Writing by hand
I picked up a pen, grabbed my notebook and wrote. I just wrote for the sake of writing by hand. I was in the office yesterday and had a rare few minutes of down time, inbox zero, so why not?
I must have written 1,000 words plus; I have not counted. And it bloody hurt!
What follows is the edited transcription of my handwritten nonsense.
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Ten minutes after beginning, the aches started in my right hand. First my wrist, then fingers, then my arm, around my biceps. Interesting! Gosh, I had honestly forgotten how the wrists start to hurt after a while of continuous handwriting. I used to get that all the time when doing my homework back in the day. The memory returns.
Ooh, I’ve just loosened my grip on the pen and the ache immediately subsided. Let me swap pens…no, it’s the same, nothing to do with the pen, so it must be my pen-holding technique.
Wow, it has been a long long while. I mean, I do write by hand once in while, but not often enough it would seem, and not continuously. I tend to jot down notes when working or writing shopping lists, that sort of thing; nothing too long. My handwriting is terrible (by my own exceptionally high standards). As I continue though, my handwriting is becoming more legible.
Hold it lightly, I tell myself. Let is flow. It seems to be me who is tensing up when I write. Why? Lack of practice? As I continue, the ache is still there, nagging away in my wrist. I think I’m simply using muscles which have not been used in a while for this purpose. I must therefore re-learn to write by hand. And practice.
How did I manage with this copious amount of handwriting when I was at school? There were no laptops or home PCs to type out my homework; everything was written out by hand.
Slowing down seems to work wonders. The words and letters are becoming neater and more legible. There we go! I do now truly believe that it is merely a lack of practice. It should return to normal (whatever that is) after a few days of daily handwriting.
I can almost read that easily now, the words above. Along with daily handwriting, I also need to focus on the neatness and legibility as opposed to writing speed. I do tend to write very fast which is how my handwriting ends up looking like the dog’s breakfast. Is that the issue doctors have when handwriting prescriptions? They write too fast?