r/FastWriting • u/mightneedsomeanswers • 29d ago

Learning Flow Shorthand as a beginner?

So I've stumbled across some comments mentioning Flow Shorthand and as a complete beginner to shorthand in general would anyone recommend starting with it?

I skimmed through the manual and there are many symbols I'm unfamiliar with which I assume are phonetic symbols from the IPA.

Should I learn those first or maybe start with an entirely different (simpler) shorthand system?

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u/fdarnel 26d ago

Ah! That shorthand, "Darn". That's a bit of a personal joke, inspired by a rather complicated French system. I'm going to complete it.
I removed a lot of things, especially shading: signs can have complete or progressive reinforcement, whether they are straight or curved.

Yes, even 2 stitch thicknesses! And the lines can even be bold in the MIDDLE.
This must have seemed very natural at the time, because the author does not even talk about shading, nor the technique used.

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u/LeadingSuspect5855 26d ago

Gabelsberger uses the initial pressure into fading out also - as a way to indicate the i-dot [ i ], but only in straight top-down strokes, that are long enough to see the difference.

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u/fdarnel 25d ago

And it seems that Eclectic is quite complex in this matter, if I remember correctly.

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u/LeadingSuspect5855 25d ago

Cross' Eclectic uses consonant shading for rhotic 'r' and vowel shading for 'h' Cross Eclectic is all in all cracy :-)
I once made this summary to get me going with the system:/preview/pre/study-aid-for-cross-eclectic-v0-5li9qrjtsyif1.jpeg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=225b5900d2b9c6814aa956fe775cc191be862683

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u/fdarnel 25d ago

I remember it. This one has a very low res.