How did you learn to write well?

[Timpane]

I didn't discover any thing there I couldn't have wise in a powerful composing group. Learning from other ones is a large way to discover your own power and weaknesses.

[Splinter]

through writing a lot, of course. Reading also helps a lot, but the best way to learn how to do something is by doing it.

[Jacob]

I still write very un-neatly, at least that's what the annoying girl's say at my school say.

[Enigmatic Surrender]

I learned to write well via role play. Not the kind of role play where you dress up as your favorite comic book hero, but free form text-based role play. Always wanting to one-up the person whose character is in a fight with your character, or always wanting to make sure the other person can visualize what it is your character is doing so he/she can allow their character to respond accordingly and push the storyline along.

[Margarita]

practice is the "shortcut"

[Aileenhu]

You learn the language from school and books.
You learn the ideas from the world, observations.
You learn the voice from you own feelings.

[Ravenxox]

Reading certainly has helped as it has offered so many new styles to try on. Due to my uni studies I have also had some courses on writing, mainly academic, but which have offered a great deal of tips how to practice to be more fluent writer. I write a lot, just on scraps of paper some free writing that has no sense to journal and comments like this. I actually write more fluently and better text in English than in my native as the most of the writings that I have done have been in English. So practising has been the key for me.

[Hearthackerpk]

I am still learning
but i think i learned lot of from forums and blogs

[Yukiora 24]

There is always room to learn. But practice is key!

[ConorEngelb]

The learning process, for me, never really ends. It's just about writing a lot, and reading even more. All the time.

[ealegner23]

I took a creative writing course in college and developed a taste for it. Then I made my friends read everything I wrote and quickly learned what worked and didn't work...much to their dismay.

[kelsmercer]

Way back in elementary school, I had an older friend who liked to write fanfiction of her favorite anime. I idolized her and began to write fanfiction as well. Then, that turned into roleplay. Through roleplaying and writing fanfiction, I met another girl over the internet who was also much older than me. She was a fabulous writer. She wrote beautifully and she helped me transform my writing. I even owe my switch to original fiction to her.

[RILENTLISS]

I would say I learned by reading. I mean I've always been able to take what I've learned or even seen, and take it for it's structure, and then t=make it unique, my own. Reading people as diverse as Dickens, Raymond Carver, contemporaries like David Lawrence and Gregg Horrowitz, have all allowed me to come forth with writing that is my own, as well as a bit of all of theirs. Lately though, I've been referencing Nigel Watts in his Writing A Novel.

[shinjiblue]

Writing will always be a constant learning process for me but I do agree with others in that reading a variety of genres can help with developing your own voice. Reading works by published authors and having your own work read by other writers as well as the target audience you're trying to reach is a great way to learn what's most effective for you and your readers.

[electramia]

You are constantly learning, and the only way to learn is to read.