Ask HN: How do I develop terse yet elegant written communication skill

He says:

> Books on writing tend to be windy, boring, and impractical. I intend this one to be different—short, fun, and genuinely useful.

See a review: https://nargaque.com/2010/07/07/writing-with-style-john-r-tr...

If you could read only one book on this topic, this is it.

It covers how to write logically so that a document flows as you have described it.

Working at Google, I like that I get the chance to practice through design docs, although that may be my rose-tinted 6-month-tenure glasses speaking. I also try to write outside of work, though the deliberate practice does take some effort for me.

Have you taken the technical writing class at Google? That may be another good resource, although there's a deep waitlist for the ones I see now.

Perhaps you will find encouragement here: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/

[1] http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army/p600_67.pdf

Copy a favorite blog post or a few paragraphs from a book chapter by typing them yourself.

It is a very interesting exercise, makes your brain take in the words and digest them in a different way.

In your case retype one of your coworker’s docs.

Some other sources I’d recommend for this: Seth Godin’s blog, Dan Lyon’s Lab Rats book. Efficient, energetic and energizing writing with a high signal to noise ratio.

The structure for the document comes from knowledge of the intended audience and their purpose combined with knowledge of the topic.

Economy of expression is gained from careful and continuous 'refactoring'; restructuring what you say, optimising for simplicity and leverage of the language.

Read what you wrote aloud to yourself (go somewhere where people won’t stare at you while you’re doing this)

Listen and try to remember more samples of what you think good writing is, subconsciously your writing will start getting better gradually as you write more.

Mark Twain (or was it Blaise Pascal?) put it best - “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”