Due to a bad wrist, my rt arm is in a cast. Being rt handed, I am rying to at least do some writing with my left hand. I tried to sign a credit card slip yesterday and it was laughable.

Is there some kind of trick to help with this? Is it even possible to write legibly with your non-dominate hand? I dont even dare use a fountain pen. I'd crush it.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated

It is. but first you must relax. A fountain pen will actually make it easier as you can drape it across the webbing of your hand and see which angle works for your fingers. Practice just as you did as a school child, learning to make lines and circles before you rush out to do something as complicated as a signature.

A certain amount depends on your natural degree of side dominance, but the key is definitely relaxation. The harder you try and grip, the worse it gets. The rest is patience. Think how much of your life you trained your right hand to achieve what you produce now. Looked at in that light, anything coming off your other hand is actually amazingly good!

If you want to do this well, you have to do everything with your left hand. Brush your teeth, write, try to draw. This shouldn't be to hard because as you said your right arm is in a cast.

I experienced this as well. I broke my middle finger on my right hand about a year and a half ago and was unable to draw or write. So I switched hands to my left. It took a while, but inside a month I was writing pretty legibly and much quicker than when I started. Patience and practice.

I practice writing with my left (non-dominant) hand regularly -- for fun. It will get better and more legible with practice. At first it was so hard to figure out how to form the letters but it all will get easier. I use fountain pens. You might want to pick up a cheap Pilot Varsity if you're afraid on crushing your more expensive pens.

I am definitely trying to do everything with my left hand. If I try to use my fingers on my rt hand to do anything, my wrist starts to hurt again. I think it would be fun to be able to use my left hand more. I am surprised how weird it feels and how bad I am at it.

I picked up some of the gel pens I used to use before I tried fountain pens. I am having a hard time even figuring out how to hold a pen in my left hand. Once I get that figured out I will try to practce the loops, etc. I homeschool, so I am looking around for some old first grade wring books. At least typing is getting easier. Perhaps I am trainable.

Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to learn to shoulder write, if you can't write with your right fingers

This is a particularly interesting topic to me because my primary goal for this year is to become left handed. I think a left handed perspective on life would be interesting, not to mention good brain excercise.

I am starting with writing and throwing toys (to my dog when she fetches). But, doing everything, even flipping your homemade burgers, left handed is definitely what is needed. Two weeks into it with daily practice has proven that I am the biggest clutz with my left hand. In fact, the only thing I can do well with my left hand is to type

I wonder how writing left handed will affect my pen nibs.

It worked well to do everything left handed for me. Now, after I'm all healed, it's very easy to go back to the dominant hand. Though, in my case this has been different. After some digging, I found out that I was actually a lefty as a kid, but was told to use my right hand to write.

Now, I write with my right hand again, but use my left almost exclusively for everything else. It has certainly been good brain practice, but I think it doesn't necessarily change you mind to a left handed perspective. I might be a special case though. You could argue I've been using both sides dominately my whole life.

Regarding pen nibs: I could tell the difference when I switched back to writing right handed. The nibs weren't as smooth and didn't flow as well. Just my opinion though. This was on a Pelikan M800 F nib, that I was using.

It is always important to exercise your off hand wether it is for writing or for something else. I have no problems to siwtching of hand wether it is for writing or any other activity.

When I was a kid, they tried at school to force me to write with my non-dominant hand. It's tough to do, but you get better with practice. And everyone's correct when they say relax your grip.

It's funny this is a concept I have thought about doing but never really attempted. Having read this I have switched my keyboard and mouse round to a left hand setting and I think I may keep it like this to see what happens. I may also start doing other things left handed . I wish you luck in swapping hands .

First off, my sympathies...a cast on one's dominant hand is not fun. I broke my write wrist last year and still experience problems with it. It was however, an excellent opportunity to practice using my left hand. Everyone is correct when they say to do everything with your left...sadly, writing with the non-dominant hand is a case of practice makes perfect, but so long as it is part-way legible (I found myself using all capital block letters, which is not my usual style) you should be alright. And on the plus side, when the cast comes off, not only can you go back to using your right hand, but your left will be more dexterous, which I have found advantageous. It certainly makes drinking my coffee and eating breakfast while typing much easier!