Avoid ready-made phrases. They are the enemy of good writing. Do not surrender to language. Command it.
Notice one specific detail and record it in a short, declarative sentence. Strip away explanation, transition, and commentary.
If I Could Give Only Two Writing Tips
Discussion
Damnit. I can’t. Here are three more tips:
Write a tight base clause, then attach free modifiers after it, each one adding texture, detail, or a new angle without disrupting the core. The appositive is the easiest entry point (it simply renames what came before). That is, write a plain sentence. Add pressure to the right. Break into fragments when you need beats. Repeat when you need force. End with something the reader can see.
Go through your draft and put brackets around every word, phrase, or sentence not doing useful work — redundant prepositions, qualifiers that weaken ("a bit," "sort of"), adjectives that state the obvious ("tall skyscraper"), sentences that repeat what the previous sentence already said. Don't delete yet. Just bracket. Then read the sentence aloud without the bracketed material and decide if it works.
Hit return after every period. Every sentence gets its own line.
Once you can see each sentence as a discrete object with a shape, you can ask his diagnostic questions — where's the verb, who's acting, what does this actually say versus what I meant to say, is the subject capable of doing what the verb demands, and so on.
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**It all really comes down to this: Make sentences until you discover what you mean, then revise until each sentence says it. To do that: Read a lot and write a lot.**