I'm going to give some advice that I think is essential to improving your writing, but I haven't yet seen in the comments here:
Work with an editor.
Almost every great writer you can think of in recent history has had a good editor, at the beginning of a career, or in many cases throughout their entire career.
If you were a professional writer, you'd have a professional editor. Since it sounds like you're not, you'll need to find your editor some other way. Here are some ideas.
- Take a writing class, ideally in person. Your editors will be the class instructor, and depending on the class structure, your fellow students. One advantage of this approach is that you are given assignments to write about.
- Find a writing tutor. This will require either you or your tutor to invent assignments to review and work on. One possible way to do this would be to review your comments on HN, and read the rest of the comments in that thread. Work with your tutor to find the comments you think are better, and think about why that is, and how you could improve your own writing.
- Find a writing club or group or workshop. These are typically groups of people who get together informally on a regular basis to review and edit each others' writing. They are often focused on specific formats--a group of poets, for example, or a people who enjoy writing short stories.
Work with an editor.
Almost every great writer you can think of in recent history has had a good editor, at the beginning of a career, or in many cases throughout their entire career.
If you were a professional writer, you'd have a professional editor. Since it sounds like you're not, you'll need to find your editor some other way. Here are some ideas.
- Take a writing class, ideally in person. Your editors will be the class instructor, and depending on the class structure, your fellow students. One advantage of this approach is that you are given assignments to write about.
- Find a writing tutor. This will require either you or your tutor to invent assignments to review and work on. One possible way to do this would be to review your comments on HN, and read the rest of the comments in that thread. Work with your tutor to find the comments you think are better, and think about why that is, and how you could improve your own writing.
- Find a writing club or group or workshop. These are typically groups of people who get together informally on a regular basis to review and edit each others' writing. They are often focused on specific formats--a group of poets, for example, or a people who enjoy writing short stories.