Part 5: Keeping Your Letter Sizes Consistent
Giving your words a natural rhythm.
Now that we know how to keep our writing sitting on a straight line, the next simple trick to make our handwriting look neatly presented is consistency in size. When our letters are all roughly the same height, our text instantly becomes easier to read and feels incredibly grounded.
When I was practising my letters on a standard, single-lined sheet of paper, I found it incredibly helpful to mentally break that single line space into thirds. It is a fantastic trick that completely prevents our sentences from looking squashed, crowded, or messy.
Here is exactly how we can divide that single line space as we write:
The Bottom Third: This is your baseline. Short letters like a, e, i, o, c sit here, taking up just the bottom third of the line space.
The Middle Third: This is where our tall letters like h, l, t, b, d reach up into.
The Below-the-Line Space: This is for our hanging letters like y, j, g, p, q. Let them drop partway down into the empty space below the baseline, keeping them neat and controlled.
By keeping our letters tucked into the bottom and middle thirds, we are intentionally leaving the top third of our line space completely empty. That empty top third acts as a safety buffer. When the loops and tails from the sentence above drop down, they fall safely into that empty space, meaning our lines of writing will never crash or clash with each other.
Please remember: perfection isn't key here. We don't need to pull out a microscopic measuring tape. Our goal is simply to be aware of these spaces and slow down enough to let our hands find that natural rhythm. Just having this awareness in our minds as we write will completely transform our pages.
Your Next Project: The Note of Appreciation
To practise our letter sizes, our project is to create a small card or slip of paper featuring a message of appreciation or warmth for someone else.
This is completely open—it could be a simple "Thank you" card for a helpful neighbour, a cheerful "Happy Birthday" note for a family member, or a short message letting a friend know you are glad to have them in your life.
Prepare your lines: Grab a piece of neat, lined paper or lightly sketch single straight lines onto a blank card using a ruler and pencil.
Write slowly: Focus on letting your small letters occupy the bottom third, your tall letters stop in the middle third, and your tails drop safely below.
Finish the piece: Once your ink dries, gently rub out any pencil marks.
We'll be left with a beautifully balanced piece of writing that shows love through both our words and the deliberate care we took to write them.