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How to Make a Beautiful Handwritten Note
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The perfect handwritten note can help get your message across in a powerful way! Today, we’ll talk about seven tips for writing an effective note, from minding the margins to finding your perfect handwriting style.
Did you know: all sorts of businesses have popped up that offer to write the perfect handwritten note. Basically, these businesses argue (accurately, wouldn’t you agree?) that email inboxes are saturated. Also, people are used to receiving standard typed notes in their (real-life) mailboxes, so those don’t stand out. Nothing attracts more attention more than a handwritten note.
I feel delighted when I receive a handwritten note for several reasons. First, a handwritten note says “I took precious time out of my day to go the extra mile for you”. Second, a note is tangible, which is special because most of our communication takes place over screens. Finally, a note gives you a peek into someone’s personality via their handwriting. (Think about it: we all know people whose handwriting we have never seen!) Today, I’d like to offer seven tips for making your own beautiful handwritten note for someone to treasure. We’ll start with a video, then recap everything in a written article.
How to Make a Beautiful Handwritten Note: The Video
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsXWF8k1zEY]
How to Make a Beautiful Handwritten Note
1. Test Your Pen (and Warm Up)
How many times have you gone to write a note only to find that the pen doesn’t start as you expected it to? To prevent surprises (and to warm up your hand), begin your note with some squiggles on a scrap piece of paper. Those squiggles will serve to prepare the pen and loosen up your hand a bit, too!
Making squiggles on a scrap piece of paper before writing is always a good idea. 2. Choose Your Strongest Handwriting Style
We all have a few handwriting styles at our disposal. Likely, you can write in neat print, messy print, neat cursive, messy cursive, and/or “pursive” — a mix of print and cursive. Choose the handwriting style that you excel at writing. It’s all about embracing what gels best with your skillset and personality. If you’re not sure what works best for you, experiment! (You can try out several different handwriting styles in TPK’s Improve Your Handwriting Course.)
I almost always choose to write in cursive because I know that my cursive looks better than my print. 3. Keep an Exemplar Handy
Here’s a trick from the Improve Your Handwriting Course: make an exemplar of your very best handwriting. Then, pull out that exemplar anytime you want to go the extra mile to write a beautiful note.
I pull up the alphabet exemplar from the Elegant Cursive Handwriting Worksheet whenever I want to write a beautiful handwritten note. I don’t have all of the letters memorized, and it helps me to have an alphabet to quickly reference. 4. Write on Blank Paper (and Use Guidelines)
Neatly-written notes on blank paper always pack the most visual punch. But, how do you make those notes without guidelines? My trick: a light box and lined paper. For 5″ x 7″ notes, I use this (free) printable with slant lines. For larger notes, I just tear out a piece of notebook paper and put it behind the paper I’m working on. Then, I place the lined paper and the blank paper over my light box and write!
If you place your blank paper over a template (or lined notebook paper) on top of a light box, the guidelines will shine through. This allows you to write perfect notes without a trace of guidelines! A quick disclaimer: this technique only works with light-colored papers. Also, it’s not impossible to create eye-catching notes on notebook paper, especially if you’re pressed for time or don’t have a light box. Just look at the beautiful note below:
This note might have been written on lined paper, but it’s still stunning. Clean margins and elegant cursive handwriting work to ensure its beauty. 5. Maintain Margins
Nothing makes a note look busier than writing that extends to the edge of the page. If you can see that a word will get uncomfortably close to your page’s edge, hyphenate! Remember that you can add a hyphen after any syllable in a word and resume writing that word on the next line.
6. Write With a Fountain Pen (or a Fine-Tipped Pen)
While pens with medium or wide tips can make lovely writing, it’s easiest to achieve delicately beautiful handwriting with a fine-tipped pen. For the ultimate thin stroke, write with a fine-tipped fountain pen. (I often use a Pilot Falcon pen with an extra fine tip.) In the comparison note below, you can see the difference between an extra fine-tipped fountain pen and a Pilot G2 05 pen:
What do you observe about the difference between these two notes? Which do you prefer? I prefer the top version. However, I should mention that there’s a massive price difference between these pens! The Pilot G2 05 gel pen sells for ~$3, and the Pilot Falcon fountain pen is ~$180. 7. Don’t Cross Out Your Mistakes
It’s almost impossible to avoid typos in handwritten notes. Since you can’t click the “delete” key when you’re doing things by hand, run with your mistakes! Instead of crossing a word out, acknowledge the error in your note and keep on writing.
Acknowledging your mistakes within a note makes the note look better than it would if you were to cross out words. It also adds some personality to what you’re saying!
I hope these tips help you next time you want to create an eye-catching handwritten note! Remember that handwritten notes can get you far. Among other things:
- Sending handwritten notes to clients can help your business stand out (especially according to the companies who write commissioned marketing notes).
- A well-timed handwritten note after an interview will help you shine, particularly if the handwriting is neat and the message thoughtful.
- Friends and family will treasure the notes that you write to them for years to come. (Now that my grandmothers have passed, their handwritten notes to me are even more special.)
This company uses handwriting to catch potential customers’ attention. (One thing I will say: this note was printed en masse, which makes it feel less special. Second, I would have chosen a masculine print style — like the architect handwriting in the Improve Your Handwriting Course — to market windows.)
Feeling inspired? Implement these tips this weekend by writing out recipes, a birthday card greeting, or a quick thank you for someone! Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing. 🙂
Warmly,
PS – Love handwriting? You can click here to see all of TPK’s handwriting-related articles. Note that there is an affiliate link (Pilot Falcon Fountain Pen) to Goldspot pens in this article.
