[thirdsun]

> I used to help coach college friends in their writing. Often their first drafts would have complicated pretentious sentences that really weren't even parseable as sentences, and first I'd ask them, "What do you mean here?" And then when they'd explain, "Write that down!" Perhaps something like that would work for you, to help take you from a "composing" mindset to a "conversing" mindset. You could even record yourself or use some dictation software. It may even make your writing easier to read.

Interesting. I often encounter the problem at other the end of the spectrum: People who are used to verbal communication, which often results in rather scarce writing that resembles snippets of a verbal conversation rather than a cohesive thought and therefore lacks to details to properly understand meaning and intention.

Usually that kind of writing requires a lengthy series of follow up questions to learn anything meaningful about the original idea of the author. Conciseness is onyl valuable if it doesn't sacrifice substance and meaningful content.