How To Write Properly With A Fountain Pen

[wolf4]

Hi

 

I came across an article written by Dyas A. Lawson on "Tips for improving your handwriting". This is the site: http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html

 

Here are some of the lines she wrote:

 

"Concentrate on keeping wrist-hand-fingers largely stationary and in proper alignment.

 

Remember: Your fingers should move very little and your wrist even less. Your forearm does most of the guiding, while your shoulder provides the power.

 

To get a feel for the proper muscles (and start training them correctly), hold your arm out in front of you, elbow bent, and write in the air. Write big. Use your arm and shoulder to shape letters; hold your forearm, wrist and fingers stationary and in writing position. You’ll feel your shoulder, arm, chest and some back muscles doing most of the work.

 

As you’ve probably surmised, the "right muscles" are not those in the fingers. You must use the shoulder-girdle and forearm muscles."

What I found slightly depressing was that in order to write with a fountain pen I would have to use the other muscles, the shoulder girdle muscle and forearm muscles and not use the finger muscles. I know it requires practice but really, no finger muscles at all? Trying to write properly I find it very difficult.

 

I am now wondering whether it is okay to use a little of the finger muscles or none at all. Writing without any finger muscles means that my whole arm is doing all the shifting and moving around and it really looks and feels awkard. Is this correct?

 

So I think my question is am I doing it right by having my whole arm moving like a peice of wood while keeping the fingers rigid with no movement whatsoever? The whole process feels stiff.

 

wolf4

Edited December 31, 2009 by wolf4

[jgrasty]

IMO, the notion that the fingers only grip the pen is flawed. The fingers are used for fine control, the muscles of the arm and shoulder are for large movements.

 

That being said, you certainly don't want your fingers doing all the work. That's very tiring.

[AD356]

There is alot of different views on this and other way proper writing should be done. IMO this is the correct way to write but I am just learning. It will at least be the way I will try to write. There was a discussion about this here.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=132500

 

Thanks for the post.

[Dr Lopez]

Hi

 

I came across an article written by Dyas A. Lawson on "Tips for improving your handwriting". This is the site: http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html.

 

 

Please remove the dot . after the link, otherwise it won't work properly and many people won't get to read the subject paper you want to discuss.

[sallywally]

I have very small writing and use the fine muscle control all the time for my normal script. I've used this for taking class notes, minutes of meetings, etc., and my fingers have survived well, so fatigue isn't a problem for me.

[lynxcat]

i've seen similar advice in a lot of vintage (early 1900's) handwriting manuals and textbooks, and IMHO i for one can't begin to follow it. it may be fine advice if you do all your writing on large pieces of paper neatly laid out on spacious, otherwise empty desks --- which many of those same manuals also recommend --- but that's a luxury i don't have in this century any more. most of my writing gets done in small (often pocket-sized tiny) notepads held freehand, or crammed into a corner of a very cluttered desk; i don't have space to let my arm and shoulder do all the writing, i have to rely much more on my fingers.

 

the household to-do list is written in whiteboard marker on a letter-paper-sized piece of whiteboard stuck magnetically to the side of the fridge --- mounted vertically, of course, at just below face level. i dare anyone to write with mostly arm and shoulder movement on that.

[gross]

Old habits die hard. My writing is not what is described in the article. When I have tried the method described, I tend to write very large letters which really limits the numbers of words on a sheet of paper. While I am sure that a great deal of practice would improve this situation, I find greater success writing with my old, habitual style which uses mainly hand and fingers. I'm not in a position to say what is the right way to write, but I know what is the right way for me.

 

Good luck with the shoulder-arm-no-hand-or-finger-movement style. After several years of consistent, dedicated, daily practice it won't seem so awkward. May be.

[wolf4]

Thanks everyone for your input on the subject. It is very late for me right now in Italy so it will be a short reply. I have been trying my best to use just the forearm and shoulders, and I know that it would take time to learn, but I really I do find it impractical.

