Is Cursive Writing a Dying Art?

This is a recurring topic around our household. Allow me to begin by stating my position that hand writing is a valuable skill that has been elevated to a form of art simply because so many individuals cannot write legible cursive. Careful practice is required to develop an effortless, smoothly flowing, easily interpretable, cursive writing style.

Does cursive writing hold some intrinsic value that would cause grievous injury to our well-being or ability to be productive if we lost the ability to use it? The short answer is no. Very few people write cursively in these days of computers and text messaging to pretend otherwise. And this alone is the reason the question even comes up.

More and more school systems are opting out of teaching it, in favor of spending more time on technology. We need to spend a great deal more effort on learning technology if we are to rise above the path to servitude that our government seems bent on forcing us into, but that’s a story for another time.

The only overwhelming reason remaining for the continued teaching of penmanship is the requirement for a cursive signature on legal documents. I have no doubt that there will soon be a method to validate an electronic signature so that even that reason will no longer be valid.

Hand writing evokes a ‘personal feel’ that the typed word never possibly could, and those individuals who place a value on that aspect of hand writing are the ones who will keep cursive writing alive. It is very similar to how some people favor the heft and feel of a hard bound book over an e-book. But, people used to say that online media sources will never replace the familiar feel of newspapers.

My wife and I both use cursive for all types of correspondence not involving the computer. We hand write notes to each other, we choose to write birthday greetings, anniversary wishes, etc in blank cards rather than choosing some clichéd Hallmark pre-printed message. Print is rarely used by either of us. Although I can think of only two instances I use print - one is when making a shopping list, another is when I am writing in my journal, I willl use a printed word as a sort of ‘tag’ to indicate an important idea or a place I may need to refer back to, but I generally find it tedious.

I write over a thousand words a day, often times more, in my journal, which I use as a writer’s notebook. I choose to write in this manner rather than the computer as it has proven priceless for my creative output.

To free your creative self, suggests Janet Burroway in her popular textbook Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, you must give yourself permission to fail. "The best place for permission is a private place," she adds, "and for that reason a writer's journal is an essential, likely to be the source of originality, ideas, experimentation, and growth."

I realize this can be done just as well on a computer but the computer is cold and doesn’t offer the same intimacy of hand writing.

Neither my wife nor myself text anyone. We both have very strong feelings that texting is part of an ongoing, although loosely informal, ‘conspiracy’ to dumb down Americans. I base this on the atrocious downward spiral of our ability to spell in this country. I have noticed over the course of time that the percentage of spelling mistakes has been steadily increasing since the advent of the personal computer and has simply skyrocketed since the realm of texting has erupted onto the scene. And I don’t even want to discuss the dismal state of our grammar.

If it could be proven that cursive writing held a direct link to improving spelling and grammar I would advocate keeping it until my dying breath. For those people who have horrible penmanship, the computer and texting – and built in spell checker - has been a godsend, for themselves and for others who try to decipher what they have written. Personally, I believe hand writing is an excellent exercise for dexterity.

I cannot honestly say that cursive writing makes anyone more intelligent than does the exclusive use of the typed word, and ideas can still be communicated without cursive writing, but those flowing curves and fancy loops of cursive writing do have the ability to convey warmth and sexiness that no typed word ever will.

Education Begins With Reading

Sounds simple, right? If you can’t read your ability to learn becomes severely handicapped. As a parent I want my kids to have every benefit this life can give us, and judging by the direction our education system is headed, the earlier we get started the better.

You cannot and should not expect public education to motivate our children to learn. That is the responsibility of the parent and it needs to be taken on starting from the day a child is born. Some people say it can start before the child is born. I’m no expert in this so I’ll leave the accuracy of statement to them to prove.

The desire to learn beyond basic survival instincts must be taught. And developing the desire to learn begins with reading. Simply showing children that there is a world beyond the four walls of their home is one of the greatest first steps they can take. But it is up to the parent to get them started.

Reading to your children will spark their imagination. Exposing them to a wide variety of topics will ignite that spark to the point it will never be extinguished.

Our library system is stocked full of every type of book you can imagine. And every book, magazine, CD and computer in it is free for us to use. Please utilize this resource to show how much we appreciate having it made available to us.

Libraries are not there only for entertainment. You can receive a complete and well-rounded education just from reading books from our public libraries.

Show your children the value of reading. For some fun exercises, assign your child the task of writing an essay on whatever topic you can think of. Make it a fun topic. They may protest they may rebel but in the end it will another one of the greatest memories they have of their childhood. It could be the very earliest steps of creating a career path for them. It’s possible.

