Any Tips To Improve Adult Handwriting

[ScottR]

I've played around with a couple of books on handwriting (e.g., Improve Your Handwriting by Rosemary

Sassoon, which I still need to go through), but the emphasis seems to be on learning a whole different way of writing. I think I'm at the point where I don't know that I can relearn the necessary muscle memory, but perhaps that's what I need to do. Mainly, though, are there any references on how to improve my existing habits and lettering, rather than insist I learn a whole new way of forming letters? I'd love to have beautiful writing, but would settle for nice writing that isn't the result of going at a snail's-pace.

Attached is a sample; the last line has some smudges, the result of running the page through a feed-type document scanner when the fountain pen ink I thought had time to dry... didn't.

[Inky.Fingers]

Your writing is similar to a Business Hand. You got all the right stuffs... just needed three things that you can benefit from doing drills.

- push-pull drills, oval with the same slant as your push-pull, and ovals with the same slant as your connecting lines.

[CMaurer]

Just practice! Find what you're not satisfied with, and work on it. The more you work on it, it can only get better!

[Carrau]

I’m not an expert by any measure, but have been working on improving my writing for the past three years. I’m not suggesting this book to you, because you indicated you weren’t looking to learn a new way of writing. However, the Getty Dubay book WRITE NOW helped me to recognize problems with my own writing, so I was able to modify my usual hand by improving spacing, learning some basic repeatable shapes for letters, and eliminating some loops. Looking at your sample, a number of your words look like they have spacing problems between letters. Good spacing makes your words significantly easier to read.

Other things I found that helped, was writing mmmmmmmmmmmmm and uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu with all the letters joined-this helped with rhythm and spacing. This was an exercise I would do several times a day, like when on hold on the phone, trying to make the m’s and u’s as uniform as possible in shape and size and spacing. If you learn to make many of the letters using ovals (abcdghmnopqu), the m and u practice will help with writing most of the other letters. I also made a list of words I found I had difficulty writing or difficulty reading once written. Then, I’d study those words a bit, and try to see what made them hard or bad looking, and try to practice the element that seemed to be the difficulty. I’d then try to choose other words with the same series of letters that were problematical, and made a list of these words as practice words. This would become a permanent list, and I would practice writing the whole list, adding new words and their relatives to the permanent list as I found them. Presently, my list is about a page and one-half long. Some examples for me were acquire, acquiesce, acquiescence, acquisition, acquaintance, aqua, aquifer, aquiferous, aquatic, ax, axe, axon, axonal, axiom, axiomatic (I was crowding the “x” when writing, and this exercise helped me slow down to get the spacing right). There are also words I’ve collected which are long to write, requiring rhythm and attention to spacing, like manumission, Mississippi, reconnaissance, Renaissance, reconnoiter.

There are some threads on this forum which contain sentences and paragraphs purely for writing practice, from which I’ve collected words for my list. During the past three years, I’ve tried to write a practice page on most days. Like anything else in life, it has to be practiced to make permanent improvements, and continued practice to maintain your gains. I don’t aspire to Spencerian or Copperplate writing, but I’ve adapted cursive italic to my hand, and it’s quite legible, fairly uniform, and it usually pleases me to read it on the page. It still looks like my original writing, but much improved.

I think I’ve read somewhere (written by a forensic handwriting analyst) that writing becomes so ingrained/imprinted on our brains, that you can’t really change the basic hand. The brain always wants to fall back on its original patterns. They can be modified or disguised with difficulty, but unless great care is used, the brain reverts to established patterns. So trying to improve our established patterns is probably wiser than trying to learn a completely different way of writing. I’ll hunt around for some of the practice threads on this forum and try to link them for you. I hope this helps a bit.

[Carrau]

Here is a link to one of the Practice threads-there are more if you search.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/261301-difficult-words-practice-sentences/

[Cast]

The things that have helped me the most are:

1. Good posture: sit up straight and don’t lean your weight on the table or lean to the side. Look for some of Antonio the Scribe’s videos on YouTube.

