(A) Frame the full picture in your mind before you start to write [1, 2]. A short story: Someone once wrote a long letter to a friend, and finished it with s

(A) Frame the full picture in your mind before you start to write [1, 2]. A short story: Someone once wrote a long letter to a friend, and finished it with something like "Sorry, I did not have the time to write a shorter one!" [3] I.e., it can take longer to write shorter! The reversal comes from conceptualization and framing of what you want to say, not from the actual writing itself. Use mind maps for this if that would help. (B) Be conscious of word choice. Check even those words out in a dictionary which you think you already understand. You may soon have a refined judgment on when to check. (C) Introduce time breaks before reading your creation for self reviews. Writing involves intense thinking which is a subject to confirmation bias. Reading your own writing a few days later will give you a flavor of what it feels like as a reader. (D) Close the feedback loop with the actual readers, whether live or offline. Watch for the discussions that happen on the subject and see if those discussions could have been avoided by writing differently, thereby driving consensus faster. >> which of my edited drafts should I choose as final version. Why not have only one draft, a single working copy of the doc? :-) See also: https://alokgovil.com/to-learn-to-write-well-read-a-lot-too/ https://alokgovil.com/to-learn-to-write-well-read-a-lot-too/ (on my own blog) -- Footnotes -- [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant [2] Improvisation also works but should be less preferable. [3] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/