Reading unlocks so many possibilities like nothing else can.

I have to admit that my writing this post is more than just for the sake of kids I don’t even know. I have my selfish reasons too. Just think for a moment that every person in the country, in the world, could read and did so on a regular basis. How much more educated do you think we would all be? Do you agree that a better educated person has more opportunities to succeed than an under-educated person? If more people were educated can you agree with me that there would be far less poverty, far more self-reliance, far less need of a government to care for us and therefore far less financial strain on our entire economic system. So you see I do plead with everyone to become better educated so that all of us can enjoy a better quality of life.

It is a world that is possible to create. Think about some of the reasons people do not learn to read. Certainly there are medical reasons, but putting those aside, I believe the single most inexcusable reason for not being able to read is a lack of conviction that reading is necessary.

While I am on the subject of education, I have to say a few things about writing. We are losing our ability to write because of the computer. I think everyone can agree with this. I don’t think that we should throw away our computers just to save writing, but I do believe that we need to work on spelling and grammar. We can get by fine without the need to write letters, we have many other ways of communicating, but when I hear an adult utter this phrase “I ain’t got no . . .” it makes me cringe. I don’t consider myself a grammar nazi, but my God, please try to take some pride in yourself and get an education.

If you have children, please read to them. They deserve as good a chance at a good education as anyone. Those children who are being read to are going to fair much better than those children who are not read to. Reading really is that important.

Organizing, Who Has the Time?

I need a place to record all of my story ideas and I think I may have come up with a solution. At first blush, this blog seems like the obvious place, but I’m not ready to regurgitate all of my raw thoughts in such a public place yet. Although by recording this post, regurgitating raw thoughts is exactly what I am about to do. Perhaps this will be the trickle needed to break through the dam of resistance I have felt against using the blog to store my thoughts.

The intended purpose of this post is to come up with a way to file my raw stories into some organized pattern in which I can easily connect my thoughts. It is sort of like brain storming an idea to come up with a solution. Okay, so I ‘m brain storming with myself. But feel free to jump in anytime you want to. All help is greatly appreciated. I promise I will not scoff at you, after all a successful brain storming session accepts all thoughts.

What do I do with all of these ideas I have flooding my head? They need to be numbered so I can keep track of them. They need to be numbered so I can keep them together because I have this habit of just writing things down no matter where I am and I write them down on whatever material I find available. I once had a story idea so compelling while shopping in a department store that I went to the office supply aisle, grabbed a pen and some paper and began writing right there. When I got to the check out the cashier looked at me funny and felt I had to explain that it was stuff I was afraid of forgetting. She chuckled and said I’m not the only one that happens to. She then told me of one guy who grabbed a box of cereal to write on and had to buy it even though he didn’t like that brand. Okay, so I’m not that unusual. One point goes for keeping me somewhat in touch with the rest of the world.

So, how to keep track of these things, I find I don’t really keep up on indexing so that won’t work. Do I really need to date these ideas, I don’t think so. I can give them working titles but I don’t always remember those, which is why I at one time used the indexing idea. Numbering, I guess. Maybe the number format could involve the date, something like mmddyy-sequence #. The sequence could be for that day only or for the entire life of my ability to come up with story ideas. I have so damned many I will never get them written. I have an office file box full of partially written story ideas sitting in the garage. Maybe I should go through those. I feel excitement building up within me at the thought of a new project to start. As if I don’t already have so many to chose from.

Geez, look at all the text I just wrote simply trying to figure out how to keep track of story ideas. Is this pitiful or what. Something will come to me, but right now I need to start writing these ideas down. A plan, I need a plan. The first phase is to empty my spiral notebook that I take everywhere now. There is a website called 750words that I have been using for three months now to record my free form thoughts every day and I love using it. But I quickly outgrew that for several reasons. One involves the time of day I wake up. 3 am comes awfully early for a lot of people. For me it has become routine. Only occasionally am I blessed with a couple extra hours of sleep, but all in all it is rare. Anyway, being up at that time of day and getting on the computer to write could be a bit disturbing to my wife, even though she seems to be able to sleep through a bomb blast. Nah, that’s not even been tested and I guess I don’t really believe that, but she is a sound sleeper. Even so, my typing could possibly disturb her so just suffice it to say that I choose not to get on the computer until after she awakens. Bless her heart for being able to sleep the generally accepted requirement of eight hours a day. I get by perfectly fine on five and a couple cups of coffee.