2. Slow down and keep it slow.

3. Practice everyday and several times a day. Even just five or ten minutes at a time. This builds muscle memory. It took me lots of practice and I’m not there yet, though better than a year ago.

4. Watch the connections between letters. The lead off from the first letter sets up the second letter. Try for consistency.

5. Position your paper so that a down stroke comes smoothly down at the slant for your script.

6. In addition to formal practice, write more. Keep a journal, copy poems, etc. This keeps writing in your awareness consistently.

[BDarchitect]

I have found both Write Now and Improve Your Handwriting to be very, very helpful for improving my penmanship. Do the exercises they recommend and once you have mastered their letter strokes you can reintroduce your own personality to the handwriting. It will seep back anyway, but will be much more legible and elegant.

 

In looking at your sample, I would suggest you focus on these changes-

- Keep the bottom of your letters on the baseline. Your sample goes up and down quite a bit.

- Strive to maintain a consistent slant to your letters, whatever feels natural for you. Just do it for all the letters.

- Work on developing a consistent spacing between letters and a size for each letter so they don't crowd or expand unevenly.

- Work on making most of the movements with your whole arm, from the elbow and shoulder, and minimize the use of just your fingers. (Don't know if you are righty or lefty; these are easier to introduce for a lefty underwriter like me who makes more push-pull strokes up and down that more naturally engage the whole forearm). Engaging these larger muscles gives you better writing stamina and overall control once they are fully absorbed into your writing movements.

 

For practice writing, there is always writing letters to friends or far off relatives, and I found copying the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, plus all the amendments, to be both educational and a good exercise. People in other posts have recommended practice writing a foreign language as a way to concentrate on forming the letters more than their meaning.

 

It is going to take at least 1/2 an hour a day, better if at least 1 hour, of concentrated practice (not just taking notes at work, but focused practice) over many months to make the changes. Keep at it and the rewards will be very gratifying!!

Edited April 3, 2019 by BDarchitect

[Carrau]

Here’s a link to another thread with suggestions for practice.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/54127-difficult-words/page-1

[HDoug]

I’ve always thought this blog post by Leigh Reyes to be wonderful advice. “Handwriting: yours, but better”

 

http://www.leighreyes.com/?p=4234

[PAKMAN]

My only advice to you is the same thing I tell myself when mine gets sloppy, Slow Down!

[ScottR]

Thanks for the replies. I'd been journaling daily, trying to be careful, and been a little frustrated that practice didn't make... better.

[Cast]

It takes time. Put a date on the first piece you have. Put it away in a drawer. Practice daily for a couple of months. Pull it out and compare. Don’t get depressed or frustrated. Put it away again. Practice for a couple of more months. Pull it out again. Repeat. At some point you will see some improvement and at the same time somethings may look worse. This is a slow process. If you suddenly took up some sport or martial art. You wouldn’t expect major improvement in just a short time. Handwriting is the same. It is a physical activity, involving major muscles that support the core as well as fine muscles in the hand.

[FlyFast]

When I first got into fountain pens, about 25 years ago, I found a little book call Teach Yourself Better Handwriting by Rosemary Sassoon and G SE Briem. It helped me go from an illegible scrawl to a decent hand that often receives compliments. YMMV

[sidthecat]

I don't have an organized system, but I model my hand on Edward Johnston's, and I go back to my handful of models periodically to see how I'm doing.

[Inky.Fingers]

http://i.imgur.com/l861bjz.jpg

[senzen]

You can give yourself specific goals, like making the letter a consistently look like in the first "can" as opposed to the first "take"; and so on for all letters. My r looked like my i, my u, x and n looked basically the same, it took me a while to decide on a legible form and then generate the necessary muscle memory. I've found I need to be in a more "mindful" or calm state to manage legible handwriting, but eventually I managed.

 

The cool thing about fountain pens is you don't need any muscle strength, so you can relax as you write. In my case spectacular ink colours sure help, in a way I feel guilty about wasting such nice ink on gibberish so I try to improve.