Writing skills develop through practice. First identify that for what purpose are you writing and explore what will make it effective. For example; writing a diary is different than writing an essay. Research or report has a different purpose, style and components and on the other hand storytelling is completely different. The better you understand the task at hand, the more successful will be your writing.

Essential Writing Habits:

Start with developing essential writing habits.

• Make a writing schedule, and write on daily basis, whether you write an hour or just 15 minutes a day but write daily.
• If you admire a writer and his writing style, note down and try to adapt what impresses you the most about it.
• Read as many books as you can, explore different writing styles.
• Enhance your vocabulary, learn new words daily.
• Always finish what you have started. Never leave anything half way. One of the worst habits a writer can acquire is to never finish.
• Share your work with others, take criticism positively and try to improve your mistakes.
• As a writer, it’s important to understand things like grammar, spelling, and punctuation as well as the importance of editing and polishing your work before you show it around.

Few tips to improve writing skills:

• Always use strong words. For good writing you have to be precise. To make an article or writing piece more appealing, make sure to find the right verb or adjective.
• Enhance your vocabulary, try not to repeat words.
• Good writing is direct and simple, unless it is something for English literature.
• Don’t make the writing difficult to take in, use clear, specific words.
• Try to be active instead of passive, for example; “The poem had been written by Paul while he was in college” is passive. “Paul wrote the poem while he was in college” is active.
• As Dalai Lama said: “know the rules well so you can break them effectively”, best writers not always follow the rules, they know how and when to break them. To do that you must first practice writing as much as you can.
• Always proofread your writing and edit if you don’t like something. There is no such thing as perfect masterpiece in writing; all writers make changes in the end. Editing is one of the most essential parts of writing.
• Read as many books as you can, it will increase knowledge about different writing styles, compositions and even enhance your vocabulary.

Read magazines, newspapers or anything you like. It is more fascinating to know and read about the real world rather than reading old classic literature books. It will give you inspiration.