I long hated writing, and like you only wrote in block capitals, until I decided to re-learn to write cursive. Mostly I wanted to be able to write sweet paper notes to my lovers that didn't look like a 5th grader wrote them. I've found that when the process is approached as art, maybe even meditation, it's far more pleasurable than an act simply meant to record words on paper.

I wooed my wife with my handwritten letters... Thirty years ago. Of course, these days, I'm also her wife, and my handwriting isn't so good anymore. But my Remarkable 2, after the latest software updates is remarkably good. Now I wish we could reconvene our RPG club from thirty years ago, because it's the best RPG notes device I've ever used, better than paper, because it's more flexible.

Anytime I write in print, I'm slow and janky but cursive seems to flow out of my hand. By default, it's not very legible except to me but I actually appreciate how it looks and it's easy to focus it when writing to someone else. Cursive definitely flows much easier than print. My only gripe with writing in general is that writing left handed excludes me from about 92% of pens that will streak under my hand.

Being left handed, you've probably found this, but the Zebra Sarasa Dry is what my left handed daughter uses. It's the only cheapish pen that she likes

yes, in cobalt blue, they're perfect. much better than the pilot g2's that preceded them.

Can you share any resources you used to learn and improve your writing? My love letters can always be better.

I've done it twice in my adult life. The first time, I was unhappy with my block capitals, and looked up the letter form references for architectural block lettering, and spend a few hours over a week or so just practicing letter forms. I, in a very literal way, installed a font in meatspace :)

Cursive I think is really more just about getting a feel for the flow of script. There are some technical aspects, like the letter forms themselves, and the rules of joining them -- not all letters in a word can or should be joined, which is obvious to long-time cursive users but was not to me!

But mostly it comes down to knowing the letter forms, and then just using cursive. Write a dear friend a sweet note. Write a couple pages in your diary on occasion. Your forms will become clearer and will flow better with practice. Embellish! Draw huge risers and tails on your letters and pretend you're writing in elvish or something. haha.

I worked for about a month a few years back to improve my writing. I just found an example of handwriting I liked and would spend time each morning copying individual characters, then words. Very slowly at first, then it became natural. My handwriting has slipped since then, seems to be something you need to keep working at from time to time.

The Remarkable 2 drawing app also comes with a calligraphy pen, which does wonders for the readability of many people's cursive.

Over the last years, I felt my handwriting was deteriorating. I blamed my lack of practice and reliance on computers, and accepted that.

But, last year I got glasses. With them, my hand writing quickly improved. As an aside, I can type a lot faster on a touch screen now too. Presbyopia snuck up on me somewhere when I hit 40...

Yes, I’m in that minority too. I’ve always had poor handwriting and always hated writing by hand.

After introspecting about it, I realized that, for me, it’s because of low grade stress during handwriting, as my attention is constantly churned between thinking about the content and about legibility.

It might seem obvious but the less you write the more illegible your handwriting seems to you. I noticed this during school. Over summers I would pretty much never have to handwrite anything, and in august I had all the same gripes that you do about my slow illegible terrible looking handwriting. Those kinks would be worked out two weeks into the school year, after your hand is back in shape from writing notes 8+ hours a day.

The other thing about handwriting is that you remember things better. The act of transmuting something you've heard, put it into a thought, then taking that thought and stroking out words on a distinct location on a physical page taps into all these levels of comprehension and processing that you just miss if you take the stenographer approach with a keyboard and transcribe directly what you hear, or even writing digitally on the exact same 8x10 screen day in day out. I've fallen asleep in lectures with my hands on the keyboard mid sentence typing up some note, because the effort required by your brain is so much smaller and you are not nearly as engaged as when you are actually stroking out words and in the background thinking about how to fit relevant information on a unique 8'x11' sheet of paper.

Have you tried writing with your other hand, if you have it? Writing with my non-dominant hand is slower and more precise. It’s been twenty-odd years of practice, in part in case I lose a hand, and it continues to feel like a fun, healthy challenge.

I hate my handwriting, but the physical act of longhand absolutely helps me with retention, so I have a reMarkable. It's a pretty great device.

You're not alone. I appreciate that some people enjoy hand-writing (the act itself, the ergonomics, and all the various bits of physical ephemera that accompany it-- pens, papers, etc) but for me typing's sheer efficiency and inherent machine-readability (not to mention being readable by other humans) wins every time.

This has been a bit of tug-o-war for me for a while. Where I've mostly settled is that I use TiddlyWiki as my main notetaker / knowledge base and using a paper notebook as a sort of sidecar (taking notes by hand where it is easier or more appropriate and then transcribing them into the wiki).

My wiki entries range from little "cards" of a few short sentences to longer entries written while analyzing or designing something.

I use handwriting for thinking, not writing. I don’t really expect to be able to recover the things I write down more than 2 weeks after the fact without some extra work.

I’m terrible at it, but I enjoy fountain pens. They make me slow down enough that it’s at least legible, where my biro-scrawl is very much not. It is hard not to let my brain race ahead though, as it does when I’m typing.

Also fountain pens are shiny and you can get all sorts of inks and accessories!

I took the LSAT on a lark about 20 years ago, and at the time they required an essay written in cursive. Took me a couple of hours just to reconstruct my distant memories of how to write cursive, and I hated every minute of the essay itself.

Yes, this exact single moment in my life is often recalled any time the subject of handwriting in cursive comes up.

That essay was a complete mess. I was even thinking of that as I wrote my above post. Hilarious that someone else mentioned it.

Writing text by hand is certainly slower than typing.

Unless you're filling out a form or writing an essay in school, handwritten things should use more symbolic language. Use a shorthand of words and images and arrows and circles that are meaningful to you. Whether or not someone else (or even you later) can read it is really a secondary concern.

I worked in positions that required me to write by hand more than I had in the last decade. I found that my handwriting found an equilibrium that balanced speed and legibility after a while.

Perhaps consider changing your writing technique?

My handwriting is fine but I am slow af compared to editing in a vimlike. Definitely agree with you. None of this writing stuff appeals to me.

The drawing maybe.

When I take notes I usually don't limit myself to writing to lines, I write on the sides, makes arrows, etc... For this "visual note taking" paper (or e-ink tablet) is way better.