Write Right

I finished my newspaper column today while sitting in the waiting room where Jilda gets her monthly treatments. I rewrote one passage a half dozen times before settling on a revision.
Writing in that environment was challenging at first, but I have an MP3 entitled Focus, which is a recording of white noise that has an underlying frequency oscillation that theoretically helps the brain to focus.
I've read some studies that implies the brainwave technology is a lot of bunk, but this much I know. When I sink earplugs thumb deep into my audial canals, and crank up Focus, it drowns all the sound around me and allows me to write without distraction.
As I was saying, I finished my work and then switched over to Audible where I've been listening to The Successful Novelist by David Morel.
One of the key points Morel pointed out, as I listened today, was that flashbacks in your story are tricky, and should be avoided most of the time.
I stopped the audio, flipped open my laptop and re-read my column. I realized the troublesome passages was a flashback.
This was an eye-opening insight for me, because I often waltz down memory lane and each time I did, it created work that was often disjointed.
It's fine if your writing about a trip down memory lane, but if your writing about now, it can make your writing choppy.
With my newly acquired knowledge, I rewrote my column with a fresh perspective and made the piece much more powerful.
Here's the thing, and I've said this before: To write better, you have to write. There's no getting around this simple fact. That's the reason I write in this blog every day. Even on day's when I'm beat and had rather lick a toad, I write.
I think it's also imperative that you read the people you admire; not to copy them, but to understand what they are doing right so that you can learn to write right.