It's not about doing things "right" or "wrong;" it's about training your ear. So much of writing is about elements other than the surface content, the information that is being conveyed. The style of your words will be what causes a reader to either believe or not. You need to really study the writers that you already enjoy reading, the ones that have influenced your own efforts, and take their stuff apart to the extent that you can separate the information from the style used to convey that information. Study their cadences, pacing, and word choices. Look at what they choose to describe, and what they leave out.

And don't just allow yourself to be influenced by them. Steal from them. Rob them blind. Plagiarize like a Viking pillaging Britain. Make your words sound like the writers you like, and if you can't tell the difference in what you're writing and what you're reading, go back to the beginning and start over, and keep doing it until you can. That's the only way you'll create the technique that ultimately will permit your own voice to emerge and take shape.

edgework