Fountain Pen Lovers With Bad Handwriting

[ANM]

Even though I've done calligraphy, my regular handwriting isn't great but at least I hope it is legible.

[Hooker56]

Good Topic Benay-

 

As you can see mine leaves alot to be desired...but using a FP FEELS so much better. My penmanship with ball point is even worse so why not enjoy it as best I can?

 

Cheers-

 

Clayton

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

My handwriting had become printing with a ball point.

With a fountain pen, it is no longer Chicken Scratch....it is Rooster Scratch.

Something I can read.....others might have trouble, but I don't have to hire a retired English teacher to decypher it.

The slower you write, the more time you have to form a letter.... 15 minutes of practice a couple times a week of practice can improve your hand writing....a couple time a year's practice....is not enough.

 

Show and Tell.

[bobaroo]

I have my usual day to day scrawl, which is akin to something a 6 year old could produce, and then I have my 'trying my hardest' cursive, where my brain and hand go head to head in conflict between trying to think through the word and how the letters should progress to one another, and the laziness factor. I guess my writing is subcursive.

[Tdot]

  On 11/12/2013 at 5:59 PM, benay148 said:

Are there a lot of members that have terrible handwriting but still love fountain pens?

You don't have to be a race car driver to own, enjoy, or appreciate a fancy sports car. In fact you don't even have to be a good driver, just watch the Corvettes and Porsches go by.

As long as it fits your bank account, have fun.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I've stopped worrying about it, at least too much. I fondly believe that my best handwriting should be readable by anyone who can read cursive at all, but I've fooled myself before. I've been unembarrassed enough to put it on display in the "show us" thread, to be seen alongside the much better handwriting of other people. That thread contains ordinary handwriting and fine calligraphy which is better than anything I can do, and I enjoy looking at it.

 

The writing in my journals and notebooks is consistent, and legible to me, but might present problems for someone without experience in reading a wide variety of different hands. If I'm writing something down for someone who I don't know, I generally print.

 

There is one fellow at work whose printing is so bad that most of us have trouble reading it; he doesn't even attempt cursive. This is the one work acquaintance who I actually introduced to fountain pens, lending him a couple. He didn't stick with it, and returned one of the pens; I insisted he keep the other just in case he wanted to try it again some day. They didn't work any magic for his handwriting, unfortunately.

[basterma]

My handwriting is bad because my finger muscles are slightly off axis relative to the finger bones. Fine motor control suffers as a result because the tendons and ligaments flex more to try and get the most strength out of the muscles. The flexibility makes my writing wobbly and complicates consistent writing. Fountain pens seem to lessen the wobble a bit and reduce the strain in my hands.

[Postscript]

Count me in the bad handwriting club. But as bad as it is, writing with a fine pen always makes me feel better about it.

 

Post Script

[bernardo]

  On 11/12/2013 at 5:59 PM, benay148 said:

I just recently started on this forum, and have already learned a ton. I am very new to fountain pens but i can feel the obsession starting. There are many examples of beautiful handwriting on this forum. Are there a lot of members that have terrible handwriting but still love fountain pens?

 

Here's one!

[balson]

my handwriting is terrible. i can read cursive but i was never taught to write it outside of my signature. my handwriting is so bad i have heard it described as looking like a ransom note. its gotten a lot better since i started using fountain pens but mostly i just use fountain pens for drawing.

[kitsrock]

  On 11/12/2013 at 7:18 PM, irrigger said:

 

Thanks for the tip! I think I will try printing afterall

[Keyless Works]

I have terrible handwriting and people have actually told me so on a number of occasions but I really enjoy writing with fountain pens. I have thought about fixing my handwriting but it's a lot of effort and to me it just isn't worth it.

[panpan]

I really like writing badly with a good pen...it's so effortless. In point of fact, my writing has improved marginally since the ink, pen and paper make my writing hand less tired. Still...good thing I'm working on the PhD. I've got the bad handwrting part down well

[Goodbad]

I started with a fountain pen to improve my writing. Like others, I'm relearning cursive, after three-plus decades of printing and typing. My adventure started due to being so embarrassed about my signature. I'm happy to report that in the two-plus years of having some ink on my fingers that my writing has improved, inspite of being two years older and battling essential tremors.

 

We can all aspire to some of those superstars in these forums who will put us all to shame, but it always brings joy to our hearts when we see the result of an excellent nib and a well controlled hand. Kudos to those on FPN who know how always astound us with their skill.

[calhoun tubbs]

When I joined this forum, my handwriting was absolutely terrible. The fountain pen (and ink!) bug bit hard and I'm still on here, though I lurk more than I post. I can say that my handwriting has improved! I wish I had a before pic, but this is what it looks like now:

[HandLikeAFist]

I have possibly the worst handwriting in the world. Hence my FPN name. When a kid, I was moved to private school because I was bored. In my new school, there were two home-rooms for my class. One was run by a dragon who looked like Ivy Compton-Burnett, who had cursive writing charts all over the walls.

 

Cursive, here I come; I had just learned printing, not well, in my old school. But I got the other home-room, taught by a proto-beatnik named Miss Hyman. I saw immediately that I was miles behind in the handwriting stakes, and I told Miss Hyman. Waving her hand airily, she said, "Oh, you'll pick it up."

 

I never picked it up. I write the simplest words, and while they look OK to me, but my closest friends haven't the slightest idea what I have written. FPs help enormously, as at least I can now read my writing.

 

Oddly, neither of my parents could write worth a damn. My mother typed everything, including shopping lists; my father dictated all letters to his secretary.

[I like mango cheesecake]

I started practising good handwriting all the way back since high school. I ended up studying architecture before the advent of computers and good printing was di rigueur if you wanted to be noticed or have that special something that stood out amongst the other students who couldn't print properly.

 

I've continued to practise my handwriting up till today and have studied, informally on my own various italic fonts. It takes a conditioned mindset and wrist to have your letters form consistently. Once it does your handwriting will flow like music.

 

I study this page to further improve my handwriting. It is very similar to some of these examples.

https://www.google.ca/search?safe=active&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=631&q=italic+calligraphy&oq=italic+cal&gs_l=img.1.0.0l7j0i5l3.1151.3925.0.6919.14.13.1.0.0.0.198.1547.3j10.13.0....0...1ac.1.31.img..2.12.1212.Y4DW-gMhmak

Edited November 13, 2013 by I like mango cheesecake

[Fabienne]

  On 11/12/2013 at 6:38 PM, Sandy1 said:

 

http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/scared/scared0016.gif

 

I'm sorry, Sandy1, your hand writing is beautiful. You may not hide behind that couch!

 

As for my handwriting, It's not bad, just meh. I can cut a good lick if I feel like it but usuallsy it's not uniform at all.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Fabienne

[DrCodfish]

  On 11/13/2013 at 12:04 AM, balson said:

my handwriting is so bad i have heard it described as looking like a ransom note.

That got me laughing! Perhaps we need a bad handwriters therapy thread! Or perhpas just a list of "My hand writing is so bad ... " jokes.

 

My hand writing is bad, always has been. I'm a lefty overwriter and when I write it looks like I am trying to hide a hand grenade. So it is curious how much I enjoy FP's and using them. Think how limited your life would be if you only pursued interests which you were 'good' at.

 

Welcome to the bad handwriters club.

[oregano]

Wow, I feel so much better about my handwriting now. I actually started feeling bad about it (after years of complaints from my mother) when 90% of the comments I got from students is that they couldn't read my comments on their papers. Using an FP has helped a lot, but I noticed that my handwriting gets a lot less legible when i'm using a fine nib.