I was looking through the feeds in my Google Reader earlier today--I subscribe to a number of mostly writing-related feeds--and came across a deceptively simple post. It was from Copyblogger, a site I read quite regularly, entitled "10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer."
The ten steps can be boiled down to just this: write every day, regardless of how you feel about writing. If you feel like writing, great! If not, do it still. If you know what to write about, wonderful! If not, write anyway. Write, write, write! This is actually quite common advice given by writers and teachers of writing.
One thing I would add to this list, mentioned also in one of the comments to that post, is to read a lot. The best writers both read and write a great deal. Extensive reading helps us to absorb the ideas, styles, techniques, and vocabulary of those writers, incorporating elements thereof, consciously or not, into our own writing. Extensive writing helps us hone our skills.
A third item I'd add is this: think, think, think! Think about everything. Sometimes it may be helpful to suspend active thought (thinking about) while reading to simply absorb the content, allowing the words to trickle into the mind and transform, like dreams, into moving images, sounds, and emotions. Once done reading, however, active thinking helps us digest, make sense of and learn from what we have read. Similarly with writing. Some writers recommend automatic writing, or free-writing, allowing words to flow out of the mind without conscious shaping, filtering, or blocking. But after this process, once the brain is warmed up, use conscious thought to analyze, shape, and polish.
I must disclose here, before I get called on it by my readers, that I have not, thus far, followed this advice, particularly about writing every day. I must get into the practice, and I expect you to hold me to it. Take me to task if I lapse!
