I don't know how to explain it, only that it worked. If I had to guess, I got feedback from my future self. I would often read my old journal entries, and notic

I don't know how to explain it, only that it worked. If I had to guess, I got feedback from my future self. I would often read my old journal entries, and notice errors and improvements that I would not have noticed at the time. That, I suppose, is how I know I've improved. I also read a lot, so each year I learn more about what good writing looks like and therefore have a progressively improving basis of comparison for my journal entries. Edit: I'm not a native speaker of English.