Chinese Handwriting & Penmanship Workshop

Are you sick of having messy handwriting in Chinese?

Whether you're new to writing Chinese characters or simply want to refine your technique, our Handwriting & Penmanship Workshop is the perfect opportunity to elevate your penmanship.

Why Penmanship Matters

In the digital age, it's easy to overlook the importance of good handwriting. But whether you're jotting down notes, writing a letter, or filling out forms, clear and legible handwriting is a skill that leaves a lasting impression. In Chinese, where each character is a work of art, the ability to write beautifully and accurately is even more essential.

It's also a great way to look up characters you don't know yet—the handwriting input on phones makes it super easy to type characters even if you don't know how to pronounce them!

It's also a great way to get native speakers to take you more seriously—handwriting is very important in Chinese culture, and having nice handwriting shows that you're respecting that part of the culture.

The Workshop Overview

Over 30 days, you'll embark on a journey to transform your Chinese handwriting, following the principles laid out in Johan Björkstén's classic book, Learn to Write Chinese Characters. This isn't about mastering calligraphy—it's about developing practical, everyday penmanship that is both efficient and aesthetically pleasing.

It also forms the basis for being able to study calligraphy if that's something you're interested in.

What You Can Expect:

● Daily Structured Practice: Each day, you'll receive carefully designed practice sheets that focus on the key elements of Chinese character writing. From basic strokes to more complex forms, you'll build your skills step by step.

● Penmanship Techniques: Learn the best practices for writing strokes, balancing components, and creating aesthetic characters. We'll cover everything from stroke order to the subtle nuances that make a character look just right.

● Character Breakdown: Understand the anatomy of Chinese characters. We’ll explore how radicals, components, and stroke order work together to form balanced, legible characters.

● Real-World Application: By the end of the workshop, you’ll not only improve your penmanship but also gain confidence in writing Chinese characters in everyday situations. Whether you’re taking notes, writing essays, or just practicing for personal growth, this workshop will give you the skills you need. You'll also acquire the tools and knowledge you need in order to keep improving your handwriting.

Who Should Join?

● Beginners: If you're just starting out with Chinese, this workshop will give you a strong foundation in writing characters correctly and beautifully.

● Intermediates: Already familiar with Chinese characters? This workshop will help you refine your technique, eliminate bad habits, and take your penmanship to the next level.

● Advanced: Have you reached a high level in Chinese but you're still embarrassed by your handwriting? This is your chance to fix it—just 30 days of focused work can make a big difference!

Join Us

The Handwriting & Penmanship Workshop begins on September 1. Don’t miss this chance to transform your handwriting in just 30 days! Sign up now to secure your spot and get ready to make a lasting improvement in your Chinese writing skills.

 

The September 30-Day
Handwriting & Penmanship Workshop

With your coaches...

Here’s what the challenge entails:

We’ve crafted a 30-day program designed to cover all of the essentials when it comes to nice handwriting in Chinese. Each day has specific tasks for you to complete, which are designed to teach you:

● How to write the basic strokes correctly and clearly

● How to write complex strokes and components

● How to balance your characters so they look aesthetically pleasing

● Character structure and how it affects how characters should be written

● How to spot the key elements of each character that will make the character look great

● Lots of practice writing some of the most common characters

● Feedback on handwriting samples that you post to the community

Just 30 minutes a day is all it takes.

All you have to do is show up and do the tasks we give you each day.

The results?

By the end of the month, this experience will deepen your understanding of good handwriting in Chinese, enabling you to:

● Improve your own Chinese handwriting, and

● Identify where your handwriting needs work.

What You'll Get...

The concept is simple yet brutally effective!

Every day, for 30 days, you’ll receive a few tasks to complete.

Days 1-4: The Basic Strokes

For the first few days, we'll focus solely on individual strokes. You may know about 豎 | 竖 shù (vertical) strokes, but do you know about the different types of vertical strokes, and how to know when to use each type? You'll learn all of those details in this phase.

Days 5-6: The Complex Strokes

Some strokes are basically composites of multiple basic strokes. We'll look at the most common ones in this unit.

