Do It Until It's Boring

When you learn a new writing technique, it's going to stay in your mind. When I worked at newspapers, I was forced to write extremely short sentences and it was of dire importance that I not repeat a word or phrase (ideally for the entire article). Those writing techniques bled into my personal writing, too.

So for weeks, if not months, every time I wrote, I was focusing on making all of my sentences as short as I could (though this sentence should prove that I am not a strict minimalist) and I tried not to repeat my words unless it was a purposeful anaphora.

Now, I never really think about it. If my sentences are too long, I will feel it and rewrite it into a better sentence. There are times where I will repeat words and not notice it, but all it takes is reading something out loud to catch them.

I never think about these skills in writing because I actively practiced them until they became boring. When they became boring, it meant that I knew how to do them and I didn't need to focus on them anymore. Once you reach that level, you can move on to new skills to practice. Keep that up and you'll become a tremendous writer without even realizing it.