Writing With Arm?

[GJMekenkamp]

I know many more people have asked this.

 

But: how does one write with their arm? I mean, I do get painful fingers/hands when writing. Is there a way to solve it? Many people say 'write with your arm'.

 

How does writing with arm actually work?

 

Are there any videos showing how it works?

[Ghost Plane]

Let your pen rest in the webbing between thumb and forefinger so it falls naturally onto the sweet spot of the nib. Close your fingers around it so gently that I could lean over and snatch it from your grasp with no resistance. Using the muscles of your forearm as a pivot and keeping your hand loose and resting on the side, sketch large circles until you're used to the movement. Slowly make the circles smaller using loose motions of your shoulder and wrist. The pen should be so loose it's on the verge of falling except it's resting on the webbing of thumb and forefinger, writing under its own weight.

 

This is how my father taught me, with occasional snatches of the pen from behind. I got used to being ambushed.

[zwack]

This is how my father taught me, with occasional snatches of the pen from behind. I got used to being ambushed.

Then you added a wrist strap to your pens to stop him stealing them while you wrote.

[Rednaxela]

Working on this myself too.

 

First thing I did was to adopt this grip. After having adjusted to it, pretty much all my writing fatigue had disappeared.

 

However writing with the arm seems to result in more rounded turns in the longer loops, and more consistent letter forms. I do this by locking my fingers and (most of) my hand, and forcing myself to write nonetheless. This way I kind of naturally end up writing the way Ghost Plane describes.

 

Hope this helps.

[ac12]

There is a muscle under your forearm near the elbow. I rest my arm on that, and push/pull and pivot on that. Your hand sould be barely touching the paper, more for a reference of where the paper is.

 

As GP said, write circles to get your arm used to moving.

 

WARNING, it can/will take a LONG time to convert from finger to arm writing. It took me 3 months of constant daily 1-3 hour writing before I developed the muscle memory to not have to look at my arm and fingers to make sure I was moving my arm. And it took me several more months before I was happy with my handwriting. When I first converted, my handwriting was UGLY, because my arm was doing something it had never done before. Think of a baby learning to walk.

 

The big benefits of arm writing, for me, has been

1 - combined with a 'light' grip, my hand no longer cramps like it did in college when I had a TIGHT grip, and I can and have written for up to 3 hours, without any pain.

2 - I can write larger than I could when I finger wrote, and the TALL letters like the lower case f is much easier to do. Writing with my arm give me a much greater range of motion to do the larger/taller letters.

Edited March 28, 2016 by ac12

[Randal6393]

Proper writing form also makes it easier to write smaller script as well. Also becomes a good start to learn Round Hand or Copperplate. And flourishing.

 

Enjoy,

[GJMekenkamp]

Let your pen rest in the webbing between thumb and forefinger so it falls naturally onto the sweet spot of the nib. Close your fingers around it so gently that I could lean over and snatch it from your grasp with no resistance. Using the muscles of your forearm as a pivot and keeping your hand loose and resting on the side, sketch large circles until you're used to the movement. Slowly make the circles smaller using loose motions of your shoulder and wrist. The pen should be so loose it's on the verge of falling except it's resting on the webbing of thumb and forefinger, writing under its own weight.

 

This is how my father taught me, with occasional snatches of the pen from behind. I got used to being ambushed.

 

 

Working on this myself too.

 

First thing I did was to adopt this grip. After having adjusted to it, pretty much all my writing fatigue had disappeared.

 

However writing with the arm seems to result in more rounded turns in the longer loops, and more consistent letter forms. I do this by locking my fingers and (most of) my hand, and forcing myself to write nonetheless. This way I kind of naturally end up writing the way Ghost Plane describes.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

Proper writing form also makes it easier to write smaller script as well. Also becomes a good start to learn Round Hand or Copperplate. And flourishing.

 

Enjoy,

 

 

Did it take you guys so long to learn 'writing with arm' as well?

 

 

Thanks all for reacting, I will start today and try to learn it.

 

Another question: is it really 'necessary' to learn writing with arm? (on the long run I mean, when starting up writing projects etc).

[ac12]

 

 

Another question: is it really 'necessary' to learn writing with arm? (on the long run I mean, when starting up writing projects etc).

 

 

NO arm writing is NOT necessary.

It is just another variable in writing that you may choose or not choose to do, based on what kind of writing you want to do.

If you finger write, you simply work within the limitations of finger writing.

[Ghost Plane]

I was about 5 when my dad started me, so it was all wrapped in with learning to write at all. Avoided hand cramps all the way up through grad school, so I had no incentive to do anything else.

[Piper 987]

I've read a couple of articles in which proper pen grip (for disciplined writers) is described as having the pen not in the web space between the thumb and first finger but on or ahead of the knuckle of the first finger. I find this grip eases the "death grip" I developed by using ball-points most of my life.

 

- see fig. 3 http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html

 

This article also explains how to write with the muscles of your shoulder girdle and forearm. That said, old muscle memory dies hard. I have to concentrate to keep my pen grip this way and to not use finger muscles to guide the pen.

 

Practice, practice, practice.... and slow down.

