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“If the character looks the same, why does it matter with what stroke order you wrote it?” A fair question, a fair question indeed. Well, here are three reasons why you should learn Chinese character stroke order:

Knowing the stroke order will make it easier to remember characters. Especially when your vocabulary increases, more and more characters will look alike.
Following the correct stroke order will help you write better, prettier, and clearer characters
Learning the correct stroke order isn’t difficult, nearly all characters follow some basic stroke order rules
There are no good alternatives for not following the proper stroke order

Stroke order exists in Chinese simplified and traditional characters, as well as in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese characters. Here we look at simplified Chinese characters’ stroke order!

Table of Contents

The key rules for stroke order

Nearly all characters follow the same logic, and exceptions are very rare. The key rules for 笔画顺序 (bǐhuà shùnxù) or 笔顺 (bǐshùn) are:

Top to bottom
Left to right
Horizontal, then vertical
First right-to-left diagonals, then left-to-right diagonals
Center comes first in vertically symmetrical characters
Move from outside to inside and close frames last

This list doesn’t mean “top to bottom” always goes before “left to right”. As you’ll see below, 十 is first left to right, then top to bottom. But 小’s first stroke is the center, so in this way, it’s top to bottom. This is because the center comes first in vertically symmetrical characters. But 十 is also symmetrical? Yes: but it’s first horizontal, then vertical.

Then sometimes it’s also hard to understand why 王 first has two horizontal lines, then the vertical line, and then finally the last vertical line. It’s fine if you write the three horizontal lines before the vertical line. It’s fine if your stroke order follows the rules even if some characters vary slightly. Just remember the rules and you’ll make better characters.