According to Saslow, there are a few techniques for stopping your hand from smudging ink on paper. The first trick is to approach the paper at an angle. But, a more popular way is to turn your paper by up to 90 degrees so that you write almost vertically to avoid smudging. “Some calligraphers write from below the writing line, but this often requires a very uncomfortable twisting on the hand to make it work,” he says.