Days 7-8: Stroke Order

Stroke order is super important, but there are some basic principles you can keep in mind that will let you figure out the correct stroke order of pretty much any character with a high degree of accuracy. We'll cover those principles in this unit, and you should keep them in mind as you go through the rest of the challenge.

Days 9-12: Composition

Many characters have tricks to getting them looking just right. Sometimes there's a key stroke that needs to be emphasized, or one component that needs to be smaller than the other, or there's a (sometimes imaginary) center line that needs to be respected when writing each part of the character. This unit will cover those principles.

Days 13-18: Components

Some components are super high frequency in Chinese characters, and so you can get a lot of bang for your buck by spending some time getting them down cold. In this unit, we'll spend time focusing on and practice a few dozen common components.

Days 19-30: Further Practice

In this unit, we'll have some fun by practicing writing a famous Chinese poem. We'll also give you another 100 or so super common characters to practice.

As you can see, this challenge takes a two-pronged approach:

1. We teach you the basic concepts you need to know, and

2. We give you daily practice exercises so you can incorporate this new knowledge into your muscle memory!

AND

Each week during the challenge, I'll be conducting a few group Q&A/coaching sessions. I'll vary the times to accommodate for different time zones.

Plus, you'll get access to the Handwriting & Penmanship Community—a whole cohort of people going through the challenge along with you. Find an accountability partner, ask questions, and share tips—our communities are always super lively, and many people have made friends with people they met in the community. You can also upload samples of your handwriting, and we'll be happy to give you feedback!

The Results

By the end of the challenge you’ll have improved your handwriting quite a bit, but you'll also have the knowledge and skills you need to continue improving on your own.

We're all about teaching you to fish.

 

Ready to Transform Your Handwriting?

We've meticulously organized the entire challenge, so all you need to do is show up and dive in!

Here's what you need to know to join us:

● Start date: September 1st

● Daily time commitment: 30 minutes

● Total duration: 30 days

The investment in your handwriting transformation is just $97 — equivalent to a couple of sessions with a professional tutor.

All materials, video lessons, activities, and community interaction are included, except for Björkstén's book, which we do highly recommend buying.

And lifetime access means you get to keep everything, even after the challenge is finished.

Click the "Enroll Now" button to sign up today.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What level is the challenge for?

No matter your level, if you want to improve your handwriting, this challenge is for you. By the end, you'll have not only nicer handwriting, but also a solid understanding of what makes for nice handwriting in Chinese, and you'll know how to continue improving.

How can I access the challenge?

Mobile, desktop, laptop, tablet... The challenge is super user-friendly and you'll be able to log on from anywhere!

What exactly will I learn? How will this challenge help me?

During this challenge, we'll start by reviewing the basics: individual strokes, composite strokes, stroke order, etc. After that, we'll explain in-depth how to compose nice-looking Chinese characters—how to balance them, what key elements to look for, and how to write them in a pleasing way.

After that, you'll practice writing lots of super common components and characters. This practice will start building muscle memory for good handwriting, so that you can start to write nice-looking characters with confidence.

I'm not sure I can commit for 30 days

Your daily tasks should only take 30 minutes. The principle of the challenge is, "do a little each day and big results will follow." 30 minutes is a pretty manageable amount of time to devote to your Chinese.

You can break it up into 5 minute chunks throughout the day:
• 5 minutes after breakfast
• 5 minutes on your lunch break
• 5 minutes before dinner
• 5 minutes while waiting for the bus
• And so on...whenever is convenient for you!

The secret sauce is the consistency - working at it for a little bit of time every day. You'll be amazed at the massive progress you make from simply showing up every day to give focused attention to one aspect of your Chinese!

What if I decide the challenge isn't for me?

All of our products come with a 30-day money back guarantee. If you are unsatisfied with it for any reason, reach out to me at any point during the challenge and I'll issue you a full refund.

How long do I have access to the course after the end of the challenge?

How does "lifetime access" sound? While the challenge is 30 days, you will have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like.

What exactly does "lifetime access" mean?

In practical terms, it means the course materials will be available online for as long as Outlier is in business. If we do ever go out of business or otherwise need to remove the course for any reason, we'll make the material available for you to download for a period of at least 6 months.