The Lost Art of Handwriting

How I re-discovered the pleasure of "a good hand."

I sat down to write a thank-you note to someone who'd done something really nice for me when I was having "one of those days." It took me three tries, not because I couldn't find the words--I am a writer, after all!--but because my handwriting was just awful. Each attempt ended up in the recycling bin.

My words, written in cursive, didn't flow. They lurched this way and that. At times, they petered out before the word ended, particularly words that ended in an or ion. Or just about anything else.

And style? More like a smorgasbord. Take your pick. It's all there.

Believe it or not, I once won a province-wide writing contest for my cursive script. OK, that was in the age of the dinosaurs when we wrote with quill pens...Full confession: I actually learned to write cursive with a bottle of ink and a nibbed pen! And it was indeed ages ago.

It really bothered me that I'd lost this skill. I love sending handwritten notes but now was too embarrassed by my poor hand.

Being a person of action (I'm a Taurus), I scuttled down to the local indie bookstore and, sure enough, found a score of books on handwriting. Seems I'm not the only one looking for help with their penmanship! I selected Brenna Jordan's "The Lost Art of Handwriting." It covers a number of styles and has exercise pages to photocopy. Just the thing I needed.

That was four weeks ago. I practise just about every day, covering up to four 6" X 7" pages. Here's what I've learned makes "a good hand":

Size: Be consistent. Size matters. In cursive, an 'e' can look like an' l,' for example. Here's where practising on multi-lined paper helps, the kind you used in your scribbler when you were learning to print. In Brenna's book, the lines for writing have a solid line along the top and bottom and two dashed lines in the middle. The solid lines set the upper and lower limits for upstrokes and downstrokes. The middle space between the dashed lines sets the boundaries for most lowercase letters.

Slant: Keep your angles consistent. I wrote "fulfilment" over and over and over because it has so many upstrokes and downstrokes. The goal is to keep the slant parallel It's not easy!

Spacing: This one is tough. Keep the spaces consistent between your letters, your words, your lines, even within a letter! Try it--you'll quickly see what I mean.

Style: As I mentioned earlier, my handwriting had deteriorated to the point where it included just about every style under the sun. I started off angular, swelled into loopy, and faded out into...nothing. Not exactly the elegant impression I would like to convey.

At least I was taught the most recommended pen grasp: the "dynamic tripod grasp," where you hold your pen between three fingers: index, thumb, and middle. The index finger points down the pen, which is counterbalanced on the middle finger.

When I was a university professor, I would marvel at the variations of pen grasp I saw when I made my rounds during exam-writing time. The most perplexing one was what I used to call the death grip. It's actually called the "lateral tripod grasp." Instead of pinching the pen between the index finger and thumb as in the dynamic version of the tripod, the writer's thumb reaches over the index finger and the entire hand closes up.

Not surprisingly, this grasp promotes cramping and is very tiring.

I've learned how to choose the correct pen so I can ease up on the pressure in my hand. Fast-drying ink that flows easily helps you loosen up and slow down when you write. I realized that because I have a relatively small hand, I can't write well with a large pen, so I've tried a number of brands and sizes.

As for style, I've experimented with flourishes extreme and moderate--that was fun! I've rediscovered the satisfaction of making a proper 'r' (the one with the chimney and roof) and an 's' with a slight curl at its zenith. And it took a while, but I've developed (re-developed?) a consistent slant. I can now write a paragraph on unlined paper with consistent spacing.

I still have some work to do on some letters and I simply have to get rid of the awkward space I introduce into some words. For example, I have a habit of breaking off after an 'i' when the next letter is a 'v' as in cultivate. And my lowercase 'k' looks more like a stretched-out 'h.' But my handwriting is much improved and I'm regaining the satisfaction of seeing my cursive looking better and better.

If you do something nice for me, I'll send you a thank-you note--in cursive.