How to Hold a Pen

Before we begin, you need to learn how to hold a pen.

If you are right handed, take a pen or pencil in your left hand. Hold it between your thumb and pointing finger, with the end for writing pointing to your wrist.

With your right hand, make the letter 'o' with your thumb and pointing finger. Then open the 'o' and place the pen into it, holding the pen half way down, at its balancing point. Then slide the pointing finger down to rest along the top of the pen.

Look at the pictures.

The top of the pen should rest somewhere along the soft spot between your thumb knuckle and pointing finger knuckle, closer to your pointing finger knuckle. Every hand is slightly different, so you will find your place with use as you learn to command the pen. It will feel right.

But you cannot write yet: the pen needs to be supported. This is the hard part.

Slide your middle finger (the second finger, counting from your thumb) underneath the pen. This is the pen's table. It rests on this finger. The other two fingers you will not need, and they can tuck into the palm of your hand, or be bent slightly out of the way.

Now, loosen the grip of the 'o' and with your free hand, slide the pen up and down. You don't want the writing end too close to your fingers, because then your eye will not be able to see the pen tip on the page. You don't want it too far away, as you will lose control. About as much as one small finger joint poking out towards the page is good.

This is a very hard skill, but it is 90% of the work for having good handwriting.

Now, grip the pen in the 'o', supporting it from below, and twiddle it a bit between your thumb and pointing finger. When you write with a modern pen you will not need to twiddle it, but for scripts like Sanskrit or some fancy Latin scripts like copperplate, you will, if you are writing with a flat nibbed pen. For now, we are teaching you as though you are using a pencil or a normal ball point pen.

While the lessons continue, I will remind you from time to time about holding your pen, and ask you: are you holding the pen too tightly? Is there a space of a small finger joint of pen sticking out from the 'o', or is the pen crammed up against your fingers?

These reminders are needed, as your hand needs to learn, and it takes time. Some students learn immediately, others take longer. Everyone learns.

Here are some photographs and drawings of the pen being correctly held. There is more than one picture, because only one picture is not enough.