I am currently in a discussion on a Harry Potter list regarding handwriting. A key factor in the last book is that we come to know a character through copious notes written in a book, in time you find that this unknown character is actually already a known character at a much earlier age (16 vs. 40+). Now, the main characters have seen this persons handwriting daily for years, but don't connect it to the writing in the book. Many people find this unbelievable, but I counter with the argument that my handwriting is much different then when I was 16. I know we've seen examples of a couple people in another thread. We are probably the type of people that consciously work on that. I wonder if you think all peoples handwriting undergo changes or is that something more apt to happen to those like us who are more conscious of it?

Heck my writing can change mid letter let alone mid-life Sometimes it's hard for me at work to really say if something was done by me. Maybe I'm in a minority but my overall style has changed but at the moment it can also be variable.

kurt H

True. Psyhcological state can also cause variations in writing, mine tends to become smaller, less fluid with less connections between individual letters, almost miserable. I presume even the mere thought of what one writes can change the way it is rendered on paper. The same observation I 've made when I was sick a couple of days ago.

Mine did change from a decipherless scribble to something better. But still pretty bad

My letter writing size changes depending on how much space i have and nib width, but the essential character of my handwriting remains the same. You may consider that either dull or consistent.

Regards,
J

My handwriting has definitely changed with age, but also find that it varies a lot depending upon which pen I'm using. Also, what about people whose writing varies with mood. I know a few people who have a perfectly legible script when in a good mood, but get them in a bad mood and it becomes an indecipherible scribble.

As an aside, when I was 7 years old I bought some shares and as a result I had to sign the inside of my bankbook with a pen that meant the signature could be read under UV (?) light. When I was 21 I decided to close that bank account and guess what, the bank objected that my signature didn't match the one in the book It really did get quite silly because the bank insisted that I had to get both of my parents go come back to the bank with me so that I could close the account! They were quite insistent that my signature at 21 should match the one I'd done at 7 years old and were not even willing to accept other forms of ID - I had my student ID card, passport and driving licence on me at the time.

On the basis of this thread, I went back and took a look. Now I am deliberately trying to improve my handwriting, so over the past 18 months I can see a change in it, the only thing is that the character of my writing has not changed that much, it is just that bit neater. The form and structure of my signature has remained the same, it is just a bit more legible.

I also now take more care about which pen I write with and for what. If I need to write fast or in a confined space, then I use a fine nib, but use a medium/broad for everything else. My guess is that my basic handwriting style consolidated at around age 18/22, which is why over 30 years later the change and improvement is a challenge.

Having said that, it would bear no relation to my handwriting at 7! So when I find that missing millions in the hidden account, then I am going to have big problems if like Carrie then need my parents as both have sadly passed on.

Jim

I find it quite strange that, as I have gotten older, my handwriting has become more like my mother's. Additionally, I see parallels with the handwriting of my brother, especially when I write sloppily, because his is quite haphazard.

Sometimes I doubt the likelihood of changing one's "swift" handwriting deliberately after the formative years... (don't people say it's much harder to become fluent with a new musical instrument as an adult?)

I have not written cursive (once!) for over ten years, until I just got into fountain pens recently and wondered if I still had it in me. I don't. Maybe because of that, I can point my handwriting in a particular direction.

My handwriting changes even within the same day depending on what I am writing about, my mood and how tired I am. I often write in my journal just before falling asleep. Several times I have fallen asleep mid sentence leaving an ink spot on the sheets . Luckily my wife just laughed about it. And the handwriting... was not my neatest. Also a lot has to do with writing speed and what the writing is for, such as jotting a note or writing a letter.
Over time my writing has changed, even before making an effort to change it. My handwriting in my school years was quite ugly.

I'll have to try to do a scan, but my handwriting has changed drastically in the past thirty years, several times. In part because I've deliberately tried different things (circular terminals on letters, angular swashes, different shapes for upper case "I" and lower-case "a", etc.), in part because I've developed a different grip on pens, and a different default angle to hold the paper.

I just pulled out a journal from 1983, and was amazed at how different the letter forms were then -- and how inconsistent they were: I had both angular and rounded descenders, my ascenders went in various directions, some straight, some curved.... it was a mess. Well, actually, it was the mess of someone learning to use Platignum italic pens, and playing with pieces of calligraphy styles she saw around her. But I'm not sure people who know me now would recognize the writing as mine.

for some reason, my script seems to vastly improve when using my danitrio mikado - maybe because the section is so wide? i don't see this phenomenon w/ any other pen.

