penmanship

There are 12 posts tagged penmanship (this is page 2 of 2).

Write a Letter about Yourself

Look back on your year, from the end of last October to the nearing of the end of this October. In some spiritual beliefs this time of the year is about looking back, reflecting on the past and finding fresh inspiration for the future.

Write yourself a short letter. You could even try writing it in long hand if your penmanship hasn’t become too rusty from using the computer keyboard. Write about the past year and what you can look forward to. Put your letter somewhere you will find it next year, for October 2009. Tell yourself about yourself.

Best wishes for the year ahead. 🙂

Writing Nostalgia

There isn’t much talk about writer’s cramp any more. Writer’s block is still around but the crampiness is becoming a thing of the past.

I wonder what writers, of the feather pen era, thought about when those newfangled typewriters came along? What changed for them, if they took up the new technology? What special skills were lost as the typewriter grew in popularity? Likely, there was some skill to dipping your pen into the inkwell just right, to avoid drips. There would have been skill involved in knowing when the ink on your page was dry enough to be handled.

I sometimes miss writing long hand. It’s nice to feel the flow of my words smoothing over the page. Creating stylish swirls and tall towers from the alphabet is almost as much fun as making the letters into words. Pens are fun too. I’ve been writing with a couple of gel pens in unique colours. In the past I’ve experimented with various pens, Bics were my high school pen of choice. As I evolved my pen selection became whatever was on sale at the time. Still, I always preferred black ink.

My penmanship has taken a turn for the worst due to all my time on the keyboard. After a few minutes writing long hand my words become chicken scratchings, something even a doctor would struggle to decipher.

Will penmanship become a lost art? Will calligraphy just be something you do on the computer with fancy fonts? Then of course, I wonder what the next advance will bring. Will computers have their own turn at being obsolete?

Writing Nostalgia

There isn’t much talk about writer’s cramp any more. Writer’s block is still around but the crampiness is becoming a thing of the past.

I wonder what writers, of the feather pen era, thought about when those newfangled typewriters came along? What changed for them, if they took up the new technology? What special skills were lost as the typewriter grew in popularity? Likely, there was some skill to dipping your pen into the inkwell just right, to avoid drips. There would have been skill involved in knowing when the ink on your page was dry enough to be handled.

I sometimes miss writing long hand. It’s nice to feel the flow of my words smoothing over the page. Creating stylish swirls and tall towers from the alphabet is almost as much fun as making the letters into words. Pens are fun too. I’ve been writing with a couple of gel pens in unique colours. In the past I’ve experimented with various pens, Bics were my high school pen of choice. As I evolved my pen selection became whatever was on sale at the time. Still, I always preferred black ink.

My penmanship has taken a turn for the worst due to all my time on the keyboard. After a few minutes writing long hand my words become chicken scratchings, something even a doctor would struggle to decipher.

Will penmanship become a lost art? Will calligraphy just be something you do on the computer with fancy fonts? Then of course, I wonder what the next advance will bring. Will computers have their own turn at being obsolete?

I Don’t Feel Like Writing

I don’t feel like writing cause my bra strap is too tight. I don’t feel like writing cause I’m not in the mood. I don’t feel like writing cause I’m too tired. I don’t feel like writing cause I don’t have anything really brilliant to say today. I don’t feel like writing cause my typing is worse than my penmanship tonight. I don’t feel like writing cause my asthma is bugging me. I don’t feel like writing, I just don’t feel like writing. Can’t I just not feel like writing?

I can always come up with reasons why I don’t feel like writing, some of them are real reasons. But, in the end, later I’ll still be trying to catch up on everything I didn’t write the night before. Time keeps passing, you can’t politely ask everything to stop for you.

What do you do to get back on track when you don’t feel like writing? Sometimes I have a shower. Going for a drive or a walk also works, weather and gas money permitting. Even just taking yourself away for the time it takes to make a fresh coffee is now and then enough to get yourself back into a writing frame of mind.

If not, maybe you need to make a list instead. Lists are a short form of writing. You don’t have to obey rules of punctuation, grammar or spelling. You just make notes for yourself. List your plot developments for fiction you’re working on. List possible spin off articles if you’re writing non-fiction. Make a list of ideas you could work on if you felt like writing.

In the process of making a list I usually find I suddenly really feel like writing again. In fact, I often start writing right on the back of my list.

I Don’t Feel Like Writing

I don’t feel like writing cause my bra strap is too tight. I don’t feel like writing cause I’m not in the mood. I don’t feel like writing cause I’m too tired. I don’t feel like writing cause I don’t have anything really brilliant to say today. I don’t feel like writing cause my typing is worse than my penmanship tonight. I don’t feel like writing cause my asthma is bugging me. I don’t feel like writing, I just don’t feel like writing. Can’t I just not feel like writing?

I can always come up with reasons why I don’t feel like writing, some of them are real reasons. But, in the end, later I’ll still be trying to catch up on everything I didn’t write the night before. Time keeps passing, you can’t politely ask everything to stop for you.

What do you do to get back on track when you don’t feel like writing? Sometimes I have a shower. Going for a drive or a walk also works, weather and gas money permitting. Even just taking yourself away for the time it takes to make a fresh coffee is now and then enough to get yourself back into a writing frame of mind.

If not, maybe you need to make a list instead. Lists are a short form of writing. You don’t have to obey rules of punctuation, grammar or spelling. You just make notes for yourself. List your plot developments for fiction you’re working on. List possible spin off articles if you’re writing non-fiction. Make a list of ideas you could work on if you felt like writing.

In the process of making a list I usually find I suddenly really feel like writing again. In fact, I often start writing right on the back of my list.