Having trouble with my handwriting

Yes. I think it is simply lack of use. I’m making an effort when I write my reminder notes, etc.

My Dad had the most wonderful hand writing - a bit spidery in his ‘90s, but still impressive.

You're not alone, Puzzlelove. I hope it's down to lack of use and not a weakening of my fine motor skills. My handwriting is neat and well-formed when I make lists, or write cards, but letters take far more concentration to keep it neat.
I practise by copying out the lyrics of songs I want to sing along to!

Yes, I used to write a lot, now I don’t and my writing is lamentable. My old mum and dad had lovely handwriting, I still have examples of it. And I recall being taught joined up writing at school using an ink pen.
Is a dying art now. 😞

My handwriting isn't as good as it used to be, and I put it down to typing emails, and actually nearly everything these days! Text messages and even form filling! Who needs to write these days?! I wonder how children write once they hit senior school, and everything is done on line.
My parents had such neat beautiful writing, I wish I could have written like them.

I know that mine is becauae I have arthritis in my hands. I love handwriting and kept it up, so I know it wasn't lack of use.
I write my Xmas cards in bursts - after 3 or 4 I take a break. I word process and print letters, saying that I would rather my friends be able to read them!
It is a small sadness for me, but I am grateful to live in an age when I can easily type my letters on a keyboard!

My hands have trembled for 20 years but the last 2 years have been worse. I can only write in lower case letters but my writing is very small as it takes all my concentration to keep my hand still to form the letters. At times I write things and haven't got a clue what it says.

It takes concentration to hit the right keys on my phone. I re read what I have typed but it wasn't what I thought I wrote . Even with preview I still post with mistakes . 🤦

I think in many cases, it is simply down to lack of use. I've always been told that I have lovely handwriting, and as writing was the basis of my entire career, it's something I've tried to keep up. I do write something every day - even just doing something like a crossword or puzzles helps to 'keep your hand in', as it were.

I’ve always had trouble writing by hand as I’m dyspraxic. I think it’s worth experimenting with different pens and I generally find that I can write more legibly with pens that have a fatter hand grip.

Definitely lack of use. Mine used to be stylish and legible but now, when I go to my writing group and we have our end of session twenty minute ‘on the hoof” exercise, I find I can barely read back what I’ve written. We all suffer in the same way. Use of technology is not permitted☹️!

Just remembered, on holiday, my friend and I joined in quiz night and I wrote down the answers. When we swapped with the next table for marking, the chap leaned across and asked if I was a Doctor? My writing that night must’ve been really bad!

My handwriting was never much cop (homework often produced teachers’ comments such as ‘Writing must improve!’), but like you, in somewhat later life I was no longer handwriting anything much except birthday cards and shopping lists.

However, at 50-something I started doing OU courses - the sort with handwritten exams at the end! I did wonder how on earth I was going to manage to write 4 legible essays in 3 hours. I literally had to practise writing - reasonably legibly - at length.
And for quite a while my hand did positively ache with the unaccustomed effort!

Witzend

My handwriting was never much cop (homework often produced teachers’ comments such as ‘Writing must improve!’), but like you, in somewhat later life I was no longer handwriting anything much except birthday cards and shopping lists.

However, at 50-something I started doing OU courses - the sort with handwritten exams at the end! I did wonder how on earth I was going to manage to write 4 legible essays in 3 hours. I literally had to practise writing - reasonably legibly - at length.
And for quite a while my hand did positively ache with the unaccustomed effort!

All credit to you for making the effort. The sense of achievement must have been worth the aching hand.

I have execrable handwriting, and always have had as I have dyspraxia. However I find myself writing all the time. Not sustained writing, but shopping lists, to do lists, noting down phone numbers, all sorts of things.

I loathe mobile phones. Not in the technical sense, but my dyspraxia makes them difficult to operate and I find the screen far to small to use for any practical purpose. It can only contain about a sentence of text at a time and I just cannot hack it.

My handwriting improves if I use a good quality ball point pen rather than a cheap or free one. If I were to use a fountain pen , my writing would be good. Most things I write are lists: shopping lists, reminders, To Do lists.

MOnica and Whiff you can dictate into some mobiles I think.

The problem Jaxjacky is that I cannot cope with such a tiny screen, it holds so little text and to understand text I need context and there is no room for any.

Ah, sorry MOnica it must be very frustrating.

I could not write very well after breaking my arm. However I can do it well now if I write slowly.

Btw, my handwriting is appalling and ‘swiping’ up the page of my hard copy newspaper doesn’t work either 🙂

Jaxjacky good suggestion but unfortunately it wouldn't work for me. My disability means I can't always form the words or they make sense in my head but what comes out my mouth is jumbled up and can't pronounce some words . I have a rare hereditary neurological condition only had my diagnosis in 2022 aged 63. Thanks to my new neurologist who had my whole genome genetically tested. But better late than never. Thanks to a support group of people with the same condition my whole life makes sense . I am not weird and alone with this but have HPX. My neurologist had never had a patient with it and I got to a top neurological hospital.

I'm the same as Cabbie 21 if I write with cheap ballpoint pens .
I usually write shopping lists in pencil .
I still send cards and write them with a good quality fountain pen .
I tend to doodle and sketch and I think that doing so preserves motor skills .

My handwriting is awful and it always has been. It made my time at school very miserable as no matter what I did I'd get into trouble about my writing. One funny moment was when I was learning shorthand, I had to show the teacher my shorthand and then transcribed into longhand, not sure why it wasn't typed on that occasion. Well the teacher looked at it and said my shorthand was perfect but she had no idea if I had transcribed it correctly as she couldn't read my writing.

Whiff

Jaxjacky good suggestion but unfortunately it wouldn't work for me. My disability means I can't always form the words or they make sense in my head but what comes out my mouth is jumbled up and can't pronounce some words . I have a rare hereditary neurological condition only had my diagnosis in 2022 aged 63. Thanks to my new neurologist who had my whole genome genetically tested. But better late than never. Thanks to a support group of people with the same condition my whole life makes sense . I am not weird and alone with this but have HPX. My neurologist had never had a patient with it and I got to a top neurological hospital.

Well that shows it is never too late to get a proper diagnosis, great that it has been positive for you.

I was taught at school to write in italics and my handwriting used to be very neat, but that’s not so now. I’m the designated writer at our weekly quiz - everyone else claims their writing is worse! - but I jot down the answers in capitals these days. Ditto any shopping lists.

I am making a bit of an effort right now though. I’m filling in a grandparent’s journal in triplicate for the DGS. Most of it I’m completing on the laptop, printing out and sticking in, but I am writing in it too, as a GN friend of mine once commented that future generations might like to see how we actually wrote.