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Handwriting fluency tips - feedback?
Zivio:
I am a novice student of Spencerian script, my objective being to use this script for everyday handwriting and correspondence. I have no illusions of being a Calligrapher (capital “C”), per se, but do hope to improve to the point of my writing to be more than presentable.
Until now my daily practice has been focused on drills, individual letters and single words. I’m at the place where I’ve begun moving forward to “free-writing” (brain to paper) full sentences to begin gaining some fluency in writing. In doing so, I’ve discovered a few things that seem to help if and when I’m able to be conscious of them while writing. Coordinating them all at the same time has been a big challenge, so I decided to write them out as a list of reminders to review before, and periodically while practicing.
I’d love to know if anyone could share feedback on my list and any other thoughts about the kinds of things that have helped achieve greater fluency in your writing. It’s interesting to me how sometimes different descriptions of a complex physical movement can be just what’s needed to learn something helpful!
Here are my reminders:
* Relax. Always.
* Apply a conscious lightening of the forearm on all upstrokes to remove weight from the pen.
* Slow down when producing looped ascenders – take time to make them well - speed can come later.
* Keep wrist straight, slide hand on “finger rest” and use rhythmic push-pull motion to form miniscules, faster on upstrokes. (I am learning solely muscular, whole arm writing movements.)
* Sight a split second ahead of each letter stroke while imagining where it will fall on the page. This is similar to what musicians do when sight-reading music – they constantly look ahead of the notes currently being played.
jeanwilson:
Your list looks like all the things I would recommend.
Here are two more things that you might ponder.
How wide is your paper and are you familiar with the *sweet spot* right in front of your line of vision?
For me - if I try to write on a page that is 8 1/2 inches wide - by the time I am over to the right margin, it's too far away to maintain consistency.
I prefer narrower paper - or I pause and shift the paper left and right to keep my writing in the sweet spot.
I imagine if I wrote in one style for several hours a day - day after day - eventually - I would be able to maintain consistency beyond the sweet spot.
The pausing to shift the paper doesn't feel like an interruption. I actually like pauses even on narrower paper. Sentences often come out as a series of phrases and it feels natural to pause between phrases. Or if I come to a long word - I will pause and focus on the spelling. The number one word that causes me to stop and spell it out is - remember. It's not that long or hard to spell - but, I've written - rember - so.many.times. - that it is a red flag word.
And this is something that took me years to figure out. If I am actually going to mail something to someone - I write a rough draft on notebook paper. I've wasted too much stationery and cringed at the way a few lines came out on a greeting card. I'd rather write it out once to see how it looks and sounds - and then the final is pleasing to my eye.
Zivio:
Thanks @jeanwilson!
I really hadn't considered the *sweet spot* idea, although in retrospect have encountered issues with it, especially on various drills. I typically do write on 8 1/2 inch paper, so your suggestion to shift the paper is a positive contribution for me.
Oooh, and dropping letters from long words -- thought it was just me! My late father, once a WWII fighter pilot, had years ago described to me a phenomenon called "target fixation" - where certain pilots became so intensely focused on a target during bombing or strafing operations they unaccountably crashed into the target itself. Apparently applies to over zealous concentration on letter forms to the point of losing the word. Your tip on writing a draft document in advance may also help to avoid this.
Thanks for your kind response -- you have always been so helpful, and I can often go for six months or more on the seemingly simplest ideas!
InkyFingers:
I am inspired from reading your journey. I wished I was as disciplined as you are when I first started. I’ve always expected immediate results after just a few days of practice. It is now 10+ yrs and I am still learning.
It takes time to develop muscle memory for me and even now I don’t have the perfect whole arm movement down right. They say it takes 10,000 hours to gain world class recognition. I practice 1hr/day for the past 10yrs which equal 2560 hrs?
Btw I enjoyed reading Ms Wilson on the “sweet spot”. I tried not to have one by doing drills that spans the entire page. It is nice and fast to gain a sweet spot but very hard to erase it. I think I created a drill that suits me.
Would you be so kind to let us know which instruction book you follow and possibly a sample of your writing?
Erica McPhee:
Excellent list! One thing that is considered controversial but if you read some of the old masters’ newsletters is the pen lift. Much of the instructional material says not to penlift but may of the masters admit they penlift or I even read in a blurb they were unconscious that they were actually penlifting quite a bit (for Spencerian or Business Writing).
I do quite a bit of pen lifting at the base. Which you would think would slow you down and cause disruption but it actually helps me build a rhythm. And it gives that momentary pause which helps me gather my thoughts for the coming letters. I am a fast writer/calligrapher so it helps me intentionally slow down.
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