On handwriting and journalling
Re: A post by ~mieum on "handwriting" (view original in gopher)
My handwriting had been pretty bad until I started practicing a form of cursive. By which time it morphed into a monospace-but-continuous-like style, a little similar to the Caveat font. As I started to write a bit more, so started to hold my pen a little differently -- in such a way that makes me feel more comfortable, making writing more enjoyable, as a form of mindfulness or meditation. My handwriting changed along with it. It was still monospace-sized + cursive, but I started to add a lot of extra strokes which made it less legible, such as making the second circle at the buttom of g, y, and j's, turning l into fatter curls and making each letter blend into its neighbours a little more.
It's worth noting that my so-called "cursive" isn't really what we normally refer to as cursive, it's simply continuous.
Regardless, my letters are curvy, and the tip of my pen "dances" as I write, rather than making rigid, sharp turns they sort of flow, like butter. It is similar to how one might consider all thoughts and ideas to be interconnected. The way my handwriting "slurs" words and phrases together as if they are all part of a whole, convoluted, but beautiful mess is a manifestation of that. After all, we're put our thoughts down through the handwriting, aren't we?
(Related: further thoughts of typing vs. writing)
Regarding journalling on paper: I absolutely love it -- one, I enjoy the physical act of writing1, I enjoy not being able to catch up to my thoughts and being able to mindfully consider how I should draw each letter; two, I journal on blank pages -- dotted grid at most, if I've run out of undotted notebooks; this allows me to write anywhere, in any format I want. It's true that sometimes my writing would slant down or the margins of my text would sometimes be inconsistent, but by writing free-form I get to express on paper much more than just words. I can draw emotes and make some phrases I want to stress larger, I can purposely write diagonally to achieve a particular effect.
I can never get enough physical notebooks.
This post was originally published on my phlog.
This is similar to typing on your favorite mechanical keyboard.↩