4 ms·

Maybe there's a solution beside typing (and whiteout) to my bad handwriting? Unfortunately, I don't think even a Manhattan Project can solve this one.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25051738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25051738
ddingus 5y ago
Cursive, or printed lettering? My cursive was always terrible! Sometimes, just the initial letter, some squiggles and maybe the end, done! I could read it, but... yeah. When I switched to lettering, I also was beginning to do a lot of detail work with my hands. Basically took everything I had apart. You know, "What's inside?" Most of it went back together. And I switched to lettering because there was just no fucking way. Cursive and I just do not get along. It is fast, but I just do not flow that way at. All. That saw an improvement in writing, but the big one was just knocking out essays. Had one high school teacher who wanted one every week. They would pick a rando topic, and GO! You got about 40 mins to get it said, whatever it was. He struggled to read them, said I should use pencil, and also said don't cut it short for being neat. He wanted the words, however ugly. But do patch it up where I can. So I did. This guy graded them over the weekend and basically wrote back to us. Was a little bit like a message forum. The following Monday we got them back, and all the good stuff was in the margins. Often, he would read excerpts too, for discussion. This was extremely high value to me personally, BTW. On some of mine, he would highlight letter combos that sucked. Would suggest challenge words to emphasize them and if I could pack those into the next go, cool! (And points!) TL;DR: Write every day. I suggest a journal. Write it, glance at it, patch it up a little and keep going. Get a cool book and a great pencil you just want to write with. I bet you will improve in a month being able to go back and see where your writing glitches up here and there. If someone reads it, great. Do what that teacher did. It was fun. I also suggest lettering, no cursive. If you want, upper case only, making capitals bigger. That is how I started. Kept the problem scope down. Roughly a decade after polishing it up, I did half a decade of adult tech training where I put notes, problems, you name it on whiteboards. Nobody ever said they could not read it, and yeah, was still upper case, caps bigger. For techy stuff, you can totally skate on that method. I still use it. If you can weave detail hand work in, say some craft, or hobby, electronics maybe, it could really help. I still do scribble a sort of cursive fast for my own consumption. Fast note taking usually. These days I can almost always record or take pictures so that is fading. But, I gained a little odd skill out of all that, and that is I can usually read most terrible writing! If it has a hint or two in there, mostly right, I am usually good. Can almost always read what doctors write, for example. Good luck. Oh and just care a little. Not much, but form the glyphs your way. Have a way. It counts. Adds up.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  Italic is another option that's sort of between lettering and cursive. In some circles, it's recommended for kids with dysgraphia.
  - ddingus 5y ago
    I agree with that. It also has the advantage of more strokes following ones natural inclinations.
wolfhumble 5y ago
I always had a bad cursive handwriting from early age to young adult. Partly because I just couldn't form the letters nicely, and partly because I had (have) a bump on my middle finger just were I held the pen due to an accident where the finger got stuck when I tried to snag out some peas out of our kitchen drawer for my 'pea, toilet roll, balloon gun'. :-) Not writing as much as before, but still writing the occasional card and such, I one day decided I would try to improve my cursive writing. Not doing any extra training as such, I just started to write a little more slowly and at the same time I made the letters a little bigger and made the loops larger for letters like: f,g,h,l etc. Looks like it has been working out for me, as one day my nephew said: "You have a nice handwriting". I smiled to myself, and thought: "You should only have known". I savored the moment and kept the trick to myself like an old magician. Will let him know though :-) When I write fast and long (seldom), I need to concentrate to keep the letters looking good; but at least I know now that 'I am not just a bad handwriter and that is just the way it is'. So take hope! :-)

DoreenMichele 5y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25051738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25051738

ddingus 5y ago

Cursive, or printed lettering? My cursive was always terrible! Sometimes, just the initial letter, some squiggles and maybe the end, done! I could read it, but... yeah. When I switched to lettering, I also was beginning to do a lot of detail work with my hands. Basically took everything I had apart. You know, "What's inside?" Most of it went back together. And I switched to lettering because there was just no fucking way. Cursive and I just do not get along. It is fast, but I just do not flow that way at. All. That saw an improvement in writing, but the big one was just knocking out essays. Had one high school teacher who wanted one every week. They would pick a rando topic, and GO! You got about 40 mins to get it said, whatever it was. He struggled to read them, said I should use pencil, and also said don't cut it short for being neat. He wanted the words, however ugly. But do patch it up where I can. So I did. This guy graded them over the weekend and basically wrote back to us. Was a little bit like a message forum. The following Monday we got them back, and all the good stuff was in the margins. Often, he would read excerpts too, for discussion. This was extremely high value to me personally, BTW. On some of mine, he would highlight letter combos that sucked. Would suggest challenge words to emphasize them and if I could pack those into the next go, cool! (And points!) TL;DR: Write every day. I suggest a journal. Write it, glance at it, patch it up a little and keep going. Get a cool book and a great pencil you just want to write with. I bet you will improve in a month being able to go back and see where your writing glitches up here and there. If someone reads it, great. Do what that teacher did. It was fun. I also suggest lettering, no cursive. If you want, upper case only, making capitals bigger. That is how I started. Kept the problem scope down. Roughly a decade after polishing it up, I did half a decade of adult tech training where I put notes, problems, you name it on whiteboards. Nobody ever said they could not read it, and yeah, was still upper case, caps bigger. For techy stuff, you can totally skate on that method. I still use it. If you can weave detail hand work in, say some craft, or hobby, electronics maybe, it could really help. I still do scribble a sort of cursive fast for my own consumption. Fast note taking usually. These days I can almost always record or take pictures so that is fading. But, I gained a little odd skill out of all that, and that is I can usually read most terrible writing! If it has a hint or two in there, mostly right, I am usually good. Can almost always read what doctors write, for example. Good luck. Oh and just care a little. Not much, but form the glyphs your way. Have a way. It counts. Adds up.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
Italic is another option that's sort of between lettering and cursive. In some circles, it's recommended for kids with dysgraphia.
- ddingus 5y ago
  I agree with that. It also has the advantage of more strokes following ones natural inclinations.

wolfhumble 5y ago

I always had a bad cursive handwriting from early age to young adult. Partly because I just couldn't form the letters nicely, and partly because I had (have) a bump on my middle finger just were I held the pen due to an accident where the finger got stuck when I tried to snag out some peas out of our kitchen drawer for my 'pea, toilet roll, balloon gun'. :-) Not writing as much as before, but still writing the occasional card and such, I one day decided I would try to improve my cursive writing. Not doing any extra training as such, I just started to write a little more slowly and at the same time I made the letters a little bigger and made the loops larger for letters like: f,g,h,l etc. Looks like it has been working out for me, as one day my nephew said: "You have a nice handwriting". I smiled to myself, and thought: "You should only have known". I savored the moment and kept the trick to myself like an old magician. Will let him know though :-) When I write fast and long (seldom), I need to concentrate to keep the letters looking good; but at least I know now that 'I am not just a bad handwriter and that is just the way it is'. So take hope! :-)