How To Improve Your Handwriting: 12 Pro Tips That Work

Having terrible or messy handwriting that looks no different from a chicken scratch can be an embarrassing moment when you hand over a note to someone else and they can’t understand it.

It’s also quite a troublesome affair when you have to decipher your very own handwriting to understand what you had written down from a class lecture or an important meeting.

This can be a huge pain and I’m sure you’ve experienced this a few times before.

This is why it’s time to change the way you write and that’s through consistent practice.

If you want to learn how to improve your handwriting with actual and useful tips that will make a huge difference, then here’s everything you need to know.

It’s not as difficult or impossible as you may think but you will have to dedicate time and effort to make sure these tips work for you.

1. Analyse Your Own Handwriting

The best place to start when trying to figure out how to improve your handwriting is to understand just how bad it is.

Take a look at the way you form your letters or how close together each letter or word is.

This will help you figure out where you need to improve on the most.

Must see: Why Is My Handwriting So Bad? (7 Ways To Fix It Fast)

If you find that your words are too close together, then you’re going to have to practice learning how to space them out.

On the other hand, if you find that you often skip over forming the letters correctly and everything looks jumbled up together, then you’re going to need to start with the next tip.

2. Start Practising The Letters Correctly

After analyzing your current handwriting, it’s time to get back to the basics and that’s relearning how to form the letters.

This can be quite a tedious process at first and you might become bored or annoyed however, keep reminding yourself that if you do continue going through this step, your handwriting is bound to become way better than where you were currently.

You’ll want to focus on each letter individually and practice writing that a few times.

Go through the entire alphabet until you can write each letter close to the real form before you move on to practicing short words and sentences.

3. Make Use of Practice Sheets

The next tip will save you loads of time when learning to improve your handwrititing and that’s using practice sheets.

These are sheets that have guidelines to help you practice writing better.

If you want to learn hand lettering or cursive, you will start by using these guidelines.

It just makes the process of learning to hand write much easier.

It’s the act of repetition that makes you more accustomed to writing something correctly.

In addition, using these practice sheets will allow you to gauge the accurate spacing of each words to form a proper sentence that is neat and tidy.

Alternatively, you can start with using graph paper to practice spacing as this allows you to easily plan out with blocks to leave or use.

4. Use Different Pens To Know What Works For You

This is a likely common suggestion but it is highly possible that you might be using a pen that just doesn’t work for you.

Some pens are difficult to grip and write with which might be one of the reasons why you have such bad handwriting.

To find a pen that you are comfortable with, you’re going to have to try one that suits you best.

For me, I tend to stick with gel pens as they give me better control and the nibs are thick enough to form the letters correctly compared to using fine liners which makes my handwriting look slightly messy if I have to write long paragraphs or fast.

5. Learn To Grip The Pen Correctly

Another way you can fix your handwriting fast is to learn how to hold the pen correctly.

It might not seem like a big deal but holding and gripping a pen incorrectly will affect the way you write.

The preferred way to hold a pen would be to place it between your first finger and thump rather than gripping it with your whole hand.

This will give you better control of the pen and you’ll be able to use your hand and wrist better than if you were gripping it in another way.

However, this too depends largely on what you find is comfortable and works for you.

As with anything, you’re going to need to give it a real chance to know whether something works or not.

6. Write Slowly And Precisely

Often writing too fast will make you have bad handwriting. A lot of the neat handwriting that you see from others or online is usually because they take the time to write each word slowly.

This also comes naturally to them now because they are used to writing in this manner however for you, it will require that you pay extra attention when writing each word or sentences.

With time and practice, you’ll be able to write neater without being overcritical or tense.

If you take the time to practice writing slower, your handwriting will start to see a huge improvement and you’ll have more control.

7. Rotate The Page According to What Feels Comfortable

Writing with a page straight towards you might not feel very comfortable or natural.

It will also be hard to maintain a consistent flow if you have to twist your body to write.

The easy solution to this would be to rotate the page to an angle where you can write comfortably without having to be in an awkward position.

This small change will be of great help if you’ve never tried it before.

8. Watch Hand Writing Tutorials Online

Learning to improve your bad handwriting on your own is possible but watching other people show you how is even better.

You’ll be able to pick up things much easier than having to figure it out all on your own and it can be quite motivating too.

There are plenty of handwriting tutorials that you can follow online.

Copying and following someone’s else handwriting will also help you improve yours.

9. Use Other People’s Handwriting As Motivation

As mentioned before, if there’s a specific style of handwriting that you would like to have or maybe you just don’t want to be embarrassed or frustrated by your own handwriting anymore, then look for inspiration from others.

On many of the studygram feeds on Instagram, you’ll find dozens of gorgeous handwriting that will inspire and motivate you to keep going.

Even if you can’t see the immediate change in your handwriting, if you keep practising, there’s no doubt that there will be an improvement.

10. Keep Track of Your Progress

To understand and make sure that you are improving and not doing all of this in vain, keep a record of all your pracitice sheets and what your very first handwriting was.

This way, when you do a handwriting task without the use of a practice sheet, it’s a good way to compare and see your improvements or areas that you need to work on.

It will also give you hope that your handwriting can improve and this will further motivate you.

However, if you notice that there hasn’t been much of a difference, then this just means that you need to keep trying or ask someone else close to you to analyze and help you see what you might be missing or areas that you need to pay more attention to.

11. Ditch The Apps And Write By Hand Daily

Despite how helpful and convenient using a notetaking app on our phones or computers are, it can make us incredibly lazy when it comes to writing by hand.

The less often we write by hand, the worse our handwriting can become.

If you’re not praciting often, it’s won’t be a suprise to find that your handwriting is still the same.

You need to create an opportunity to always keep writing by hand if you wan to see a drastic change.

An easy way to include your handwriting practice would be to avoid using these apps and write on paper instead.

This is a sneaky way to get extra practice in without scheduling it.

12. Have Fun Learning

Learning how to improve your handwriting doesn’t have to be boring or a dreaded task that you need to do.

In fact, it can be an exiting challenge and there are plenty of ways to make it so.

Besides using those practice sheets, you can practice further by keeping a journal to write your thoughts and feelings or start a bullet journal.

With bullet journaling, not only will you be praciting your handwriting, but you can even schedule your entire life.

That’s a huge win in my book.

And it definitely makes learning to write better way easier and less of a daunting task.

Final Thoughts

Improving the way your handwriting looks is possible if you take the time to learn how to.

It will be slightly challenging at first if you have terrible handwriting, but if you follow the steps mentioned above consistently for a few weeks or months depending on your current handwriting, you will see a change.

You also don’t need to practice for hours on end every single day but dedicate a few minutes to make sure you get in some practice each day.

Also, for the time being, avoid falling back to old habits and writing carelessly.

Be conscious and put in the effort to write slowly if possible and whenever you can.