[geocrasher]

I've been writing for several years, and the more I blog, write training materials, or just write to customers, three things keep helping me improve:

1) Less is more. A) Write all you like, and then cut out all the stuff that doesn't matter. Like the way you just said the same thing 3 times in a row. B) The less you say the less someone has to argue with. The opposite is also true C) Stick to main points and save gory details for later, unless you're in the "Gory Details" section already.

2) Read your writing out loud. What looks great on the page might sound terrible aloud. If it sounds terrible aloud, then it'll be awkward for others to read, too.

3) Just write. Get the words onto the page. This is the hardest but most important thing. Don't pay attention to form, redundancy, spelling, grammar, or redundancy. Just get the words down. These so-called brain dumps will help you get expressive. Then you can edit the heck out of yourself as mentioned in 1 and 2.

4) Okay, a fourth. No matter what you write, read Steven King's "On Writing" to find out what it means to "kill your darlings". Epic book.

[farleykr]

In regards to point 2: Having kids and reading tons of books out loud to them has really impressed upon me how important this is. Reading my own writing out loud has been a real turning point for me in developing my writing skills.

[martin-adams]

I use the text to speech in my articles as a 'read it out loud' exercise.

[tartoran]

I do too and it truly makes a difference. When I read something out loud im still biased as my own voice somehow matches with my internal voice I hear when I'm silent reading. When it's read out loud with a different voice it registers completely differently.

[tartoran]

Thanks for sharing these observations. Im not much of a writer but would love to improve on my writing skills. I personally have the most problem with 3 and the only way I could get more productive brain dumps is to record myself talking freely instead, then rewrite it. But this is a time consuming process and was wondering what kind of exercises/drills I could use to ease the brain dump constipation. To me there's something that blocks me when I attempt to write something down freely but I feel that that the right exercises would ease it. I feel like Im making a wrong step somewhere that makes me become self conscious at the wrong moment.

[geocrasher]

For me, the following exercise solved this problem for the most part:

Close your eyes and start typing. Don't stop until you're done.

Then let the editing begin :)