How to Forge Handwriting

The art of forgery has been somewhat lost in the midst of harsh fraud penalties, jail time and online financial transactions. But for school truancy and blackmail, among other things, it's still very much relevant.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Copy of the handwriting you're forging
• Scratch paper

1. Secure samples of the handwriting that will be forged. It's best to have a couple of sentences and a signature.
2. Trace the handwriting. Place a blank piece of paper (printer paper works like a charm) over the handwriting sample and outline the characters. Go as slowly as you like. The idea is to tune your fine motor skills, creating muscle memory through form.
3. Repeat step 2, gradually increasing speed. This may take many repetitions, but continue tracing until you can accurately trace the letters at an average rate of speed.
4. Practice without tracing. With the writing sample as a reference--and without tracing--rewrite the same text on a fresh sheet of paper.
5. Repeat step 4 until you can write passable copy without tracing. It doesn't have to be a mirror image, but it should look pretty close.
6. Write a note to yourself with your new handwriting. Here, you'll move away from the sample copy and write original words. This is to further perfect the independent motion.
7. Forge ahead.

Tips & Warnings

• This is best used if you're a student. Really and truly, you can go to jail. I hear jail isn't all it's cracked up to be.
• Make sure you're comfortable enough with the handwriting to write quickly. Moving too slowly can create rigid, messy handwriting. It smacks of forgery.
• Again, you can go to jail. If it's for skipping class, you might have to suffer the wrath of your parents and a possible suspension.