The Art and Science of Cursive
5th November 2026
I write in cursive and draw to print. This is because, thanks to two English teachers in 5th and 6th grade, cursive is ingrained in muscle memory. I take notes in script, because it is easier and faster. I write stories in script, for the same reason. Printing is hard for me, cursive has become easy.
Cursive writing, like everything it seems, developed over time and out of necessity. You will not find cursive on monuments or stone inscriptions, with perhaps the exception of hiretic on the Rosetta Stone. If you are using a chisel on stone, curved letters and connected letters won’t work well. The Greeks found ways around it, but the Romans? Capital letters, with straight lines for the most part, separated so that words are clearer (as long as you know all the abbreviations they used). However, if you are a scribe taking rapid dictation on a scrap of papyrus, or a wax tablet, you can link your letters, make more curves, and develop smaller characters since space is important, and you know what you have written. Official documents tend to keep separated letters, well spaced (material permitting) even when on parchment instead of stone. Readability by officials was important.
As the centuries passed, and paper, different types of pens, and literacy all spread, more people needed to write more quickly. Charlemagne had tried to standardize official writing with what is called Carolingian minuscule, which was indeed clear and legiable. However, people would let the letters connect when they wrote for their own use. The 800s or so is also when standard lowercase letters developed in the Roman alphabet. Greek already had them, however, until the influx of scholars from Constantinople into western Europe in the early 1400s, Greek was less common than Latin. Arabic, written on paper almost from the beginning, used cursive. When your script doubles as decoration and calligraphy truly is a fine art, flowing letters are the rule, not the exception. However, despite Charlemagne’s attempt to standardize written language, local and regional scripts flourished. Each teacher had a slightly different hand, and over time “Paris School” or “Fluda School” styles grew more distinct, and harder for outsiders to read. If you are keeping notes for your own use to be transcribed later, unique or regional styles are OK. When those crept into official documents that left the region, problems developed. Political and theological language are complicated enough as it is without “is that an a, an o, or something else?” adding moments of excitement.
Alma Boykin is one of the best writers of speculative fiction living. Get and read her books.
If you are one of the Deprived Moderns and would like to get in to cursive writing, you could do worse that learn the Library Hand.