Can someone tell me why everyone with any kind of online journaling/writing/hand lettering presence seems to hold their pens like this? Because this seems to be one of the worst, most pain-promoting ways you could hold a pen.
Replies
I've always held pens like this. Only way I can get a stable grip and regular pressure. And I did almost all my schooling pre-computers! It's just one of those things some people do differently. I also can't roll my tongue or click my fingers and have to swap my knife hand to eat peas. 🤷♀️
aug 31, 2025, 11:17 am • 0 0 • view
Like I seriously had a lot of difficulty contorting my hand like this for even one photo. I can’t imagine actually trying to write like this. I couldn’t even get the pen nib pointing the write way the first two tries.
aug 30, 2025, 4:27 pm • 10 0 • view
Is this because no one actually writes anymore? I used to take 5-10 pages of notes per class Or work meeting. I still write 6-8 page letters. Am I a helpless anachronism?
aug 30, 2025, 4:27 pm • 6 0 • view
Anyway, after the apocalypse, when you need a scribe, come get me 🤷🏻♀️
aug 30, 2025, 4:27 pm • 4 0 • view
It may be that this posture allows the camera to see what's being written? I've not tried, but it's possible that a normal grip obscures the page too much? Eg I've found myself doing contortions to try and get a good angle while videoing gardening.
aug 30, 2025, 4:59 pm • 3 0 • view
I wondered about this too, but I find the opposite actually. I cannot see what the creator is doing until after they’ve moved their hand away.
aug 30, 2025, 5:04 pm • 3 0 • view
You should found a scribe guild.
aug 31, 2025, 6:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Reminds me of one of our most famous poets, saying "Excuse my writing such a long letter, didn't have time for a shorter one."
aug 31, 2025, 10:37 am • 1 0 • view
lol I feel that
aug 31, 2025, 2:21 pm • 0 0 • view
No idea, but I write like that too and can't write any other way. I actually have a bump on my middle finger because of it 🙄 if I could've changed this, I would have done so a long time ago.
aug 31, 2025, 7:45 am • 0 0 • view
Different pen(cil) grasps are a normal part of childhood motor development and are affected by one's motor abilities at the time writing is acquired. It's a fascinating subject. Where one eventually lands probably happens early and won't change without intervention, but everything has a reason.
aug 30, 2025, 10:51 pm • 2 0 • view
Okay, but I would expect to see a wide variety of pen grips from content creators, and yet I only see this one over and over and over again. It especially surprises me in people teaching/modelling calligraphy and hand lettering, as it seems to restrict movement and promote pressing down hard.
aug 30, 2025, 10:58 pm • 2 0 • view
I did read something about this -how schools no longer enforce the tripod grip, and that also a lot of girls who make planner videos have long nails which affects the grip. The whole 'thumb wrap' looks uncomfortable to me. There was a reddit thread.. www.reddit.com/r/explainlik...
aug 30, 2025, 4:44 pm • 7 1 • view
Thanks for that link. It just seems like a spiral where writing is uncomfortable and “hard” so one writes less, which makes it more uncomfortable and difficult, which means one writes even less, and so on. Type if you want but it should be real choice, not a false one, you know?
aug 30, 2025, 4:56 pm • 6 1 • view
I find I do best with fountain pens. As I get older they require less pressure and flow across the page.
aug 30, 2025, 5:04 pm • 3 0 • view
I love writing with them too. There is the issue of the ink not being able to withstand getting wet though. Not great for grocery lists 😄
aug 30, 2025, 5:07 pm • 4 0 • view
Do you know about Jet Pens? Great store and for every fountain pen ink they sell they show how the ink behaves when water hits it. (Many stores do that, actually.) Some inks are, even if not water-proof, are very water-resistant. www.jetpens.com?gad_source=1...
aug 30, 2025, 6:05 pm • 5 0 • view
I will check that out , thank you!