[Arkanabar]

The way of arm writing is that you use only muscles above your elbow to move the pen, while your pen is well leaned back (I rest it on the knuckle at the base of my forefinger) and your grip on it is nearly slack. The point is that your shoulder muscles, which actually move and control the pen in arm writing, have much more endurance than the finger muscles you probably use now.

One way to practice is to write in the air; another is to draw on a blackboard or whiteboard or paper on the wall. Practice loops, slashes, hooks (repeated lowercase c), humps (mnmnmnmnmn)and circles (ooooooo). Practice on paper as well.

It took me a more than a month to get used to it, and maybe a month or two more until it started to come naturally, though I do at times revert to finger writing, particularly when in a tearing hurry.

[ac12]

 

It took me a more than a month to get used to it, and maybe a month or two more until it started to come naturally, though I do at times revert to finger writing, particularly when in a tearing hurry.

 

 

You were faster than me.

It took me THREE months of DAILY practice. And that was just to get my arm moving without thinking about it.

It took another several months to get my handwriting to where I was reasonably pleased with it.

And I sometimes catch myself partially finger writing. This is easy to see with a desk pen, when the taper/tail wobbles around...I caught myself writing with my fingers.

But I've taken to a hybrid; mostly arm writing, with some fine work using my fingers, and some with both arm and finger muscles.

[GJMekenkamp]

I've read a couple of articles in which proper pen grip (for disciplined writers) is described as having the pen not in the web space between the thumb and first finger but on or ahead of the knuckle of the first finger. I find this grip eases the "death grip" I developed by using ball-points most of my life.

 

- see fig. 3 http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html

 

This article also explains how to write with the muscles of your shoulder girdle and forearm. That said, old muscle memory dies hard. I have to concentrate to keep my pen grip this way and to not use finger muscles to guide the pen.

 

Practice, practice, practice.... and slow down.

Thanks for the article, this is really helpful!

[GJMekenkamp]

The way of arm writing is that you use only muscles above your elbow to move the pen, while your pen is well leaned back (I rest it on the knuckle at the base of my forefinger) and your grip on it is nearly slack. The point is that your shoulder muscles, which actually move and control the pen in arm writing, have much more endurance than the finger muscles you probably use now.

 

One way to practice is to write in the air; another is to draw on a blackboard or whiteboard or paper on the wall. Practice loops, slashes, hooks (repeated lowercase c), humps (mnmnmnmnmn)and circles (ooooooo). Practice on paper as well.

 

It took me a more than a month to get used to it, and maybe a month or two more until it started to come naturally, though I do at times revert to finger writing, particularly when in a tearing hurry.

Thanks!

 

I will definitely start learning this!

[GJMekenkamp]

One other question though. All this learning (some articles state that making circles, slashes etc is necessary), but this must not be too good for a fountain pen, right?

 

Is it necessary to draw circles etc with my fountain pen I use most? Or is it possible to learn this 'arm writing' with for example a Hero 266 which I have lying around, not using too much, and cheap as ****.

 

I started drawing circles and making the slashes, it is not as difficult as I expected

Edited March 31, 2016 by GJMekenkamp

[ac12]

 

One other question though. All this learning (some articles state that making circles, slashes etc is necessary), but this must not be too good for a fountain pen, right?

 

Is it necessary to draw circles etc with my fountain pen I use most? Or is it possible to learn this 'arm writing' with for example a Hero 266 which I have lying around, not using too much, and cheap as ****.

 

I started drawing circles and making the slashes, it is not as difficult as I expected

 

 

Use ANY pen or pencil.

The idea is just to get your arm and shoulder muscles used to moving in a way they may never have.

Tip: Larger circles will be easier than smaller ones. So start larger, like 2 or 3 lines on ruled paper, then bring it down to 1 line.

 

Forward loops (part of the letter P), backwards loops (letter O), humps (letter m)

I am pretty sure there are more exercises in the old writing instructions.

[Ghost Plane]

If you're writing under the weight of the pen without your fingers driving it and scrubbing it into the page, you'll find the nib skates along easily while doing this. You're actually being much kinder to your pens by not forcing them under pressure.

[Arkanabar]

Interestingly enough, arm writing allowed me to really bear down on a stainless Baoer 388 that was intolerably dry. Enough abuse and the nib slit was widened to the point where the thing would write without pressure. I suppose I could have just flossed it with a brass sheet. I suspect it's actually the movement, rather than the tension, that tires your finger muscles out.

[majolo]

When I consciously try to arm write, I find I actually get a lot more muscle tension than when I write "naturally". I'm probably doing something wrong...

[knarflj]

When I consciously try to arm write, I find I actually get a lot more muscle tension than when I write "naturally". I'm probably doing something wrong...

 

 

I have a similar experience, majolo. I'm still experimenting, but I don't think the problem is the arm-writing per se. I seem to have problems when I'm working on writing with the arm and nothing but the arm: keeping the hand and fingers absolutely still eventually causes more tension and soreness in my hand than I remember ever having before I consciously tried writing with my arm muscles. When I use my arm, but also allow my fingers and wrist a wee bit of input, that tension goes away.

 

Here's a question for those of you who say you can arm-write for hours without discomfort: Do you mean writing absolutely non-stop? Or do you occasionally pause to think, or stretch your fingers, or find a reference, or even change pens so that you're using a slightly different grip? If the former, there's definitely some trick I still need to learn.

 

Jenny