What To Write?

[jwtiger]

First post!!!!!!! I have been slowly working on improving my hand writing the last few months and recently came across this site. Other than normal writing, journals ect.... What do you all use to practice? Are there certain poems, sayings, quotes? I haven't found anything online, or I am just not searching correctly.

 

 

I am also left handed. How should I have the paper out in front of me? I guess that would depend on if I decide if I write better underhand or overhand? I currently have a Metro Pilot in a medium nib, and I just ordered a Lami Safari in a fine nib. I currently just use random paper but I am looking at better sheets and notebooks. Thanks!

Edited December 28, 2016 by jwtiger

[Manalto]

I can't advise you regarding left-handedness (there are others here much more qualified) but for content I recommend famous quotes. There is much wisdom to be learned and repeating the words of wise men and women is one way to ponder and absorb that wisdom. Preferences are, of course, individual, so it will take some poking around before you find someone whose words click with you. I like Emerson. See what you think:

http://www.azquotes.com/author/4490-Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

[RocketRyan]

You could try a foreign language too (I've been attempting french), I find that writing letters in a different order to my native English helps with forming the characters.

My handwriting is still abysmal lol.

[Manalto]

What a wonderful idea. Choose your language wisely!

[jwtiger]

I can't advise you regarding left-handedness (there are others here much more qualified) but for content I recommend famous quotes. There is much wisdom to be learned and repeating the words of wise men and women is one way to ponder and absorb that wisdom. Preferences are, of course, individual, so it will take some poking around before you find someone whose words click with you. I like Emerson. See what you think:

http://www.azquotes.com/author/4490-Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

 

 

Great idea! Thanks

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Don't know about the left-handedness part, but I'm sure some southpaws will be along shortly.

 

I'm not trying to improve my handwriting at this point, although it's certainly far from perfect. But I do think that writing a lot keeps it from deteriorating at least. As for what to write, well, I'm a diligent keeper of journals, but that isn't everybody's cup of tea. And I write unpublished fiction and poetry at inconsistent intervals. Also not appealing to everybody.

 

Another idea, though, is to record things that you learn. For example, I was given a journal style notebook with regular lined paper, but with alphabet tabs like some address books. I use it for a personal dictionary. When I learn a new word that interests me, it goes in there.

 

Other people keep commonplace books, essentially private encyclopedias, with facts that they find interesting or useful. I tend to put these in my normal daily journals, but you could keep a separate notebook.

[ac12]

I just kept a journal/diary.

I wrote anything and everything; weather, what I ate, what I did, rambling thoughts, etc, etc.

If you have a mental block about writing, copy something; quotes, story, newspaper, etc.

This journal writing eventually became a habit, and now, if I don't write something everyday, I don't feel right.

[jwtiger]

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. I just realized I am out of ink.... I guess that means it is time to pick some up along with a notebook/journal or two.

[Manalto]

Get good ink. (We don't always have a choice when it comes to paper, but good paper is more enjoyable to write on too.) There are a lot of discussions here on inks, so a good way to approach it is to find one you like and look at the reviews before you buy. (I've followed this policy and have ZERO bad inks; I may not love them all, but they are all decent performers.) I recommend Diamine 'Imperial Blue' (violet blue) DeAtramentis 'Steel Blue' (turquoise blue), J. Herbin 'Lie de Thé (brown), Skrip 'Red' (while it's still available) and Aurora black.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Manalto

[jwtiger]

Get good ink. (We don't always have a choice when it comes to paper, but good paper is more enjoyable to write on too.) There are a lot of discussions here on inks, so a good way to approach it is to find one you like and look at the reviews before you buy. (I've followed this policy and have ZERO bad inks; I may not love them all, but they are all decent performers.) I recommend Diamine 'Imperial Blue' (violet blue) DeAtramentis 'Steel Blue' (turquoise blue), J. Herbin 'Lie de Thé (brown), Skrip 'Red' (while it's still available) and Aurora black.

 

 

I got lucky! I just found a sample of Pilot Iroshizuku Black at work.

[inkstainedruth]

I just kept a journal/diary.

I wrote anything and everything; weather, what I ate, what I did, rambling thoughts, etc, etc.

If you have a mental block about writing, copy something; quotes, story, newspaper, etc.

This journal writing eventually became a habit, and now, if I don't write something everyday, I don't feel right.

