My handwriting sucks

[Cuddly]

It's so frustrating. I don't know what to do. I'm so ashamed that I avoid it, if at all possible.

If something needs to be written, I'll make sure it's my husbear or lab partner or whomever I'm doing whatever with who does the writing. My handwriting is disgustingly bad.

I cannot stand it. I want to fix it. So I went to youtube and sought out some guides, tips and tricks.

One video with a sweet old lady told me to start by writing zig-zags. Vertical line, diagonal line to next letter, vertical line, diagonal line repeat.
I can't even do that. They get uneven immediately. They either go sloped, to uneven heights or the spacing changes.

When I do write my bottom line is wobbly, my letters are all over the place and I make numerous mistakes that I then correct and make it even worse, visually.
For the sake of it, I took a paper and wrote "my handwriting is disgusting, with no mistakes, save the mt. Everest bottom line and the changing size of the letters.
I continued to write "Help! me please", which already included a mistake. I wrote "pla" so I fixed the a by writing and e on top of it and now the page is a mess.

I don't want to have a bad handwriting anymore... I wish I could go back to 2nd grade and improve.
Any tips?

In a perfect world of infinite time I'd take a long writing course, I guess, but my time is already consumed by my studies and the few hobbies that survived the culling.

[kindy64]

Cursive writing or printed?

I think the only way to get better is to practice. But in that, it's not just practicing your currently sloppy way of doing it, it's learning the correct way and practicing it.

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Vince Lombardi
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quote...38158.html

[Sherman8D]

Hello,

I'm actually very curious why you haven't developed adequate handwriting skills.

I think there are some paper booklets that allows one to trace letters. Those are for children, but you can obviously use those. It's not like anyone will know you do. Practice does make perfect, or close enough.

It could be a brain or muscle thing affecting your finger coordination or something like that. It's definitely in the realm of possibilities.

Good luck with all that.

[matty7]

who are you comparing against ? my handwriting is horrible too but i made my piece with that a long time ago - despite the jokes when i send a greetings or birthday card ..turns out my nephew and i write exactly the same - is it hereditary ??? do any of your relatives write similar to you ?

[IanSaysHi]

I found, as kindy said, all about practice. My handwriting growing up was a nasty hasty scribble. Everything changed when I was a waiter when I was 18 and found out they paid someone £20 to write the menu chalkboards. I decided that £20 was mine. I literally spent time slowly DRAWING each letter, with fluid curves and swirls. Trust me I wobbled all over the place and until you do it a number of times and build up the recognition/repetition it's not perfect but luckily I was working with chalk so if I made a mistake I rubbed it out and did it again. What I soon found was writing prettily for the menu boards started to merge into my handwriting and it's stuck ever since; people compliment me on it when they see it (unless I'm in a rush, in which case it becomes scrawly again). Even if practicing writing letters is boring, maybe also try drawing, doodling or even those adult colouring books just to get your hand/mind practicing being more precise and fluid.

[Darius]

Go to YouTube and type in "children learning to write cursive. There you will find videos showing the use of lined tablets and how to keep your letters uniform and correct sizes.
It sounds like you might just need to start at first grade level. Don't let that bother you. Do what you have to do to improve something that is bothering you.

[LJay]

I would look for a tutor who deals with specific learning disabilities. At the very least such a person could help you to understand your difficulty and should be able to point you in the direction of correcting it.

Have you tried printing instead of cursive writing?

When I was a kid adults would tell me that since I had bad hand writing I was going to grow up to be a doctor. That was a common joke, but I do notice that my doctor has bad hand writing.

[Bookworm]

Despite your messy handwriting, are you comfortable with the hand you write with?

One of my friends was naturally left-handed, but for some inexplicable reason, his teacher in Primary School made him write with his right hand instead, so he has gone through life as an awkwardly messy right-hand writer, and has just got used to it now.

I think it's just going to take practice, and lots of it I'm afraid. I like Ian's method though, perhaps a similarly creative approach could work for you too?

[MHJG]

Like all others said, what you need to do is to practise.

I wish I could go back to 2nd grade and improve.

You're right. Try to write like you were in 2nd grade.

I was lucky to have a strict Chinese teacher when I was in P.4. He required us to have a good handwriting in homework. Otherwise, he erased all the answer, and we had a detention to redo all the homework until he approved our handwriting.

In the very first beginning, you have to write as if you're an infant the first time to write. The key point is to write very slow. Later you start to learn others' handwriting that you like. Just spend 15~30 minutes every day to copy some articles. Practising calligraphy helps your handwriting to have own style.

[Borg69]

Take a calligraphy class