Much of the skill in writing is in what you do before any words from your mind hit the screen or page. The book, "Writing for the Health Professions," affirms an often cited principle for writers: Fuzzy writing comes from fuzzy thinking. Before you write anything, first determine what you're writing and why. A casual understanding of what you're writing about isn't enough. In order for your writing to effectively inform or inspire, you must understand precisely what your subject is and how to write about it logically. Next, determine the audience to whom you're writing. Plan your writing style so it's appropriate for your audience.
Once you begin writing, it's easy to get bogged down in the technicalities, worrying excessively about commas, words and phrasing. Granted, these should be a concern, but not to the point where you're the writing in jarring stops and starts. Exercise the skill of writing freely just as you would speak freely, slowing down your mind just enough to scour your vocabulary for the words that best express your thoughts. Generally, your thoughts will surface in one of three styles: Casual, conversational and formal. Casual refers to how you'd speak to friends; conversational is how you'd interact with someone you're beginning to know, and formal is how you might speak to those older or in positions of authority. Unless you're writing a character novel, avoid the casual style as it is often too "friendly."
Learning the skill of reviewing and revising effectively will also help you master written expression. Author Karl J. Terryberry cites another principle in writing well: Easy reading comes from hard writing. This means that your first draft most likely isn't the best draft. Therefore, look for these common writing mishaps that you can correct: Redundancies (e.g. few in number, tall of stature, plan in advance); overly long sentences (if when reading a sentence aloud you need to take a breath, divide it into two or more sentences); passive writing (instead of "this book was written by my uncle," write "my uncle wrote this book"), and too many pronouns in a sentence (e.g. he, she, they) that confuse the reader. Paring down and clarifying your written expressions are important skills that will help you stick to another writing principle: Good writing is clear thinking made visible.
The more you write and show your writing to others, the more likely you'll get some criticism, constructive or not. Skillfully taking this criticism is an important act that most likely will improve your writing and your self esteem. Author Gail Carson Levine says in her book, "Writing Magic," that you should give criticism a chance. The good way to take criticism, she says, is to listen and say nothing. Consider the criticism while you're taking it, but save meditating on it for later. Even if you think the critic is way off base, don't lash out with objections or writer-fueled epithets. Later, as you review your writing, recall the criticism and see if and how it fits. Proceed accordingly.