 

True words. On the few days I don't get my morning pages done (usually it's because I have to get up way too early in the morning for some reason), I'm out of sorts the whole day. Ironically that's what got me into this hobby -- I used a fountain pen and a "nice" journal in order to get myself into the habit of writing daily. And for several years ONLY used it for the journalling. It wasn't until I accidentally left the then current journal and pen (by that point a Parker Vector) and tried to find replacements, that I started using fountain pens for any other writing. Now, it feels weird to use a ballpoint (I had to last week when shopping for a new winter hat because I'd somehow gone out of my house without any pens -- that almost NEVER happens (this week, while traveling, I have I think 8 or 9 with me...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Manalto]

One nearly effortless thing to write is something you have memorized; I like the mindless activity of writing out the words to songs I know for trying out a new pen, ink or combination of the two. The words just flow and, if you know a few, you can easily fill up a couple of pages - no copying or thinking required. You can focus on pen, ink and penmanship.

[Inkquest]

You could try a foreign language too (I've been attempting french), I find that writing letters in a different order to my native English helps with forming the characters.

My handwriting is still abysmal lol.

 

^^^^^This. For me, it was/sometimes is cursive Cyrillic Russian, which has a larger alphabet and some strangeness for an English writer, e.g., a block typed letter, say T or t, in cursive Cyrillic becomes similar our cursive M and m.. A foreign language writing exercise practice compels one to become much more deliberate. The overall cursive strokes are very similar yet applied in unfamiliar variations.

 

Take 'Yalta' for instance. In block/typed Cyrillic, it looks like this: Ялта

 

Now take a look at the photo in this link of a scripted roadside sign on the approach to Yalta:

http://www.dienes.hu/pics/crimea/yaltacanyoureadcyrillic.html

[Manalto]

Here's something to write that I took off the TV this weekend:

 

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of men's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination; it is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

 

In other words, silly stuff.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Manalto

[Bookman]

Here are a few ideas.

[BDarchitect]

Even though this post is several years old, I have a few suggestions as a fellow lefty practicing improvements to my handwriting.

I find using the Palmer Method grip, esp with the plane of the back of the hand nearly parallel to the paper, allows the nib to be slightly in front of the letters (about 5 o'clock when viewed from above) as you write, with the paper rotated about 45 degrees clockwise (starting square to the body and desk), the left forearm rests near the edge of the desk with the elbow bone just hanging off. This position lets you use your natural arm movement to make strokes without pushing the pen nib up and down from below.

As for things to copy, I strongly suggest getting a small pocket copy of the US founding documents from the Cato Institute for under $5. This will allow you to copy the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and all the other Amendments. Depending on how fast you are writing, that should take many hours of practice and give you a good education to boot.

[A Smug Dill]

My preferred alternative to the pesky "lorem ipsum" as a passage for writing samples is (at least the first paragraph of) Pope Gregory XIII's papal bull Inter Gravissimas. On the other hand, if I'm just practising English handwriting, I can usually just pull something from a libretto of a stage musical off the bat (more readily than, say, a pop song), so I can focus my conscious attention on forming the letters.

 

For Chinese content, I usually use the text of the Heart Sutra (260 characters in all, with quite a few stroke-dense ones) because I've learnt it by heart, and occasionally some well-known old poetry – but there aren't too many poems I can recite off the top of my head, so I might have to look up the actual words online. Sometimes I'd write a bunch of quasi-intelligible nonsense like what you might find tattooed on non-Chinese speakers (of their own volition and selection, of course).

[Miskatonic]

The suggestion to work on your second language may be the smartest thing I've come across all day! I had promised myself I was going to keep up my French studies after my Uni classes ended and...... I didn't keep that promise.

 

What a wonderful combining of enjoyable things: learning another language, (perhaps) improving my penmanship and playing with pens/paper/ink.

 

My GF's suggestion when I was wondering aloud what I could do with all my recent pen purchases (went a little crazy this month), fancy Japanese paper and new Diamine inks was "write me a love letter"

 

I think I'd best do that first because the repetition of this suggestion gives it considerable weight.

 

The other thing I hope to do is something I haven't done often since I left home as a young fellow- write letters to my friends as one did in the pre-internet, antediluvian past. I think fiends will be bowled over getting a hand written, posted letter. They'll also likely laugh and wonder about my mental health, but that's par for course.

[senzen]

I use my pens mostly at work, to organize my ideas; lately I've been making summaries of books, course videos and webinars.

 

I'm not a lefty but you probably want decent paper that dries more quickly than the very best paper. The very best (for me) is Clairefontaine and Rhodia; nice and dries faster: Fabriano; nice, dries faster, much thinner (and shows through more) than most other papers: Tomoe River.

 

It's not always practical to get expensive paper, HP Lasertjet 32 lbs is nice and widely available in some countries, but it does dry more slowly.