Read: the literary equivalent of osmosis

Study your words on multiple levels:

• The lexical level, i.e. specific verbs, adverbs or adjectives you might be repeating (are your characters constantly grinning?);
• The sentence structure level, like if all your examples come in threes;
• The narrative structure level, l...

Look closely at how the other writer avoids repetition and regulates sentence length, and become aware of all the words that could’ve gone into the sentence, but were trimmed out.

As you edit your work, you’ll be thinking of what you intended to say at the time of writing.

Experimentation seems to be working for George R.R. Martin, who has for decades been writing short stories, novellas and even reference books between instalments of his novel series

11. Edit your writing, solo or with a professional

12. Clarify and condense your meaning

13. Consider your reader

14. Study story structure and literary devices

15. Sign up for a writing class or course

17. Make friends with other writers

18. Be persistent and ...

Some serious benefits:

• You’ll get to know your own writing habits better
• You’ll develop writerly discipline
• You’ll stick around long enough for new ideas to occur to you

Learning about story structure and the different models that dramatists and fiction writers rely on, like Freytag’s pyramid or the classic