Of posture, writing, and discomfort

For the past 2-3 years I’ve been trying to improve my penmanship as well as turn writing into a hobby. I’ve spent hours sitting at different tables, chairs, etc and I simply cannot get comfortable. It may have to do with my 6'2" height, or it may have to do with my poor posture when writing. You see, I can’t write very well without leaning over the paper and that causes my elbows to cramped up.

I also fight with the problem of holding onto my pen much too tightly. While I’m able to focus on that and get my hand to relax somewhat, it’s only a matter of time before my elbow starts hurting due to being bent for so long. I’m also resting a lot of weight on my arms as I’m bent over so far. I have to admit, I”m sort of at a loss here.

At the moment, I sit in a normal swiveling office chair and write at an old oak desk that I picked up from a friend for cheap. Sitting in my chair, the top of the desk sits at my mid-belly which I think is about as good as I can get it. Any lower and I feel like a kid sitting down at an adult table, and any higher makes the desk seem super far away. As I mentioned before, if I don’t bend myself over the paper, I don’t write very well. I’ve tried sitting up straight and writing but it seems the quality of my penmanship begins to suffer.

Perhaps I just need to practice sitting straight up and working on that penmanship problem but regardless of what I try, I’m never comfortable. If I can crank out 3-4 pages in my journal before becoming annoyed by the discomfort, it’s quite the accomplishment.

Any suggestions on how to alleviate the pain I’m facing? I’d love to be able to sit down for hours and write but at the moment, it just doesn’t seem possible.