User blog comment:Gideoncrawle/Writer's Workshop/@comment-1637108-20100418185152

These are all very good tips. Also, my writing style resembles yours in a way? I'm so flattered! :)

As for my two cents, I think the best advice I can give is to not force your writing. Let it flow. Just sit down and picture the scene, the characters, and what's going to happen. Only then begin to write it down. This should be helpful if you have trouble with description: it's not necessary that you detail the place your characters are in, and where everyone is sitting and what they're doing; but it is necessary that you write the 'setting' to the scene. And when I say setting, I mean the atmosphere, the environment, the feel of the place. That's what you should focus on, and that's what you should use as an alternative to describing the characters' feelings and expressions and thoughts down to the last detail. But keep it simple: you don't want to bore your reader to death with an elaborate overdescription.

But the most important thing of all is to READ a lot, and write even more. I've been reading and writing ever since I learned how, and trust me, it helps. Not only does it give you a richer vocabulary, but it also provides you with the instinctive knowledge that lets you know when to show and when to tell, which is very important for a writer.

You should just get used to the idea that there's no easy way to becoming a good writer. It's like those magic diet pills you see on TV -- it just doesn't work that way. The only thing that works is reading and writing, learning and practising, and so on. Slowly but surely, you'll find a style that suits you best, and before you know it, you'll have your own voice.