Well it has been close to 4 years since I started writing stuff for my website. Along the way I have learned a lot about myself and about my writing style. Once upon a time, I wondered why some writers took 5 years or even 10 years to write a single book, now I understand. The problem is not in the story flow, it is in the writing style.
Usually our need to write starts with an idea which steadily grows into an expression. Yet at this stage, we still have trouble making ourselves coherent. Although this is our most sensitive stage, it is also the stage that needs the most criticism from others. As Friedrich Nietzsche says, "What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger." So if you 'die' at this point you won't ever be able to write for public view. Most criticism at this stage will centre around how well you present your ideas, so listen well.
I also learned that it is not how many big words I know, it is how many words I know how to use to create scenes which are tense, funny, warm or chilling. Even if your story doesn't turn out the way you want it to, let it be, for it may just be your subconscious experimenting. I recall one time how I wanted to write a horror story about an old lady who chops people up to feed to her cat. Yet no matter how hard I try I couldn't help but use comical phrases to describe and exaggerate the feelings of my characters. You can read the story here.
Of course let us not forget our emotional blocks. This usually occurs when we use snippets of personal experiences in parts of the story. For example, Anna's Story had to be written and rewritten over and over again before it felt right. Even then, my mental block had messed up the flow of the story quite a bit. Years later, I came to the conclusion that instead of trying to describe the flood of confusion and rejection that Anna was feeling, I should whittle a sentence down to a trigger word or scene. This method has helped me tremendously. Hopefully readers will use these triggers to relate the story to their own experiences.
Learning and teaching English itself has also been a tremendous help in growing my confidence. I used to change my mind over the phrasing of a sentence so many times, the paragraph - and naturally the story - will come out terribly distorted. I will then spend weeks trying to fix it. If you are having the same problem then I suggest that you go out and tutor English. There are 2 ways that this has helped me.
There is a catch to the tutoring idea. Make sure to join a good program, because if you have to prepare the materials yourself you may continue to stay in the same rut. I tutor for a program called Kumon, which has a wonderful system that focuses on intensive reading. This is perfect for me because I get to dissect passages together with my students. Another important lesson I learned from the kids is that people tend to write the same way they think. That usually translate to a string of sentences that only start with subjects. Hence helping them fix their problem has also helped me fix mine. The reason this works is because it is easier to spot another person's mistake and know how to correct it rather than it is to acknowledge your own. However, having spotted their error, you will be a hypocrite if you don't see your own. Am I making sense here?
Writing is hard for me. Yet I am drawn to it like a moth to light. Maybe the light I see is a fire that will consume me one day, but that doesn't matter right now. I still haven't come to the end of my list of things to write.
Try these English grammar drills.