It seems almost too basic to mention. You’ve been holding a pen (or pencil) since at least kindergarten.
Unfortunately, the traditional way to hold a pen, the way we all learned in school, makes it easy to start gripping it, putting a lot of stress on the thumb, fingers, and hand muscles.
The emotional challenge of writing is part of the fun. But it shouldn’t be physically painful.
Years ago, however, I learned a new way to hold a pen that puts no stress on my hand whatsoever. As a result, writing is less painful, and hence easier to actually do.
Today, decades later, if I start writing with a traditional grip, I physically can’t stand it for more than a minute. It’s too uncomfortable. I have to switch.
The Dis-Ease of Writing
For all the range of input devices — mouses, screens, scrollers, touch pads, tablet pens, etc. — our primary interface with technology remains the keyboard.
And yet, the market outlook for ballpoint pens could hardly be brighter.
So I was astonished to learn that cursive writing is no longer taught in schools. How is this not a fundamental skill, like tying your shoes?
My point is that we tilt our keyboards and position our pointing devices to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, shoulder pain, and other ergonomically avoidable ailments.
But we take no such care with our pens. In the tech revolution, we’re gripping more pens than ever, but our hands still hurt.
How Most People Hold a Pen
The way we most often learn is to grip a pen with three fingertips (thumb and two fingers) and rest the pen on the “first web” — the pad of muscle between the thumb and index finger (Image #1). The third and fourth fingers rest on the page, stabilizing the hand while writing.
There are recognized variations, and of course individual preference, and left-handers need to position their hand or the paper differently so they can a) see what they’re writing, and b) not smudge the ink.
My own variation was to make a bad situation worse by adding my third (ring) finger into the grip (Image #2), thereby exerting (and exhausting) even more muscles to grasp the pen even tighter.
The Secret, Revealed
My conversion happened simply. A coworker took one look at how I was gripping my pen and said, “Your hand must hurt. Wanna see an easier way?”
“Sure,” I said.
All he did was change where the barrel of the pen rested on my hand. Instead of the first web, he moved it between the bases of the index and middle fingers (“second web”). From there, the fingers and thumb easily curved down to rest near the pen tip (Image #3).
In this position, the index and middle fingers are close together and hold the pen in place naturally, without effort. And the fingers don’t need to grip the pen at all; they simply guide.
In contrast to the traditional grip — and more so my own tighter variation — this way of holding a pen requires no muscular effort whatsoever. Guiding the tip requires next to no effort; or none if you drive the writing action with your arm instead of the fingers and wrist, which tire more easily.
It took some getting used to. But like I said, this “grip” (I can hardly call it that) is so much easier that today I can’t even write the old way for more than a minute.
Don’t Get a Grip
The health benefits of relaxing your pen grip speak for themselves. It can prevent chronic pain, or worse, in your fingers, hand, wrist, arm, and shoulders.
The creative benefits are less obvious but no less real and enduring.
That is, you may have a lot of perfectly understandable psychological reasons for not doing the blogging or other writing you want to be doing.
But you’ll never feel like writing anything if it’s physically painful to write.
You may try my grip and decide you still prefer your current way. Do whatever works.
The point is not to change how you hold a pen, but to be mindful of it. Maybe you’ll keep your current grip, just relax it a little.
If nothing else, do it for your health. Your writing may flow a little bit easier too.