There’s a useful post over on lifehack.org on how to write. The author gives some good tips, so go check it out.

Here’s a couple of my thoughts on the subject of writing.

Good writing and good editing are really the same thing. The discussion of one automatically includes the other.

• The editing tip that has helped me the most is “read out loud what you write.” I’ve caught more errors in grammar and content doing this than any amount of reading it silently.
• As you write, don’t bother to go back and change things. Just let your mind spill out onto the page. Then go back and start cutting/revising. You’ll lose inspiration and train of thought if you stop to nitpick every sentence as you go.
• Cutting the bad or useless text is just as important as writing new text. Stephen King has written some great lines on cutting stuff out. In his book On Writing he says “first draft - 10% = second draft.”In a separate article, he also tells how he learned the importance of cutting. It was when King was in high school. He was working for a local newspaper. He had just turned in his first two stories. The editor had edited one of the pieces simply by scratching out many of the words.

  In King’s words:

  When Gould finished marking up my copy[...] he looked up and must have seen something on my face. I think he must have thought it was horror, but it was not: it was revelation.

  “I only took out the bad parts, you know,” he said. “Most of it’s pretty good.”

  “I know,” I said, meaning both things: yes, most of it was good, and yes, he had only taken out the bad parts. “I won’t do it again.”

  “If that’s true,” he said, “you’ll never have to work again. You can do this for a living.” Then he threw back his head and laughed.

  And he was right; I am doing this for a living, and as long as I can keep on, I don’t expect ever to have to work again.