Clear thinking is neccessary for clear writing. For stylistic help, read "On Writing Well" or "The Elements of Style." The best advice in there is to simplify, which is the opposite strategy of the dreaded "business-speak" style.
It also helps to have some personality and humor. You get that by reading funny writers, laughing, and loosening up.
Everyone who replied to you recommended practicing by writing. I would say practice by SPEAKING. Writing is clarity of though + inner voice. "Pitch" your goals to friends and family, one at a time, and run to the keyboard that moment when everything clicks and you have your most powerful tone. You would be surprised by the quality of your writing then.
I even use casual associates; I call them out of the blue months later to catch up, and when it's time for me to answer the "so what you been up to" question, fireworks happen.
A big part of learning to write well is just doing a lot of it. For me it came in two parts:
- A history of long mails with my best friend (literally totaling several thousand pages)
- Blogging – and not the boring vanilla blogging, but actually building up essays
Being able to write well is really an ace in the hole. I mean, think about it – we know who people like Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham are because of their writing, not because of their software. The software just lends them some credibility when they decide to write about it.
- You need clarity and good english. A decent source of this is BBC radio 4.
- Humour which is just a case of reading/watching a lot of funnies and generally understanding humour.
- Self-deprecation, grow thick skin and loosen up. ;)
- But most importantly you need some STRONG opinions.
Creative inspiration is required to write the best stuff and strong opinions will mean you are more inspired to write about particular topics. Find those topics, use all of the above skills and then suck for about 5 years until you get good at it! :)
