Ask HN: How can I get better at writing?
Has anyone else dealt with this? How were you able to improve?
Has anyone else dealt with this? How were you able to improve?
First, sign up for a Grammarly premium account. It identifies easy fixes, and you do not even have to think about punctuations. And it identifies places where your words are redundant. You start noticing patterns. I tend to use "really" a lot. So being aware of that helps me change my writing style. Grammarly also points out better words to use, but I have found it works only 10-20% of the time. That is still better than nothing.
Then try cutting down your text by 50% and then again by 50%. I found my text to be wordy, but cutting it down helps clarify the text. And editing is more important than writing. I always find it easy to write the first draft then spend hours editing, which I never used to do before.
And then read a ton, especially fiction books. They seem to use exciting(Grammarly changed "interesting" to exciting here) words. Keep notes of what has an impact. And then you can use it in your text.
I hope that helps.
If not, then just talk out loud and write down what you say. Engaging writing reads like a person to person conversation. Yes, it's a bit like the rubber ducking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging