Writing can be difficult: My plans to make it easier!

I’m by no means a perfect writer. I often go through dozens of drafts before publishing the final one because I don’t feel it sounds right. I’ve read a few articles on how to write better and while there are some great tips I’ve found from them, there was one tip that was so obvious I overlooked it. I’ve decided to take the time to note each helpful tip I’ve learned along the way, and while I understand I’ve got many more strides to go before being more confident in my ability to write clearly, here’s what I’ve felt has helped the most:

1. Stick to one perspective when you’re writing. Often times I’ll start writing from my perspective, but in some cases I want to write from a general perspective and remove the personal aspect of it, by sticking to a single perspective I’ve been able to determine exactly how I want the writing to flow.
2. Read your post out-loud before publishing. Seriously, this has been the biggest help of mine. As I write, it all flows in my head but upon reading it I notice flaws that make no sense with where the content is positioned. In order to reduce that, I write a paragraph or two, stop, re-read them out-loud to make sure they flow as I’d expect and fix them as necessary. I keep iterating on this process with hopes that one day it’ll be natural!
3. Have a friend review the content. Have anyone you know do a third-party review and look over the content. Expect criticism from them, they’re not trying to be rude but instead help you understand as a neutral third-party when they read it and how it sounds. Take this feedback and correct as necessary and upon the correction ask the same person to review. Ideally ask one more third-party to review as well. While I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to get multiple third-parties to review it’s definitely helpful!

Those are the three simple steps I follow when writing, I stick to the order written above as it provides a good writing flow for me. Stick to the right perspective, re-read your own content out-loud, and have third-parties review and provide constructive criticism it. Take all the feedback you’ve gotten including from your own review, and make the necessary changes. Keep doing this until you feel it’s ready to go live, and then publish it!