How to write certain Kanji properly?

Japanese Language Kanji
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So when I’m writing Kanji, I’m having trouble with some of them being legible. My handwriting isn’t great even in my native language but I was wondering how people write such detailed Kanji with a pen. I’m using a regular copy book and when I’m writing things like 書, 着 and 事, the horizontal lines tend to get in each other’s way or spill out onto the next line. Do Japanese copy books have wider lines or do they use thinner pens or am I missing some technique that makes it much easier? I’m using the correct stroke order so I don’t think that’s the problem. And I don’t really have trouble with many other Kanji. Just the ones with lots of horizontal lines. Anyone else have this issue?

How the hell am I going to write this: 驫!?

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Maybe you just need to practice writing parallel horizontal lines very close to each other?

Fortunately for your sanity, you’re never going to need to write that. Unless you want to. It’s not a Joyo kanji, and there’s no words that actually use it.

Tangentially, one of the reasons for the most recent edit to the Joyo kanji list was to add kanji like 熊 and 鹿 which are in fairly common usage, but are extremely annoying to write by hand - since everyone’s using computers today, and computers let you write any kanji you know the reading of, the handwriting difficulty was no longer an issue.

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Those poor schoolchildren with 轟 in their name lol

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Are you using a Japanese style notebook for writing practice? They have grids that are more conducive to writing kanji.

Here is one I got from the 100 Yen shop last time I was in Japan. Each large rectangle is 1.5cm wide by 1.75cm tall, and that is fairly manageable.

750×1332 132 KB

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You could try using a 筆 (fude) pen…

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You don’t have to learn how to write beautifully in any language. Just go to med school and when you become a doctor, people will accept your handwriting no matter how bad.

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Another concept rarely explained to non-native learners is that it’s okay to write complicated kanji bigger than simple kanji, even though in fonts they’re all (nearly) the same dimensions. If you’re writing the word 無口, it’s fine to write 無 taller than 口, probably by as much as like 30%.

Also, they tend to use paper designed for Japanese, so that may also be your issue.

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Agreed, I find the ones with each square divided into quarters are the best - they help me balance the different sides of the kanji.

Also, knowing radicals and stroke order means that even if your writing isn’t very legible, people will still be able to recognise what it’s supposed to be.

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