I don't think anyone can appreciate the difficulty of writing until they have tried to write a novel or novella. It's really hard to flesh out an entire plot and ensure the characters are real. I know because I tried my hand at writing a novel. Suffice to say that it was awful. However, I seem to fair better at shorter more technical pieces because I try to keep my writing to the point and avoid fluff words. I stay on track by having these key performance indicators:
- No more than 3 points to support the main theme of the piece
- No more than 3 arguments to support an individual point
- No more than 3 paragraphs for the introduction, any point, and the conclusions
These rules force you to stay focused and avoid using unnecessary words. Of course, I can't always use these measures in my writing as there may be other constraints such as expected number of words or depth of the topic. I always try though!