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Lis McDermott's avatar

I'm the dead opposite. Fountain pens were the bane of my life at school - I couldn't wait until we were allowed to use biro's.

My problem was, I'm heavy handed and I used to make holes in the paper, because I pressed too hard, which also caused far more ink to escape and I'd end up with blobs of ink everywhere And, I hated having to change the ink cartridge, or refill the pen, as I ended up with ink all over my hands.

I'm not a neat writer at all, and I've got worse over the years. Now, because I type and I touch type, I lose the will half-way through a word when I write by hand, so often can't read my own writing...

I'm glad someone loves them though. :)

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Roland Millward's avatar

It’s great to hear from you, Lis.

I think the problem could well be that you didn’t have a decent pen and then help to use it.

Fountain pens certainly improve my handwriting and when I switched to ballpoint at senior school it was detrimental.

At least it hasn’t prevented you from becoming an excellent writer and poet.

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Lis McDermott's avatar

Aww thank you Roland. Its good to know a few people enjoy my writing.

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Michelle Buck's avatar

I didn’t know this about the fountain pen. I tend to type a lot but several years back, I took up hand lettering. It’s like cursive with more expensive pens. I practiced a lot. Then I kind of dropped it. I felt like my writing wasn’t very good. I’m a lefty so maybe that played into it. But then I picked it back up and used it on my iPad. It’s really just drawing letters when you think about it. But I actually liked my style (everyone has their own) and started doing it again. I don’t buy all the pens anymore.

But I have colored pens all over my office. I just like to write in color. So I buy a lot of gel pens (most of them don’t last very long). I also have a really nice black pen, it must be a gel one too because it glides. I just love the look. I end up stealing my husband’s pens. 🤣

And even though I’m left handed, I get compliments on my writing. So I think learning cursive in my younger years made me better at handwriting, and exploring hand lettering helped too.

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Roland Millward's avatar

Thank you, Michelle, for your comment. There are so many pens to choose from. In fact, fountain pens can be bought for left handers!

A good pen certainly helps improve handwriting.

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