5 Steps to Improve Your Handwriting

Follow these steps to improve your handwriting and become more confident when writing. Just like all things, it requires a lot of practice and a lot of patience.

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I was pretty lucky throughout high school. I naturally have decent handwriting. But, I’ve also always wanted to change my handwriting. There was a phase where I wrote in all capital letters. Then I tried cursive– definitely not my thing. I’ve attempted to make my letters more bubbly or sharper. It’s occurred to me that since I was young, I’ve always been trying to find ways to better my handwriting.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR HANDWRITING

Just recently I decided I wanted to change my handwriting again. So, I’m going to show you the steps I take to do it. If I’m being honest, it’s not easy. It takes a lot of commitment and focus. But if you are set on having better handwriting, it is possible. You can improve your handwriting by following these steps and staying consistent.

Find Inspiration

Whether it be someone else’s handwriting or a fun font you saw online, you can draw inspiration from anywhere. Look at billboards, magazines, or even the back of your kids’ cereal box. Really make an effort to pay attention to letters. How do they look and what makes them stand out to you?

For calligraphy styles I use DaFont.com. You can browse thousands of fonts in different styles. Once you find a font you like and want to try, click on it. On the page that opens, scroll down. There are examples of every letter, upper and lowercase for that specific font. Another useful tool on this site is the ‘custom preview’. You can type in word(s) and it will display a preview of what the word(s) would look like in that font.

You can also find handwriting inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram. Do a few searches for ‘handwriting’ or ‘serif/san serif’. Pull up searches on ‘journaling’. All of these options will help you find a style that works for you and that you like. PS: I absolutely love @craftydeesigns handwriting. I look at her feed regularly and take a lot of time studying her letters.

Choose the Right Supplies

It may seem unimportant, but your writing tool and paper matter. There is a big difference between how a ballpoint pen writes, and how a fine tip pen writes. Do take note, this is a completely personal preference. Even if everyone you follow on Instagram seems to use the Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens, it doesn’t necessarily mean that will work for you. You may have to try a few before you find one that feels right and makes writing nearly effortless.

I personally like to use a pen with at least a 0.3mm nib. I think the thicker lines make my writing look cleaner and you don’t notice any shaky lines or oopsies. My favorites are Sakura Micron 0.3mm, Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, and Stabilo Point-88.

As far as paper goes, there is a difference. But, unless you are willing to buy multiple notebooks and then select one based on the paper texture and color, you are going to have to wing it a little. I have a Leuchtturm1917 and a Nuuna. The paper in these two notebooks is night and day. The Leuchtturm paper is off-white and smooth, but the Nuuna paper is bright white and SUPER smooth. And my handwriting is definitely different in each. So, don’t get too caught up in the notebook. You can try out more than one, but I wouldn’t recommend throwing out your current journal just to try something with different paper.

Practice Drills

One of the biggest and most obvious tips is to just practice, practice, practice. Write out the alphabet in upper and lowercase letters 2-3 times. You can also practice writing pangrams, which is a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet.

Pangrams to write:

“A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

“Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”

“Two driven jocks help fax my big quiz.”

“The five boxing wizards jump quickly.”

I highly suggest you do this every day for at least a week or two. Just like any sport, you have to practice consistently to get better. You aren’t just going to just wake up with better handwriting; sorry.

Don’t Change Too Fast

So, you found a style you really like. You are practicing it every day, doing drills, writing pangrams, etc. Then you decide you want to add some serifs or change the way your uppercase letters look a week later. STOP! DON’T! This is where a lot of people who are trying to improve their handwriting fail. Master the writing you started with before trying to change anything.

I know it can be tempting to try out seventeen different styles, but I promise you, it will only cause you grief. See, practice and drills are what will get your hand used to writing in a certain way. The goal is to make your dream handwriting your natural handwriting. You want to get so accustomed to writing in a certain style that you don’t have to concentrate as hard or go as slow. But, if you go and change it while you’re still in the process of learning a new style, you’re going to backtrack.

Stick with the same style for at least a month. Get to a point where you are comfortable writing in that style naturally. At that point, you can add some flair or work on perfecting certain aspects.

Embrace Your Handwriting

This is another area where I see people struggle and give up. They hate their handwriting, try to change it, get frustrated, and quit. While I totally understand the frustration and wanting to have Tumblr perfect handwriting, I also understand that it takes a lot of time to change a habit you have probably had for years and years.

Don’t give up and stop practicing and writing just because you aren’t happy with the way it’s looking. Keep practicing the alphabet. Use the same notebook for your alphabet drills and then periodically look back at your progress. Chances are, you are making changes. They may not be big, but progress is progress. And, not to be a Debby Downer, but it’s highly unlikely that your handwriting will ever look identical to the font you found online. EVER! You will have a bit of personal style that sets your writing apart from a computer generated font or the script of a person online. Embrace those characteristics. Own them and make them yours. Handwriting is such a personal thing, and just like your personality or fashion style, you have to embrace the uniqueness of it.

Share your handwriting story with me in the comments below. Do you like your handwriting? Have you come up with a strategy to improve your handwriting?

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