 

"lynxcat" really hit the nail on the head. He voiced exactly what I was experiencing. More often I am using the fountain pen for writing on A4 size paper or moleskine notebooks and the desk itself will be a bit clutered. I find it very inconvenient to start swinging my full arm around as if I was doing a large scale drawing.

 

I agree with "lynxcat". For me, it is as if everything has to be neat, spacious and prepared and I don't have the room to start swinging my whole arm around. I had several books on the desk at once, language books, and I need them all for quick reference and to just start swinging my whole arm up, down and to the side seemed too much for me. I didn't have the room for it.

 

I'll try to use less of the fingers but I don't know, it seems very demanding for me at the moment to start swinging that arm about.

 

Thanks for all of your thoughts on this.

[Djehuty]

I don't think you have anything to worry about. Shoulder-writing isn't the One True Way. I had to work to correct bad habits from years of writing with ballpoints, but shoulder-writing never worked out for me. I use mostly my wrist and fingers. Unless you're learning calligraphy (in which case defer to the instructions and ignore my advice ), I'd say go with what works, and not what someone else says is "correct."

[PAKMAN]

My shoulder writing is too big and thin for most of my normal writing. I guess I'll just stick to the wrist and fingers method, I've used all my life.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Having Doctor's Hen Scratch...unfortunatly only got the Dr's handwriting, not the degree.

I'm interested now in making my writing readable. One of the things I read was to move the paper with the other hand.

 

Some where else was that one should write on a slightly slanted surface. And if your "Desk" is so crowded, it is because that is the way you wish it. I know. Every month or two, my desk gets cleaned off.

 

 

Back in Silver Dollar Days, there were still some of the old fashioned school desks, that slanted just a little bit. Eventually there were none.

 

It appears what is necessary is a properly padded slanted writing board. What degree of slant I don't know.

 

Even if you do not go make or find one, there is no excuse but laziness, that says my desk is too crowded to find a place to write. A key board can be leaned up against a wall, little things can be put away...where you can not find them....unless you know where you always put it.

 

Caliken has a simple method of putting his forefinger on the top of the fountain pen, that lowered the pen into the web of the thumb. I think it helps take the cramping fingers, out of writing. (This should be Penned because I can not copy the pictures from the file that I copied to my computer back into the com.)

 

I can insert the written description if some one wants. How ever, with pictures it is so simple.

I learned it quickly and am over 60, so the old dog learned a new trick. I can switch back and foth between this or the old three finger pinch, as I will.

 

A Fountain Pen is not a Calligraphy pen, and should not be held at 45 degrees like a Calligraphy pen or a ball point pen. The nib design allows or perhaps even requires a different angle than holding a Ball Point Nail. As a Noobie, I think a fountain pen should be held in the web of the thumb, and the piece of paper pulled.

 

Those ideas appear to me to have merit.

[born t]

Well, if you have very small handwriting like mine, with the main body of each letter only 0.6 - 0.7 mm tall, then you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to use the arm and shoulder as a primary means of writing. I'll stick with my finger, wrist and arm combination, which has served me well in both writing and drawing.

[sokuban]

the household to-do list is written in whiteboard marker on a letter-paper-sized piece of whiteboard stuck magnetically to the side of the fridge --- mounted vertically, of course, at just below face level. i dare anyone to write with mostly arm and shoulder movement on that.

 

I'm confused. I've never tried it, but in a situation like that writing vertically on a wall, it should be difficult to /not/ use mostly arm and shoulder movement.

 

I use almost 100% arm and shoulder movement when I am comfortable writing. Of course in this world today there are lots of times when I'd have to write in a more inconvenient position, but there is nothing much I can do about that. It was weird at first, but after you get used to it, it is a lot more comfortable, and you can write for a much longer time.

 

Also, you are writing in cursive correct? I cannot use this technique with printing, and I have no clue about Italics.