aug 30, 2025, 6:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Just don't blame me when your pocketbook squeaks! 😀
aug 30, 2025, 6:14 pm • 4 0 • view
I do this, shopping lusts in fountain pen are so much more motivating:: then I use a second colour to delete items as I go
aug 31, 2025, 3:32 pm • 4 0 • view
I agree. The pleasure of working with one of my fountain pens at least reduces a bit the tedium of drafting up yet another shopping list.
aug 31, 2025, 3:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Shopping LISTS lol
aug 31, 2025, 3:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Well, fountain pens and shopping lust in the same sentence makes perfect sense. But I gotcha.
aug 31, 2025, 3:34 pm • 4 0 • view
Try document or forever inks. Not India ink, though, unless you have “destroy innocent fountain pens” money.
aug 30, 2025, 9:11 pm • 6 0 • view
"archival ink".
aug 30, 2025, 10:14 pm • 4 0 • view
I rediscovered writing a decade ago with my first nice fountain pen. I wrote little things, of course: notes, entries in scientific notebooks, etc. But not long-form stuff. I had to re-teach myself cursive. My kids' schools don't teach cursive, only typing. They don't, as a rule, write much at all.
aug 31, 2025, 3:43 pm • 2 0 • view
My child got a little bit of cursive in grade 2 but that was only because of the teacher they had wanted to do it as an option. I taught them the rest. They now write their journal in cursive because none of their contemporaries can read it.
aug 31, 2025, 3:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Interesting points, CO, especially the nails - def hadn't thought of that. I keep my nails very short as it interferes with a) everything and b) typing in particular.
aug 30, 2025, 5:01 pm • 2 0 • view
I see a lot of people with short nails using this grip too. It seems to have escaped containment to become the online standard.
aug 30, 2025, 5:03 pm • 3 0 • view
Then clearly we must resist. 😊
aug 30, 2025, 5:04 pm • 3 0 • view
In my old-lady-yelling-at-clouds era, obv 😄
aug 30, 2025, 5:07 pm • 4 0 • view
Well, I already talk to insects, so I'm well on my way... 😀
aug 30, 2025, 7:50 pm • 3 0 • view
😂 ...
aug 31, 2025, 4:16 am • 1 0 • view
I just checked and i dont wrap my thumb over my finger like that
aug 30, 2025, 10:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Young students have to taught how to hold the pen correctly. Correction is really hard to implement on this.
aug 31, 2025, 5:23 pm • 0 0 • view
Such people have begun handwriting in a wrong way, i.e. they did not learn it correctly when they were beginners (children) and keep that way during lifetime? Pelikan nowadays offers fountain pens for beginners, which deal with the way to hold a pen from the first beginning without any pain.
aug 31, 2025, 3:41 am • 1 0 • view
I am going to a Pelikan event next month! Now I’m even more interested to see what their pens are like.
aug 31, 2025, 3:44 am • 1 0 • view
In which Pelikan hub do you take part?
aug 31, 2025, 4:10 am • 0 0 • view
I’m in Regina SK. This will be my first one. A friend told me about them this summer.
aug 31, 2025, 4:13 am • 2 0 • view
Wow! Enjoy it! I tried to take part in Frankfurt/Main, but this hub has been cancelled this year, unfortunately. Do you know Inkquiring Minds channel on YouTube? I've learnt a lot from him as quality and comfort of pens are concerned. His grail pen is a Pelikan M800 (blue), he made a review on it.
aug 31, 2025, 4:24 am • 1 0 • view
I am wondering, if Inkquiring Minds takes part in a Pelikan hub, too. I'll ask him next Saturday, when he is live again on YouTube. You may join us, too.
aug 31, 2025, 4:27 am • 0 0 • view
I’ll look at his channel. Thanks!
aug 31, 2025, 4:30 am • 1 0 • view
Watch out for the M800 (gold clip) or M805 (silver clip, rhodium plated nib) and try to do a writing sample with it. It's my perfect pen as size, weight, comfort, nib and result (even handwriting for hours) is concerned. Pelikan designs are clever. 😁 ;-) (I am not affiliated with the company.)
