[Closed] Anyone else lost the ability to write?

I was never that good to start with but now I spend all my time using computers to communicate, I almost find it painful to write. My handwriting is absolutely atrocious.

Yes I had to fill in a CRC returns from the other day, not only did my wrist ache after about 4 lines but when I looked at what I had written afterwards it was barely readable and looked like something a 3 year old would have written!

I did, twenty years doing a manual job had reduced my writing ability to that of a five year old, getting a job that involved writing reports and daily logs soon sorted me out, and STW is a grammar lesson in itself..
As in most things in life, use it or lose it..

If god had meant us to write he wouldn't have invented keyboards.

My handwriting's always been appalling. If I'm writing something others might need to read I revert to a form of printing, and even that's not great.

I think in part it's due to being left-handed. Writing left-to-right pushes the pen rather than pulling it, which isn't particularly natural.

I'm [s]Left handed[/s] a cripple too, it doesn't help neatness that's for sure..

it's barely legible and I've forgotten how to join most of my letters

My handwriting is awesome. And I'm left handed. I mostly don't join up though.

Me definitely. Writing a cheque feels weird now...

Had a real shock last week when sitting some exams, needed to write for 2 x 3hours, by the end of it my writing was barely legible and my arm hurt 😕

I find biro's/rollerballs bring out the worst in me, on the rare occasion I use a fountain pen or fineliner it seems better. Still prone to mistakes, I usually cock up greeting cards!

So it's not just me then.

My wife has lovely flowing writing and for that reason I'd never write a greeting card, that's her domain.

Hilldoger - that's exactly where I noticed it - I was almost having to hold my writing wrist with the other had by then end.

In some ways I suppose it's not that important - but it is embarrassing, I really want to relearn. Where to start though

was commenting on this just the other day - yes, loosing the ability to be legible without concentrating.

on the other hand I can now touch type (ish!)

Spooky_b329 +1 on the greetings card thing.

Buy a card, struggle to think of something witty to write so just put the normal dross & make a spelling mistake I would never make anywhere else....then try & fix it and make it look worse.

My spelling has got worse over the years, auto-correct takes care of it though(!).

Yep, my OH gets me to sign Birthday cards etc and I can barely write my name any more! Spent 8-10 hours in front of a keyboard everyday!

I'm left-handed, and have always had bad handwriting - but one thing that's made a huge difference for me is going over to fountain pens. They don't need to be posh ones, you can get boxes of cheap disposables.

Because they float not roll, they're much easier for the pushing that left-handed writing needs.

The only thing I use ballpoints for now is filling out things in duplicate.

Mine was pretty bad but then I spent a year studying a script based language full time, 8hrs a day.

Writing English words backwards, starting on the right side of the page and dropping some random script into a sentence is now a fairly regular occurrence...

I use a tablet pen all day and it has completely messed up my writing. [url= http://dawonderful.blogspot.co.uk/ ]Hasn't messed up my typing though.[/url]

I'll raise you.....

Forgetting your signature! Due to a pin terminal error I had to sign my card payment slip for my petrol the other day. Momentarily totally forgot how to sign my name

I've pretty much lost the ability to write with joined up letters and lower case.
The only writing I've done for years has been printing in capitals (because that's what has been required at work, mainly,) and that's all I can manage now without it looking like a 6 year old wrote it.

I have to jot a load of stuff down so have kept it up along the way. Not italics, though - I use an awesome joined-up capital script. Tech Drawing style at it's best...

I've pretty much lost the ability to write with joined up letters and lower case.
The only writing I've done for years has been printing in capitals (because that's what has been required at work, mainly,) and that's all I can manage now without it looking like a 6 year old wrote it.

this is me too, I never had good hand writing but it's truly shocking now 😳

I found the best solution to my writing being illegible was to switch hands.

Writing Left handed after years of writing right handed (my left hand was actually better the couple of times I tried it as a child) worked great, I was producing nice clear writing, at a reasonable pace.

Unfortunately once I got used to it to the point that I just write with what ever hand the pen is nearest to it all went down hill as I can write just as fast left handed as right handed and both are just as messy.

The solution to that is to slow down.

I write a lot of handwritten notes at work, but usually they're just for my own use (to dictate up into a filenote later or annotations to a document where I'll type comments into an email or mark up the document on screen later) so they've been getting less and less legible over the years. I dread to think what I'd do in an exam these days.

Mines alright, but I mostly write in slightly joined up block capitals (tech drawing background)

[i]Buy a card, struggle to think of something witty to write so just put the normal dross & make a spelling mistake I would never make anywhere else....then try & fix it and make it look worse.[/i]

Every time!

My handwriting has always been appalling too. The extent where people struggled to read it. I never really managed joined up letters also. As soon as computers came along I stopped getting judged on what my handwriting looked like and started getting judged on what I wrote...aah.

My handwriting's always been appalling. If I'm writing something others might need to read I revert to a form of printing, and even that's not great.

I think in part it's due to being left-handed. Writing left-to-right pushes the pen rather than pulling it, which isn't particularly natural

Thats me that is

Mine was always bad... now it's just simply attrocious !!!

I wrote an address for a parcel today... i'll be impressed if it gets there.

I can write very neatly, but slowly, or quickly, but in a way that 1 week later I don't know what I've written.

Even when being neat often my hand willl write the wrong letter if I start going too fast.

I can't write more than a paragraph either without pain. Similar story to most of you.

Mine has gone to pieces as well. However my kids have to use fountain pens at school to help them to learn to write properly so I tried theirs. Works brilliantly

However my kids have to use fountain pens at school to help them to learn to write properly so I tried theirs. Works brilliantly

Ooo me, me!

I blame the nerve damage in my arm though! 😛

Practised with the other hand before final exams at uni (although had a scribe for the most part!)...so now equally bad with both hands!

I wrote an address for a parcel today... i'll be impressed if it gets there.

I hope that wasn't an STW classifieds sale or the pitchforks'll be out!

Is this to do with the lack of paper in our day to day lives ?

😉

af hdsabf uwabfoiadcsl....

Ah no its back, panic over.

I was unfortunately taught to write in a sort of copperplate style at school, that never lent itself to writing quickly and looking neat. Friends who went to different schools were taught an italic style, which is much neater.
When I got into print and prepress I forced myself to write more neatly, but it's variable, and trying to write quickly looks scruffy. I can write a sort of caps/lowercase neatly, but I've never done joined-up in a nice, flowing style, sadly.
But at least it's legible! 😀

I'm another sinister STWer. Writing was never the best but like most on this thread years of keyboard use have pretty much destroyed any ability to write cursively.

Have developed a weird joined-up upper-case style of writing that veers pretty much randomly between looking funky, cool and clear, and being totally illegible even to me.

Am also another leftie who finds fountain pens easier to work with as long as they have a pretty solid nib rather than a flexy one. Lamy, Rotring and Pilot are my current faves.

This is refreshing reading. Came into teaching (secondary) several years ago and one of the first shocks to the system was the handwriting that kids have - but with most of their 'writing' done on the keyboard these days, as adults have shared, it comes as no surprise!