Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for improving handwriting recognition using a neural network by allowing a user to provide samples. A recognition operation is performed on the user's handwritten input, and the user is not satisfied with the recognition result. The user selects an option to train the neural network on one or more characters to improve the recognition results. The user is prompted to specify samples for the certain character, word, or phrase, and the neural network is adjusted for the certain character, word, or phrase. Handwritten input is later received from the user. A recognition operation is performed on the handwritten input using the neural network that was adjusted for the certain character or characters.