When I take out one of my fountain pens, people often remark that if I have such a pen, I must write very beautifully. Unfortunately, however, a beautiful pen and a special nib alone are not necessarily enough to create elegant letters, as many of you have probably experienced.
I first picked up a fountain pen at the age of nine, at that time in third grade, we had to write with it at school. Although it was much more interesting than a pencil, and you could use all sorts of colorful inks, somehow my handwriting did not become more refined. In fact, every little mistake, slip-up was even more visible on the paper, and there was the accidental smudging of ink, the blobs, the difficult-to-start scratching of the writing at the top of the page... But at least in third grade, I could produce legible writing.
During my university years, I also enjoyed writing by hand, I was able to produce good notes, cheat sheets, and well-developed topics this way, but unfortunately, as the years went by and I took many notes during lectures, my handwriting began to become completely illegible. Over time, I could barely decipher my writing, then I completely gave up and started taking notes on a laptop. I didn't particularly enjoy this, I found it harder to highlight the main points, I wrote down more jumbled sentences, but at least I could read it even when I couldn't remember the material from the lecture during exam periods.
Then life turned out in such a way that I became a teacher, so at least I had to write in an acceptably legible manner on the board. A few bullet journals later, I became increasingly interested in handwriting, and I returned to the world of fountain pens and inks. Fortunately (if you ask my wallet, it would probably say otherwise...) there is a Pen Shop, where I could buy a few new inks, paper, or possibly a pen even in a short hour.
I practiced all kinds of calligraphy, and I really became capable of writing beautifully – very, very slowly. However, a long road led to the lasting development and complete transformation of my handwriting, and without regular practice, the old bad habits tend to come back even to this day. However, there are a few exercises that have accumulated over the years, partly related to calligraphy, partly from techniques learned online, and partly from my own experiences, which I strive to share in this article, and I hope it will help many improve their existing handwriting or develop a completely new writing style.
Not specifically writing – warm-up exercises
- Before we start curling beautiful, uniform letters on paper, it is important to check our environment. Ideally, we sit at a table, with both feet on the ground, and the tabletop at a comfortable height. It’s good if there’s not a lot of clutter, and we can easily fit our paper or notebook, and we can move our hands and arms comfortably.
- It is important to warm up the hand, to move the fingers. It will be harder to write beautifully with stiff, tired hands, or hands that have recently done physical work. A little massage, shaking, moving the fingers together and individually really “gets” the fine motor skills going. They can do this with both hands, it’s interesting to observe the differences we perceive during the exercises.
- The correct grip of the pen: there is a conventional ideal to strive for, but it is not mandatory. If someone has been writing by hand for a long time, they may have a completely ingrained, very strange, but maximally effective way of holding the pen, which they can keep. However, it should be examined whether our hand gets tired if we write for a longer period, whether we feel discomfort, cramping, or if there is any finger that completely turns white while writing. If any of these occur, it is worth trying the standard grip, where the index and thumb pinch from above, and the ring finger supports the pen from below.
- If our hand is already warmed up without the pen, we can proceed to warming up with the pen. This is important for two reasons: we can ensure that the pen is gripping, charged, and functioning properly, and the hand gets used to holding the pen so that even the first lines can be written with easy, elastic movements. We can draw circles, small parallel lines, loops, eights, straight, or tilted at the angle we would like our cursive writing to be (between 50-60 degrees is comfortable for most people).
Specifically writing – redesigning handwriting
5. Finding our favorite font – actually, after the above warm-up, everything is ready for us to produce our most beautiful writing. However, if this still does not fill us with satisfaction, it is worth looking at some calligraphic alphabets and choosing the one we like the most among the cursive writings. On this link there are some examples, but feel free to search the internet.
6. ABC exercises – Once we have the “idea” we want to strive for, there is nothing left but to practice. It is advisable to start by repeating the lowercase and uppercase alphabets to get used to the new font.
a.) Let’s start with the lowercase letters! Write a line of nice, precise a letters and choose the five best ones from the line. Let’s see why these turned out to be the best. Observe how they resemble the sample alphabet and where they still need improvement. Write another line, keeping the experiences from the previous line in mind. If we want to be very conscious, let’s proceed slowly, exhaling on the downward strokes and inhaling on the upward strokes. Repeat with the other lowercase letters as well. Yes, one by one, practicing at least 2 lines with each.
b.) Write down the entire alphabet side by side, let’s see if we remember each letter well.
c.) Write down the entire alphabet connected, as if it were a single word. Pay attention to the connections, observe where it is necessary to lift the pen, and maintain an even, narrow distance between the letters.
d.) Vary the distance, let one line be more spacious, one line denser, but this should be a conscious consideration, not a matter of chance.
e.) We repeat the above steps with capital letters as well, of course without the connections, but striving for the same accuracy.
7. Once the ABCs, connections, and distances are going well, the text can come! Diary, bullet journal, shopping list, a sweet message to someone dear… let’s seize every opportunity to practice handwriting! When writing longer texts, let’s remain conscious throughout, paying attention to the distances between lines, words, and individual letters, and try to keep them uniform down to the bottom of the page. Let’s review the letter shapes again and again in our original reference ABC that we selected.
8. Let’s be patient with ourselves! If we make a mistake, cross it out with a decisive line, don’t shade it, and move on! With time and conscious practice, the mistakes will become fewer.
I hope these tips will help many improve their handwriting or even completely redesign it!
