A Little Help For A Beginner Leftie ?

[LaySouls]

Hello there

 

As I said in my introduction, I'm French and leftie ^^ So I "learned" how to write using a fountain pen.

However, and you can imagine that, I immediately stoped after Primary School because I really hate it (so much stains, ink spilled, and my hand and forearms getting tired really fast) and forbid myself to use it anymore...

 

I'm now at University and starting to fall in love with fountain pens... And even though it scares me, I really want to give it a chance.

I've watch quite a lot of videos about writing with a fountain pen and the conclusions are clear : I just don't know how to write...

I'm writing with a mix of hook-writing and side-writing, I don't hold with 3 fingers as it should be, but with 4 or even 5, I don't know how to position my sheet, my wrist, I can't write 2 lines without getting uncomfortable... My writing is a mess...

 

So that's why I'm asking you for any tips, any way to change that. I'm ready to totally re-learn how to write, but how ? I've seen that the best position would be to be an under-writer and I really want to lean how to do that. Has anyone already done this "transition" ? How did you manage to do that and how long did it take ?

 

From the little research that I've done, I already know the equipment that I'm going to use : a TWSBI Diamond 580AL and Noodler's Bernanke Blue ink. I've also read that "lefties nib" aren't this useful.

 

Thanks a lot for all of you who read my call for help, and took the time to help me.

 

Greg.

[Torrilin]

I retaught myself how to write in high school (over 20 years ago now) because I couldnt read my own writing. I chose to study italic scripts because they hurt the least and were easiest for me to read. Lefty handwriting instruction tends to be pretty bad and it hasnt improved a lot since I was little. So dont feel bad. And dont focus on what they say is best, very few of us lefties agree on anything.

 

The best thing to do is stick with writing implements that dont hurt and dont annoy you. I havent used Bernake Blue so I am skeptical that Id find it a lefty friendly ink. Many of Noodlers inks dont suit me. And now that I live in the euro zone I find their ink ridiculously expensive. I like quite a few inks from regular cheap European brands and while there are some smeary inks in every ink line theres many good choices too.

 

I do love my TWSBI pens but Id probably suggest the eco over the Al 580. They are both pretty big pens and the 580 is quite expensive. Better to try the cheaper pen first and add a second one if you determine you need a second.

[sidthecat]

Most of my advice is useless because my writing is very eccentric, but I’ll suggest you try Diamine inks, because they dry quickly...very useful to the sinestral writer. Bernanke is a very permanent ink, and I believe it has a long drying time. If you don’t need the permanence, you might find a better alternative.

[Chmara]

After 64 years of frustration ( I started trying script when I was in school at 12) I decided to teach myself not just to write, but to do calligraphy. Now a year later with with help from members here and many many hours of You-Tube watching lefties I feel qualified to offer some advice.

 

1. Do not let the continuing frustration get you down - you will probably need more practice, trial and error than most to create your well received handwriting or calligraphy.

 

2. DO NOT be discourteous to righties who offer advice, Just say thank you and consider they are not acquainted with anatomy, pen engineering and physics of friction points enough to understand we who are blessed with the additional; challenges of left handedness in the mediocre world of righties.

 

3. Remind yourself often that during the past 200 years of the industrial age the demanded conformity to rules of "how to" produced regular, consistent and often well made goods and handwriting in the right handed world. Also remember that often it was those who broke the rules who came up with something new, often better (for them at least) and sometimes got in trouble for it until they demonstrated their unique method worked consistently.

 

4. Do not be afraid to mix left handed methods, turning paper, over, side and underwriting and lifting the pen from the paper at strange intersections to get what you can perceive as good results.

 

5. To this day I cannot fathom myself being a fast writer --when I move quickly my angles go awry, I may smear ink, I close loops in e's and l's, and letters have heights that vary so much in width and height that even I tire in trying to translate the words they compose weeks later.

 

5, If your backwards slant looks good -- use it for clear communication. Otherwise, getting and using guide sheets from the net, along with some practice sheets on letter forms to first trace, then free-hand replicate on those guide sheets may be a good way to create consistency and therefore legibility. I was also very fortunate in that Honeybadgers here in the forums kindly sent me some French Ruled paper -- allowing me to better see and practice slant and height while I try different strokes.per

 

6. WRITE EVERY DAY. If you do practice sheets, or journal, Date each entry or sheet. You will be surprised at the progress you have made, but not on a day to day basis, but after three, six or nine months -- and at a year, since I started on my 76th Birthday, I had two celebrations when I turned 787 -- one for surviving another year one for FINALLY having writing I could read. Day to day I use an F nib and actually leave my loops open in moderately small letters.

 

7. As far as tools go, pens, nibs and inks, there are a lot of decisions you will make, often after trial and failure or success. For day-to-day script I do not need left handed nibs, I prefer lined paper for visual reference lines and stay away from inks that feather as I have found they also do not dry as fact as non-feathering inks do on the cheap paper my budget pushes me into. However, in Calligraphy matters, like Gothic, Blackletter and Uncial, i am having to grind my own slants on broad pens (easy on Parallel Pens by Pilot) and hope to find the right slant for me soon as they can be expensive and have no replacement nibs available.

 

8. Some lefties have magnificent Copperplate and Spenserian hands and have mastered their own techniques with pointed and flex pens without spattering gobs of ink on the paper without having caught the tines in the paper while pushing a slanted upstroke. A skill I must still learn to master.

 

9. You will have to learn to tinker a little with your pens to get the flow you want or need. Patience in smoothing nibs and not "smoothing too much" and moving too quickly the abrasive needed can be avoided by patient stopping and trying each little bit you have smoothed at a time.

 

10. Take all advice and rigid rule instructions with a grain of salt, (except for that of doing regular, self controlled practice sessions that you enjoy). Not even another lefties can solve or help with all the problems and solutions you come up with or make work for you. To this day I wonder how John DeCollibus ever learned to work with paper at 90 degrees from normal -- my brain just don't go that way.

 

11. Do not be too hard on yourself, feeling that every adult can write well -- as those who do write longhand are a generational diminishing minority. Their best handwriting is only produced with fonts on a computer that have little personality or individuality of appearance.

 

I hope this is not too long, or too general. I have spent hours of reading, trying, watching and thinking about left handed (sinister) writing. I have spent too much on books looking for shortcuts -- and have viewed almost every book in our local library system. I have looked everywhere for tools that would help -- even tracked down a reference to a guy who had made an oblique fountain pen holder (not just the nibs) for lefties to use in Copperplate. (He has stopped offering them due to lack of interest for more than a year.) To me, left handed writing depends most on tenacity and help from those who understand that we face slightly different, often imperceptible challenges in EASILY producing letterforms, words and ink flow that is regular.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Gregg

(Note 2 at the end, nick-named 3Gs by some.)

Edited November 2, 2018 by Chmara