aug 31, 2025, 3:55 am • 2 0 • view
This Pelikan pen for absolute beginners e.g. is called "Griffix" - by design, children are getting quick and easy into the right position to hold a pen correctly - without pain or using to much power.
aug 31, 2025, 3:44 am • 3 0 • view
I love that! It reminds me a bit of the things we used to slide on our pencils at school to help our grip.
aug 31, 2025, 3:48 am • 1 0 • view
Exactly! Children in Germany learn handwriting with a fountain pen at school. So Pelikan (and some other German companies) designed them for beginners. The huge part of Pelikans turnover is made with special stuff for children (pens, pencils, water colors aso). They are experts.
aug 31, 2025, 4:00 am • 3 0 • view
No pen must cause pain or your hand feeling tired during hand-writing. Decades ago, when people had to write mostly by hand, it was the basis of Pelikans success to offer not only elegant writing instruments, but such of utmost convenience. These principles are still followed. For all ages.
aug 31, 2025, 4:09 am • 1 0 • view
I really like, that Pelikans Griffix gets the children even to get used to a twist-on cap - of course, a twist-on designed especially for absolute beginners, too. ;-)
aug 31, 2025, 3:49 am • 3 0 • view
I've noticed that too, mainly because it's how I hold a pen. That was one of the main reasons why I got into fountain pens in the first place, to try to improve - or at least lighten - my grip. It hasn't improved my grip, but the death grip is a bit looser these days, and my hand aches less.
aug 31, 2025, 2:05 am • 4 0 • view
Also, in case anyone thinks this is a new phenomenon, I first held a pen in the 1970s. I was corrected and then punished by teachers for years for my grip and handwriting. I have bought special pens, and slipped triangular rubber sleeves over pens. My workhorse fountain pens include Lamy Safaris.
aug 31, 2025, 5:21 am • 0 0 • view
I was taught writing in the '60s, when there was no alternative to the three-finger control position permitted. Seeing other grips makes me feel queasy.
aug 31, 2025, 6:16 am • 1 0 • view
I would have had an even worse experience of learning to write at that time.
aug 31, 2025, 7:05 am • 1 0 • view
It was not fun at the time, but in retrospect I don't mind that much.
aug 31, 2025, 7:32 am • 1 0 • view
I manage the same hold over all of them. The tripod grip just seems to lack control, and I can never maintain it for longer than a few characters.
aug 31, 2025, 5:22 am • 0 0 • view
Curious if you’ve ever tried something like Spencerian style penmanship? The manual has a whole section on grip and has suggestions for things to do to train your hand. It also incorporates whole-arm movement led from the shoulder. I wonder how something like that might feel for you.
aug 31, 2025, 5:57 am • 1 0 • view
I have not heard of the Spencerian style, so thank you for that. 😊 I'll have a look at the manual and give it a go. I have never been accused of writing with "an inexhaustible variety of beautiful forms", so I only stand to gain.
aug 31, 2025, 7:03 am • 1 0 • view
Maybe I need to get that Pelikan Griffix. 🙂
aug 31, 2025, 5:24 am • 0 0 • view
That thumb grip shows up a lot in the ADHD/neurodivergent community, and I’ll bet the crossover with the FB folks is high.
aug 30, 2025, 9:10 pm • 3 0 • view
I have autism. I have to force myself not to do this. that's interesting.
aug 30, 2025, 10:15 pm • 2 0 • view
hey @sensorystories.bsky.social check this out.
aug 30, 2025, 10:17 pm • 2 0 • view
Here’s a non-expert link talking about some correlations. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8BGhqua/
aug 31, 2025, 5:58 pm • 0 0 • view
thanks!
aug 31, 2025, 8:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Very interesting point! 🧐
aug 31, 2025, 4:19 am • 0 0 • view