I go to the living room, three rooms away, where I won’t disturb her and set up my temporary office consisting of a pen and spiral writing pad, a couple pencils and a spiral drawing pad, several of the books I am currently reading and since these days it is so freakin’ cold I wrap up in a thick warm blanket. I write, I draw, and I read. I write when the mood strikes, and as I have previously stated, it strikes a lot, and then later I go to the 750words website and record into that. Cheating, I don’t think so because what I enter is actually free-form and free-flowing thoughts as is intended on the site. I just use it because it gets me in the habit of writing on a daily basis. Oh, I failed to mention one aspect that keeps me coming back to the website. Each day I am logged on I am told how long my writing streak is. Currently I am on a 48 day streak. I found that being told this, at first , kept me coming back. Now, it doesn’t mean as much. The magic of that small bit of information has gotten me into the habit of writing daily and I appreciate that.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, That spiral notebook I use for writing is close to fifteen pages ahead of my daily target of writing 750 words. It has gotten way too far ahead of my ability to sit at my computer long enough to record all that I have written. After all, I do have other things going on in my life, blasphemy to some I know, but gardening, cooking, drawing, etc are not things I wish to give up.

Hence, the need for a system to record all of my story ideas. I choose to use Microsoft word, well because it is on my computer. It is an old version but it is workable. I can back up everything onto Dropbox so that as long as I have computer access I will be able to record, copy and paste into this blog or anywhere else I choose. Keeping them organized remains my biggest concern now.

Is the Art of Handwriting Dying?

Nowadays almost everyone is typing or texting (SMS) instead of using that very old-fashioned form of communicating, the written word. Any discussion of the lost art of the spoken word is left to another forum. The most handwriting we do these days, outside of schools, involves little more than a signature. And even many schools are shifting to computerized exams and homework assignments. Can it really be because we are trying to save trees? Somehow, I don’t think so.

Taking notes, involving the use of a pen or pencil, typically employs a personal form of shorthand and cannot really be considered penmanship. But even this will soon be lost to  the ipad or some other form of electronic device which will use a type font.

I suppose that as long as we continue to communicate, losing this art form will not raise any concerns. Except to those people who still appreciate the beauty of the handwritten word. To them there is a certain sexiness in the careful curvature of letters that goes beyond simply conveying a message. The sinuous flow and connectivity of a handwritten sentence can expose a great deal about the writer. Using the proper words to articulate your feelings can be enhanced by a handwritten word in ways that type face simply cannot.

Sending a handwritten note communicates a level of intimacy that cannot be conveyed through the cold sharpness of a typed word or, shudder, the abbreviated semblance of ‘words’ that is the domain of the texting world.

Free fonts to personalize the feel of our blogs and websites abound if you but take the time to look for them. Some of there fairly closely resemble handwriting and I have noticed there are bloggers out there who are beginning to shun traditional typeface in favor of fake handwriting typeface. There are still others who choose to use their own handwriting by simply scanning their writings into their posts.  Sabrina Ward Harrison’s blog displays her uncensored and uncorrected handwriting that, perhaps, during a time when everyone was still handwriting everything, may have been viewed as, well, sloppy. But, that ‘sloppiness’ now denotes a raw quality that is somehow fresh.

Calligraphy is the ‘art of handwriting’. A person skilled in Calligraphy can add such a tremendous depth to the written word. I love viewing beautiful handwriting. The personal touch, the patience and attention that goes into really good calligraphy denotes confidence and passion.

I’m willing to bet that if you were to write a personal note to someone instead of choosing a pre-typed greeting card, you would be pleasantly surprised by the response. I think deep down we all appreciate receiving a handwritten message. It shows the person thought enough of you to take the time to write instead of relying on some run of the mill expression in a greeting card.

So, liven up your blog, your website, your note taking and your personal life by re-discovering the art of handwriting. You’ll e glad you did.

Rejection is only an opinion

Most fans know that Stephen King’s big break came with Carrie, the story of a friendless, abused girl with secret telekinetic powers. A total of 30 publishing houses rejected his story for various reasons. One publishing house told him they were “not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.”

In fact, he became so frustrated with the rejection that he dumped “Carrie” in the garbage. His wife, Tabitha, saw the manuscript and rescued it. After reading it she convinced him to keep trying. That was the start of King’s career (and lots of sleepless nights for many fortunate readers).

Doubleday picked up the paperback rights to the novel and sold more than a million copies in its first year.

Rejection is only an opinion.