Sometimes my handwriting looks like my pen pals. But that's rarely.

Hi chupie,

My handwriting changes with the mood I am in, the speed with which I write, the ink I use, the purpose I am writng for, and the pen I am using.

I find the biggest changes are caused by the pen and nib I am using. Most of the time, it is still recognizable as my hand writing, though.

Warm regards, Wim

My handwriting has changed a lot since I was in middle school, and depending on my hand position and other factors such as annoyance with something, my writing changes, becoming either simply larger or maybe even less legible. If I start writing something, and go to lunch, and resume writing, it's different looking.

I've changed my swift adult handwriting several times over the past twenty-odd years (I'm in my mid-forties, as a data point), and it takes somewhat longer to do (more than the twenty-one days people say it takes to form a habit), but sticks. The most recent style change was my lower case a, which has gone from the traditional cursive rounded one to the typeset-style a, with the free upper bar. (If anyone can tell me a better way to describe the two, please do!)

And the interesting thing about that is that my handwriting now looks remarkably like my older sister's. Mine is smaller, with narrower letters and longer ascenders and descenders, but if you put handwritten text from both of us side by side, they're clearly related. (My sister is a lefty; I'm an overhanded righty.)

I think I doubt it would work (for me) because I just don't have the discipline that I would need. Did you have to work really hard to remind yourself to put the "hood" on the "a"? We certainly had discipline when we learned penmanship in grade school, though!! I rather like the idea of letting it evolve slowly, though. But sometimes I see people with fancy handwriting and I start to get anxious.

Maybe I need to form a handwriting-development club where the members both discipline and inspire each other!!



So that's two of us. I think it's an amazing phenomenon (a genetic disposition for handwriting?) Anyone else notice this in their family?

That is interesting. THere are times I look at something I wrote and think it looks like my mother's writing.

Since my first daughter was born 9 years ago I have sat down and written her (and her sister once she was born) a letter every night. (I plan on having the letters bound and given to them on their 21st birthdays.) My writting has changed significantly over the last 9 years for the better. It is much more readable and flowing. I go back and read some of the letters from when I had started 9 years ago and I am tempted to re write them. I never have but it is a temptation.
So yes, my handwritting has changed in my adulthood.... and I never ever wrote in cursive until 10 or 11 years ago.

Yes of course my handwriting has changed since school (too long ago now), but whether an expert could say that I wrote both the old notes thirty years ago and more recent notes, I could not say. I can tell stuff I wrote.

But, I can and do change my own handwriting depending on what I'm writing and what I'm writing with. I think they are very different, but again whether an expert would say, "Ha ha, Chris wrote all of this - see how he has tried to disguise his hand!" I wouldn't know.

Chris

I just noted this the other day! When I write quickly, my handwriting looks like my dad's, and when I write slowly, like my mom's. Although my brother and I learned different styles of cursive, our quick handwriting looks remarkably similar.

Since most of the personality (or "face") of a cursive uses the whole complex interaction of hand and arm with its varying muscles and bone lengths/ratios and what not, much of which we inherit, it seems reasonable that those inherited characteristics should reveal themselves in the faces of our handwriting as well our faces themselves.

On the other hand, I might just be imagining things. I wonder if any adopted kin notice the similarity also. Nature or nurture?

Doug

Well, over the last year or so, I've started using (thanks to James Pickering's excellent exemplars) a form of formata which is quite readable and, well, not quite elegant. It's a vast improvement over my former style of writing, best left undescribed.

Even so, I find that when I'm trying to transcribe something being said via telephone, for example, my writing becomes less legible and becomes jumpy and uneven. If I'm writing something that my own thought process is creating, the writing is much better.

I'm trying to develop a much more elegant and consistent cursivo hand. Practice will, I hope, eventually make perfect.

I've changed over the last 40 years and so has my handwriting. I now look like the mother of the girl pictured in my high school yearbook--on a bad day maybe her grandmother.

If somebody put my journal from 1968 next to the journal I'm keeping today, they would have no difficulty telling that the author was the same woman.

Once the human nervous system matures, handwriting doesn't change, unless the nervous system deteriorates.

As you age, you may be more rushed, or change the font or style of your characters, but the strokes of your other letters can always be analyzed as being from your hand, regardless of size or type of character you make.