What Your Untidy Handwriting is Trying to Tell You

Most people assume that untidy handwriting is something they should apologise for. Or at least try to hide or fix.

Handwriting, especially the more irregular kind, covers an astonishing range from light and quirky to dark and sinister.

Some examples look stressed and anxious. Others look dark and even frightening and here I would refer to the handwriting of Jack the Ripper with its gory appearance and dripping letters. Indeed history has its share of ugly, threatening letters.

And yet at the other end of the spectrum, you find something entirely different – energy and originality with a type of drive that refuses to move in straight lines. There are some untidy handwritings that even though they may look chaotic on the surface they nevertheless carry some strong and vibrant inner momentum.

We cannot simply batch all untidy handwriting into one amorphous group. And if truth be told, I understood this from the inside because my own handwriting has never been neat and tidy. For a long time it felt like a silent flaw – a lot more than a mere irritation.

And it was precisely that frustration that led me to explore handwriting more deeply because I could not accept the idea that unconventional writing meant something lacking in a person; that it implied something deficient or defective in one’s personality.

In fact, the more I looked, the less convincing that idea became. Because in some cases while irregular handwriting can reflect uncertainty, lack of confidence or even instability – it can also tell a very different and positive story. Because untidy handwriting can also show independence of spirit and originality. It can point to the type of person who is less concerned with appearances but more absorbed in activating a deep and personal ambition. It can be an indication of someone who thinks independently, questions assumptions and doesn’t feel compelled to conform to conventional standards either on paper or in life.

Untidy handwriting can be seen as unconventional and individualistic because it resists uniformity. Which is why it can also reveal creative tendencies in a way that polished, carefully crafted handwriting cannot.

So if you are tempted to feel discouraged about your handwriting, it is worth remembering the company you are in.

Figures such as Pablo Picasso, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Walt Disney were not known for elegant penmanship; yet their originality shaped entire cultural trends.

Freud’s handwriting was far from neat and elegant