Introduction
    The instructions given here are based on study of a student writing board from the early Middle Kingdom, which shows clearly for many signs the order and direction in which the strokes were made.  I don't know whether these hold true for earlier or later periods.
    If you want to study the writing board for yourself, it is in the Metropolitan Musem of Art, or there is a good photograph of it in The Scepter of Egypt, vol.1, by W.C. Hayes, on p.295.
    There are also a couple of books about writing Late Egyptian Hieratic which you might find interesting (though the language and spelling conventions, as well as the style of handwriting, had changed considerably by that period):

Basic Concepts

1. Hieratic was written with a brush made from a reed.  The end was cut at an angle to produce a point, and then bruised to separate the fibers into a brush.  This resulted in a tip that was wider than thick, rather like a medium width calligraphy pen.  You could use a calligraphy pen or a fairly stiff little brush.  The brush was held pretty much like we hold a pen, but without resting the hand on the paper, and with the width of the tip at about a 45º angle to the right (/) to produce lines of varying thickness (this is most noticeable in curved lines).
2. While Hieratic was written and read from right to left, the individual signs were generally drawn from left to right and top to bottom (this is true of Japanese also).
3. Vertical and diagonal strokes (either straight or curved) are drawn from top to bottom, and were usually drawn before the horizontal strokes.
4. Horizontal strokes are mostly drawn from left to right.

To see an animation of drawing one of the signs, click on the button next to the sign.  It is a good idea to close one animation window before opening another.

		i
		p
		w
		m
		( man - determinative)