We’ve established that your handwriting has value. But how do you learn to love it? How do you improve it?

Check out all the imperfect handwriting!

First, let’s think about why you hate it. Do you hate the way it looks? Do you hate the actual physical process of writing? Does it take too long? Are you afraid of making grammatical errors or spelling mistakes?

I’ve got a few ideas for you that should help with all those problems.

First up: the appearance of your handwriting. Do a little handwriting, and take a close and detailed look at it. Is there anything you like about it? What, in particular don’t you like about it? Next, think about the people who have handwriting you like. Focus on the details again, and note what exactly it is that you like. The shape of the letters, how they connect and relate to each other, the general flow. Once you’ve got all these details in mind, start practice writing using the letter shapes that you found you liked, and try to avoid the things you didn’t. This is going to take some time, because you’ve been writing the way that you write for a lifetime. It takes time to change those habits.

This is more like it. The letters are nice and round, and there aren’t any cross outs or rewrites!

Kristina Werner made a great little video about handwriting last month. You can watch it on Youtube here. She also recommends finding writing you like and mimicking it, as well as practice, practice, and more practice.

Next issue: Hating the actual physical process. Maybe it’s painful. Maybe you’re left-handed and always end up with ink blurred all over your hand. I can’t force you to like it. But maybe the reason you aren’t liking it has more to do with the tools you are using, rather than the process itself. Experiment with different pens and pencils and papers. See if there’s something that’s more comfortable and less messy before you give up on handwriting.

Third: Time. It takes too long to write neatly. Personally, I’ve found it takes longer to type and print and cut journaling to fit on a page than it does to write it. But I may not be the best example, since my handwriting isn’t exactly neat. If I slowed down, and concentrated on writing neatly, it would take more time, but still not as much time as using the computer. But that may just be me.

Fourth: Grammar and spelling. This is a case where the computer is very handy for those who are worried about misspelling something, or using the wrong their/there/they’re. It’s not so good at helping you write better composed journaling, however. That requires practice. Once again, writing how you speak is another way to capture who you are. You may have a particular turn of phrase that the computer will flag as grammatically incorrect, but that you say all the time. Why can’t you document that? It’s okay to be imperfect. We’re all much more likable that way.

Finally, I’ve got one more way for you to get your handwriting on a page. It’s a bit of a cheat actually, but a fun one! How about using your beloved computer to journal with a font based on your own handwriting? Try out this inexpensive handwriting to font generator from Your Fonts. (And yes, that is an affiliate link.) When you fill out the form with your letters, pay attention to how you write each letter in the box. By being consistent, you’ll get a better font flow, and it will look better on your page.

Are you ready to use your handwriting on your page now? If you still don’t want to do it EVER, please tell me why in the comments!