How's your handwriting?

[ClassyCo]

When I was a young lad, I had a small dry erase board that I'd sit in my lap and I'd write on it for hours at a stretch. It was always very important to me how my handwriting looked. I always liked how my mother's handwriting looked and I liked how my teachers at school wrote on the dry erase board. I'd write and rewrite things over and over until I got it to look the way I wanted. I spent so much time perfecting my signature and I even invented my own way to write a capital "B" for my last name. It was a big hit with some of my teachers -- who found it "unique" and "pretty" -- but some of them critiqued it as going against the norm of basic cursive. Whatever... to each their own.

My handwriting has slacked off in the past few years, especially since I've graduated high school and I don't write nearly as often as I once did. Working at the bank, I do have to write-up deposit slips and things of that nature, so I've tried to remain consistent and keep my handwriting the way I've always liked it. Sometimes I get too ticky with it and I don't like, but I'd say that, overall, I really like my handwriting. I get compliments frequently on how "pretty" it is and how it's easy to read.

 

[ClassyCo]

Speaking of handwriting:

Like I've said, I work at the bank, and I've had lots of experience as a frontline and drive-thru teller. In that experience, I can't tell you how many "young people" (a lot of them 25 and under) that have quite simply dreadful handwriting and haven't a clue how to sign their names in cursive. I've asked said people before to sign the back of their checks and they look at me like they're a deer staring into headlights. They haven't a clue what "signing" their name even is. I've literally had some of them tell me that they've never even been shown how to "sign" their name in cursive.

It's mind-boggling (at least to me).

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Mark me down, then, as a left-hander who now likes their handwriting.

I can feel myself sliding on this one. The other day I stumbled upon some diaries I'd written three decades ago and my handwriting was so much neater. It looked a little more childlike and less characterful than my current, untamed writing, but it was neat and legible and consistent.

Recently, an acquaintance who is a retired teacher noticed me write something with my left hand and commented that she'd taught her left-handed pupils to angle the paper at 45º (elevated on the left) and write downwards.

In the last couple of days I've been trying some of these tips (except the triangular pen. I'd be up for giving it a go but I'm not in a hurry as I've used one before and found it uncomfortable).

It seems I've been doing my "d"s and "o"s correctly, but I've always crossed my "t"s from right to left. It feels fine to do left to right, but remembering to do it is the biggest challenge.

The most difficult thing for me is the "frogs legs" hand grip, which just doesn't feel at all natural after many decades of resting the pen between my index and middle fingers whilst crossing my thumb straight across.

The muscle memory is quite ingrained at this point, so I don't know if this old dog can be taught new tricks. So far my handwriting isn't going to wow anyone, but I did need to write a card today and it turned out legible and smudge-free when I incorporated some of this method, so I'll persevere and see if it takes.

 

[Daniel Avery]

My writing has also changed over time in small ways, but only because all my life I've kept an eye out for creative/non-traditional ways to write certain cursive letters or combinations of letters and incorporate them into my writing. Just this week I saw a better way to do a cursive capital "O" and have been practicing that, but like others said earlier in the thread, we don't get as many excuses to hand-write things (and keep in practice) as we used to.

 

[Willie Oleson]

My handwriting has deteriorated a little bit because I want to write as fast as I type. That's never going to happen, and without patience it simply doesn't look so great.
Should we do a prettiest handwriting contest?

(only 25 posts removed from the illustrious 20K Club!)

 

[Mel O'Drama]

My writing has also changed over time in small ways, but only because all my life I've kept an eye out for creative/non-traditional ways to write certain cursive letters or combinations of letters and incorporate them into my writing. Just this week I saw a better way to do a cursive capital "O" and have been practicing that

It's very easy for writing to become "fixed" once we leave education, so I'm impressed that you've kept up with constant improvements. I'm sure that's made it easier than attempting to improve after decades of neglect.

My handwriting has deteriorated a little bit because I want to write as fast as I type.

This is an excellent point. Perhaps the neater writing I had a few decades ago was the result of taking more time as much as anything else. It's probably quite telling that when I hand-write these days I'm missing letters with some regularity. That has nothing to do with my spelling - because I know what I meant to write and immediately correct it - and is more to do with the fact that my hand can't keep up with my head.

 

[ClassyCo]

A sample of my handwriting.

 

[Toni]

A sample of my handwriting.

View attachment 59129

Very appropriately classic...