My Chinese Character Writing is Sloppy Since learning Mandarin through Rosetta Stone, Youtube videos, and friends, I've begun to keep a journal of mandarin characters and phrases.

I first draw the character, along with the pinyin and english definition. However, I've noticed that compared with the characters on the computer, mine seem much more sloppy and pieced together.

Is this normal? I don't think I've ever seen anyone write in Mandarin or at least looked at it carefully, so I'm not sure if it's just me or if it's normal. I've never been taught any formal way to do it, so I've just been winging it thus far.

Note - it's not like I rush through it, even if I spend a painstakingly long time it just seems to come out badly.
How long have you been practicing? At first it's normal. If you could see my first drawn characters... they didn't look good.

But there are some simple rules to keep in mind to improve them.


Stroke Order: It's unavoidable. You can actually use any stroke order you want, no-one is really going to check (unless that's the exam) but it's certain that writing using the correct stroke order not only helps you to retain the character but it also helps you to write much faster, with more beautiful proportions and in an easier way.

See also Why is stroke order important when writing Chinese characters?
Characters are "square": This is actually a rule I learned while studying Japanese, but the same applies to Chinese, they're almost the same characters after all.

Characters occupy the space of a square. Note: They're not square, but using a square as a reference will help you to correctly balance their proportions. Check the image below:

 Source

Each character must fit inside of the continuous-lined squares. The dotted lines in the middle help you position the elements correctly (so you don't squeeze the character or strech it unnaturally).

Honestly I've seen them being used for Japanese only but that might be just me, they're almost the same characters after all.