What to do? I love fountain pens and have collected several nice vintage as well as modern pens. The problem is that I am virtually unable to write decipherable words on paper with a pen. In short, my handwriting is terrible. When I was younger, I had very nice handwriting. I am trying to practice and re-learn to write in a nice pleasing hand, but do not seem to be making much headway. My printing is passable, but I really love looking at beautiful handwriting and I would like to be able to write well myself. Any suggestions? /Craig

Craig,
Well, I certainly wouldn't place my handwriting in the "beautiful" category, but I've noticed that when I take my time and slow down, my penmanship improves considerably. For me, penpals are a great way to practice as the vast majority of writing that I do at work is done in a rush.
Another suggestion (but one I've never bothered to use myself) is to get some paper that is ruled for penmanship practice and work on it for awhile.... kind of retrain yourself.

If you'd like a penpal to practice on .. send me a message .. I'm in no position to be critical of anyone else's handwriting and I love exchanging snail mail.

Todd

Just practice writing slowly and use a straight stub nib.

Craig,

My penmanship was really bad when I started hanging out at FPN. Kate Gladstone published some "etudes" (exercises) for penmanship in the Penmanship forum here. I started doing these exercises exactly as she directed. My penmanship improved dramatically. Look for the thread "Poll: Your Handwriting Quuality" post #76 at the top of page 6.

Paddler

I highly reco the book "Write Now". Easy script, good exercises.

Thanks everyone. I am determined to improve my writing skills and this forum certainly provides the encouragement, knowledge and tools. I'll post some examples as I improve. Thanks again. /Craig

First a suggestion that the Penmanship sub forum would be a more beneficial place to raise this discussion.

And second a comment that practice, careful patient practice does make a difference in a relatively short while of doing nearly daily exercises I am able to see a change (improvement) in my writing. So it is possible, don't give up hope!

I've been practicing writing on and off, but I think what is the best for me is to simply slow down and think about the letterforms as I write them. It's amazing what we can do when we just take the time to slow down. = )

One thing I would suggest - write a few lines, date it, and put it somewhere. If you practice for even a few minutes a day (which will end up being much more because you'll think about it every time you write) and then, in a year or so, compare your current writing with that original sample, I'm sure you'll be surprised to see how much better you write now!

Get the book "Write Now". I did and my handwriting garners compliments.

Decent paper, slowing down and practice like in the "Write Now" book has greatly improved my handwriting. However it reverts right back when I get in a hurry!!

Yep, another for the Write Now book. Before taking the lessons in the book seriously, my writing was illegible, even to myself. There's nothing worse than going back to notes and really having no idea what you wrote. If I tried writing with a Medium nib, well, I could see some lines and musical quarter notes, eighth notes, etc.. but very few letters.

I always had rather nasty handwriting and it just got worse over the years. I never would have believe that I could have decent penmanship, not that it is beautiful, but I still get comments from people who have known me for a while, who see my writing today and are completely stupefied that they can read every letter.

Once you have decided you really want to improve, then it's just a matter of picking a style, such as cursive italic, then regular practice - slow and steady following the instructions. Within two weeks you will see and incredible improvement which will continue to mature over time.

Good luck,
Dave

As I find myself in the same category of writers as CraigR I thought I might take the advice of purchasing the book Write Now right now and see if there is any hope at all for my handwriting. A quick search on amazon turned up a number of books with that title - which should I get?

Inkling

There has been a lot of great advice in answer to my original post. The number one suggestion has been to slow down. The next was to use a tool such as the book "Write Now" and the exercises included in the book. I have decided to do both. I purchased the book by Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay and have started working through the exercises. After 2 days, I am seeing some improvement. Slowing down has proved harder to do. I start out okay and then I am racing and what I write becomes a scrawl. Thanks again everyone and I'll drop you a note soon! /Craig

If you'd like to go the Italic cursive route (for elegant handwriting), the best book I've found is the out-of-print-but-easy-to-find Fred Eager's 'The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting,' teaching cursive Italic with speed, so you can actually write with it. Amazon has some used copies:

http://www.amazon.com/Italic-Beautiful-Han...6594&sr=8-1

Craig, don't think about it as slowing down... try to think about it as "The Rhythm Of The Letters"... Slow dance with your writing at first... one trick that worked for me (perhaps it is because of my musical background) is to find a good beat and let my hand 'dance' to that beat. Start with a slower beat, but still let your hand dance the letters in proper form - 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 etc... it might sound a bit warped or crazy, but it really did work for me.. maybe if you can think about it that way it will help you also.

Even after speed comes to your writing, you will find that you are still keeping a rhythmic beat, only moving more quickly.


Dave

Great suggestion, Dave! Slow dancing with the pen makes me smile. Also, I do love the Italic Cursive text and may pursue that style. /Craig

Craig, don't think about it as slowing down... try to think about it as "The Rhythm Of The Letters"... Slow dance with your writing at first... one trick that worked for me (perhaps it is because of my musical background) is to find a good beat and let my hand 'dance' to that beat. Start with a slower beat, but still let your hand dance the letters in proper form - 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 etc... it might sound a bit warped or crazy, but it really did work for me.. maybe if you can think about it that way it will help you also.

Even after speed comes to your writing, you will find that you are still keeping a rhythmic beat, only moving more quickly.


Dave
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I really like the comment on rhythm... Its evident in watching things like Antoniosz's video of him testing a flex nib pen. And its pretty cool when you first start to feel it happening...

My problem (well one of them ) is sometimes the rhythm gets carried away and the letters get lost.