Short and Punchy
Some people probably think you go to school, or take courses, to learn how to write. While those are viable (developmental) options, I think you’re learning all the time. You learn through reading, and I used to read lots. I’d study the way the story was structured; how the punctuation functioned; the way the sentences told the story; the voice behind the story; how many characters there were, what each did, etc. TV and movies are also good educators, particularly in how structure works. And you pick up things from all sort of sources, or they influence the way you do things. When I was a kid, my writing suffered…
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When I work on a book, I’ll also work on something else simultaneously. It won’t be another new book – it’s hard enough keeping track of all the characters, threads, and ideas for one prospective novel, let alone two. I’m always surprised when people say they’re working on two (or more) novels simultaneously. (I don’t count swapping back and forth between projects but never finishing anything.) The closest I’ll get to working on more than one novel is if I also revise another, but only as long as it’s more so a copyedit revision, rather than a structural edit revision that might require some rewriting. As far as the copyedit…