Atrocious handwriting! Has anyone managed to improve theirs?

[Whatthediddlyfeck]

My hand writing has never been beautiful but has always been at least legible…until the past year or so. Now I feel that my hands don’t know how to form letters, or if my head knows, the message doesn’t get through to my fingers.
like most people these days my job involves very little writing but a lot of typing so I’m way out of practice.I’ve always had really good manual dexterity, some a lot of fiddly crafty things, but my hands just don’t seem to know what to do any more! No pain or obvious stiffness, but they just don’t know what to do!
Has anyone else who’s experienced this been able to make an improvement? Is it just practice and writing stuff over and over? I don’t feel I can write more than 2 Christmas cards legibly!

I get like this when I'm run down. For me it's a sign of low thyroid and adrenals. If I adjust my thyroid dose up, or leave it the same but get more sleep and take my supplements, my handwriting improves. Spooky!

This is a general trend though I think. Nobodies handwriting looks attractive these days anymore (apart from Amanda on The Traitors, which is why I partially think why she was picked to be a Traitor and the one to write the murder notes) because everyone is now texting and typing. Human fingers don't work in the same way. It's down to evolution and social trends. There are more children that leave primary school these days and don't even know the alphabet, or how to write their own name, never mind having nice handwriting.

@WishIWasACavewoman thats really interesting re the thyroid, mine is under active (has been for years) and unconsciously I’ve been way less than religious about taking my meds, probably for the past year or so….

You can buy a cursive handwriting book for adults/teens. Give that a try. You'll improve in no time.

My handwriting is ok, if I say so myself. I've done calligraphy since I was a girl. You'll find there's a few of us on here - remembering past threads.

My handwriting was wrecked by 3 different schools in 4 years, each of which taught and expected a different style of handwriting.

So it was never great shakes anyway, and after many years of typing virtually everything except perhaps birthday cards, I had a real problem when eventually faced with OU exams - 4 essays to be handwritten in 3 hours!

I just had to practise writing - legibly! - at length. At first my hand would literally ache, but I did get there.

I’m exactly the same. My handwriting was never great, but the fact that I have barely hand written anything other than my signature since I left university 20+ years ago means that it’s now embarrassingly bad. Like any learned skill, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
I should probably practice handwriting or join some sort of class but I’d feel a bit of a prat telling a teacher and a room full of adult literacy students that I have two university degrees but I can’t actually write…

I used to teach literacy to adults, and improving handwriting was a common request. It is very hard to do as an adult. Students would do all the exercises beautifully but maintaining good handwriting whilst writing normally, for more than a few lines, is a different matter.

Contrary to a previous post, I actually think younger people’s handwriting is better than my generation’s because after the introduction of the national curriculum, handwriting was taught properly at school, when children were still young enough to form good habits, whereas in the hippy 60’s & 70’s that was considered an assault on individuality and creativity!

It’s definitely worth investigating the medical issue suggested above, but otherwise, I think I’d look at ways around it: only write two Christmas cards before you take a break; send e-cards; type everything else.

Although most people type and text these days (me included), I still use handwriting a lot for taking notes of meetings, for myself to keep track of follow up actions. I can still write pretty fast and vaguely legibly, at least to myself.

Note taking is probably a lost art. I notice hardly anyone does it except more old school colleagues like myself.

Poor handwriting is an obvious sign of low thyroid levels, you can make yourself very ill by not taking your medication as instructed! Start with that, you'll feel better too!

On it! Will make a very conscious effort now!

I knew the thyroid affects many things but would NEVER have thought about my writing-so glad I started this thread!

I love how the human brain works sometimes — "You must remember to take your medication because of serious long-term consequences for your health and well-being if you don't": not terribly effective. "You'll have nicer handwriting…": THAT'S IT I'M DEFINITELY TAKING IT 🤣 (No criticism intended of you, OP, I'm definitely the same way inclined )

I was told this month that I have very "grown up handwriting".

My handwriting has always been dreadful. It's not the first compliment in the last couple of years.

I can only assume that everyone else has deteriorated to an awful extent for mine to be suddenly admired!!

🙈😂

What often happens to me is that people tell me my handwriting is beautiful, then ask me what it says because they can't read it. I tend to use more traditional handwritten letterforms that don't always correspond that well to print forms, so people unused to reading older handwriting sometimes can't decipher it. If I'm handwriting and know others will need to read it, I tend to substitute with more print-like/modern letterforms.

I had terrible handwriting as a child due to poor fine motor control (never got my pen licence, just moved to a school where everyone used pens ), then when I was in my teens decided I'd like nicer handwriting and used my more mature hand muscles to relearn handwriting over a summer holiday, by writing and rewriting alphabets and practising handwriting. A few years after that I taught myself to write with the correct tripod grip, and now I alternate grips if I have to write for sustained periods (e.g. my 6 hour university exams). Every few years I'd make small modifications and change the way I wrote certain letters, especially capitals, so I can adjust according to aesthetics, or speed, or ease of reading for the print-habituated.

There’s nothing worse than illegible handwriting. I literally don’t know how some people function. I often wonder can they even read their own writing! 🤣

But You can do it OP!

It does take practice. Get a pen, handwriting paper and learn learn learn! Practice practice practice.

Has anyone else who’s experienced this been able to make an improvement? Is it just practice and writing stuff over and over? I don’t feel I can write more than 2 Christmas cards legibly!

Yes. It's what many of us calligraphers do to keep at the same standard or improve. Different scripts over and over.

It's the only way to improve. You have done very little writing as you said.

Meds taken this morning and moved to a very prominent place in the kitchen! I’m going to get into the habit of doing some writing practice every day though-hopefully this is redeemable!

My mind is actually boggled that this might be connected to my thyroid though-kick up ass re my meds deserved and accepted!!

I had to google to confirm but I do use the tripod grip so I’ve at least got that going in my favour!

I have a serious stationery fetish anyway so have the world’s biggest supply of pens and notebooks to practice with 😁

There's nothing like the joy of a new notebook-that's-too-nice-to-use.

I want to hear how it goes OP. I have terrible handwriting and need to work on it. Maybe I can find something online to follow to relearn. And I think I just need to practice.

OP, definitely get on the case with your thyroid meds, for reasons much more important than writing! You might also want to try pregnenolone supplements, if you're a bit (or a lot) peri, or menopausal. My handwriting is the way I know I've forgotten to take them - my hand just wants to do wiggly lines across the page if I do. It's a canary in the coal mine - if you can't write, think what other things are also struggling.

You’re absolutely right-definite wake up call! I’ve no idea why I’ve not been taking them-I’ve been on the meds for over 20 years!! Idiot! (Me not you obviously 😂)

I have a couple of penpals. Even now, in 2022. So I get to practise my handwriting every so often there. Reading and writing letters is also really relaxing!

I run a small business where I hand write a personal note with each parcel. Funnily enough those notes are reasonably neat…but my day to day handwriting is abysmal.

For me it takes a real effort and focus to write neatly.