[Brerarnold]

If you have a golf swing that is not working well for you -- a bad slice, say -- then you go to a golf teacher and tell him you want a better swing. He watches you swing for a while, and then describes some changes you need to make to straighten out your swing. You try them once or twice and then say "but it doesn't feel right."

 

Of course it doesn't feel right. It's not what you are used to doing. You would have to practice that new golf swing for an hour or so, every day for a couple of weeks before it felt right.

 

When you start using the "shoulder method", it won't feel right. Also, your letters will be bigger, because you are used to using your shoulder for big movements. But if you practice every day for a few weeks, it will start to feel better. And you will find that you attain better control; you will be getting used to using your shoulder for finer and finer movements. Your letters will get smaller and smaller.

 

I believe that some finger movement will always occur, and even be necessary. But most of us don't need to be told that; we do it already. So the handwriting teachers don't bother mentioning it.

 

As someone pointed out, we are talking about penmanship, not calligraphy. If anyone can direct us to a method of penmanship that depends more on fingers and wrist, and less on arm and shoulder, I would like to see a link for it. I haven't seen it yet.

 

I can't say that I'm the perfect practitioner of this system. I use too much finger control still. But I sure noticed the difference when I started using the shoulder method, and stuck with it.

 

If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you always had.

[sirksael]

I started beginning of this year writing in the way described in the article, although I also switched from underhand to overhand at the same time. I practice at least a few times a week, and I'm only now at the stage where I can write in that way fast enough to take some notes during a meeting for example.

But I guess that is normal, as it took a long time to learn how to write in school as well.

And one thing is for sure, it has immensly improved my handwriting.

I started keeping a blog about it, but I stopped updating it after a while as no one was reading it. But it still contains some useful info on how to get started:

the blog

[John Cullen]

Wolf4---Let me add one small description of what I do and the result. I plant my forearm, sort of reach left with the nib and then work back to the right. Then I move my forearm and go through the whole thing again. My wrist and fingers do all the work.

 

However, here is the negative result of that. Because of my method-----and the fact I throw out my elbow------- I am always turning the nib on the paper. The result of this is that there is sometimes a catch on the nib because I do not have the tipping centered on the paper.

 

Some nibs tolerate this well, some (say the Lamy 2000) not as well. Whenever I send a pen in to Richard Binder I remind him of my "posture" and ask for the nib to be as tolerant of angle as possible, both in the sense of angle of attack and turning in and out. He really does a great job making the nib tolerant of my bad posture.

 

So.... I only know that writing the way I do makes things harder. I imagine the moving arm method with the elbow closer to the body really is preferable. Just my one personal story.

Edited December 31, 2009 by John Cullen

[Ernst Bitterman]

From the teaching part of my life-- writing on a vertical surface is ALL shoulder. In that context, large is fine.

 

When writing on paper, I try to use the point where my forearm contacts the edge of the table as a pivot point, turning my whole arm into a bit of a pantograph. The shoulder drives the action, the elbow is the working joint, and except for the occasional florish the fingers are entirely devoted to supporting the pen. My letters average about 3mm high without ascender/decender, so there's no demand to involve the tiny muscles for tiny writing. Consider the fine gradations of input made with your foot as it rests atop a gas pedal....

[Paddler]

Don't worry about it! Write the way you feel comfortable. The only time you might want to use your whole arm is when you want to make strokes that are too large and sweeping for your fingers and wrist. You also need to use a lot of arm if you are using a sharp italic nib. In that case, using your fingers and/or wrist will cause the nib to cut or catch on the paper because of the changing angles the pen makes.

 

Paddler

[wolf4]

Thanks to everyone for your input here. I have to say I am undecided about it all. I am not writing with any special nib or pen, it is just with an ordinary fountain pen for everyday writing. I am not doing calligraphy.

[Silvermink]

I usually rest my hand on the paper, so writing with my whole arm is kind of tough. My desk is high enough that trying not to rest my hand on the paper would be mighty uncomfortable.