The Magic of Writing by Hand

High school in the 1970s was so very different from what students experience today. One difference was the dress code. Boys couldn’t wear their hair below a standard shirt collar. They could however tuck their hair under a cheap wig. Some of them hid truly beautiful hair underneath the cheapest, nastiest wig you ever saw, but that was better that was more acceptable to administrators than having long hair. As for girls, we weren’t allowed to wear pants of any kind until my junior year and then the pants had to be part of a pant suit.

We didn’t have different tracks though some students took courses like shop and home ec that were more vo-tech. My high school was way out in the country then so we had the ag program. There were also courses that weren’t needed for graduation, but were usually taken by students who were headed to college. For example, I took a fourth year of English and a third year of math. Other people took even more math and extra science. But that was really it. If my high school offered AP courses, I don’t remember hearing about them and it’s possible that they didn’t. (According to an article about the history of AP exams on the website BestColleges.com, only about 14% of high schools in the US offered AP exams in 1969. https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/history-ap-exams-classes/

Our high school did have an unusual, maybe even unique, college prep course and that one I took. The first semester we learned touch typing on old clunky manual typewriters. The second semester we learned a simplified version of Gregg Shorthand called Notehand. The idea was that we would take notes in our college classes using our Notehand skills and then come back and type them up using our newly acquired typing skills. I did try it, but I don’t think it lasted much past my first semester of college. But it was a good learning strategy. And it’s why I could type easily when computers came along. (Though over time my accuracy has gone down now that it’s much easier to make any corrections.)

I was reminded of this lately as yet another person complemented me on my handwriting. I was hunched over the tray on the back of the airplane seat in front of me writing in my calendar and the flight attended commented on it as she walked by – twice. It finally clicked in at that point, it’s not that my handwriting is particularly beautiful or legible, it’s that I’m using cursive and that alone surprises people. Scott Leveen, co-founder of Levenger, the company that created CIRCA, a notebook system that finally cured my hunt for the perfect calendar, notetaking, planning system, recently shared his New Year’s resolution – “to sit in public and openly write with my hand.” He said, he hoped people would notice and these comments I’ve received tell me they do. People do notice when we do something unusual. The same thing can happen for those who make art in public. My husband has always attracted attention when he’s out picture-taking or picture-making.

As we all know, cursive is becoming a lost art. My eleven-year-old great-nephew got a Christmas card with money in it, opened the card and said, “I can’t read this.” It was printed in a cursive-like print. He brought it over to me and it turned out he could decipher it with a bit of help, but his first reaction was that it wasn’t readable. And at the risk of sounding exactly as old as I am, I think this is a shame. Not because cursive itself is so important but it makes writing by hand quicker and smoother than printing and therefore makes writing by hand more accessible. And writing by hand is good for our brains and a whole series of skills and life experiences.

I have followed Julia Cameron’s advice and do my Morning Pages by hand always. She explains why by hand, whether cursive or not, is better for this process than typing. “Velocity is the enemy. It takes longer to write by hand, and this slowness connects us to our emotional life. I find I’m more honest when writing by hand.”

Writing with a pen is the best way for me to think. I do type this newsletter for instance because it’s going to have to be typed eventually, but 90% of the time I start with pen on paper. Sometimes, specifically when I’m having trouble getting started, it helps me begin to sort out what I’m trying to say. When I have no idea at all, I get a pen, write down a question as basic as “What do I want to write about this week?” I noodle around with a variety of thoughts and questions, words, half-baked ideas until something catches my attention.

If I’m trying to make a decision, I’d much rather sort out ideas and pros and cons with pen in hand than using any sort of digital device. The science tells us there are physical and mental positives to writing by hand. It benefits both creativity and productivity.

Last, but certainly not least, taking time to handwrite anything slows us down. I’d make the argument that writing by hand is part of practicing self-care because it is slower than typing. It creates space for ideas to appear, for breath to slow and deepen, and for paying attention to your own emotions, thoughts, and experiences.

If you haven’t written by hand lately, it will probably not do any of these things, at least not at first. It may feel awkward. It may feel uncomfortable that you can’t get your thoughts down, or correct an error, as quickly as with a keyboard. If that’s your experience, then, like in yoga practice when the pose we like least is the one that may benefit us the most, I encourage you to keep writing through the discomfort. Don’t worry about whether it’s pretty or neat or that no one tells you it looks cool, just keep the pen moving across the page. Let your breath slow and your thoughts come. You may be surprised to see what you’ve written. Good luck and happy writing.

Take care,

Gage