nib, one I find difficult to make neat. Its also quite broad and I wonder that a finer nib might be a better starting place.


Greg

It looks like the angle might be changing sometimes because you don't move your hand when you need to, you just change the angle of the letters?