As a youth I was a musician--a percussionist and vocalist. In my classical voice training I studied music theory, and learned things such as when it's appropriate to add a hint of VII to your V, or how to change time signatures to add variety without confusing everyone. It was much more mathematical than I ever wanted it to be, but I passed!
Now, when I read good books, one of my critical filters is my musical training. I intuitively look for rhythm and whether the "music" of the text is erratic and disconnected from its different parts, and whether it flows at a speed I can follow. This is difficult to explain. All good fiction has a certain cadence, a consistency of rhythm. Fans read good fiction because it awakes their creative faculties and makes them feel something, while still giving them plenty of intellectual stimulation.
The fiction writer must, in all circumstances, realize he or she is partnering with the reader to create the story. If I don't write fiction so that a reader can create my stories right alongside me, then I'm not really a writer but just a guy who writes things nobody likes. If so, the reason nobody likes it is because I talked past them, over them, or under them. I didn't write in a way that invited them to create with me.
I'm working on finishing up several short stories right now, and I'm somewhere near the end of my drafting. This is the most tedious part, and the hardest to explain. Here, I read each paragraph and observe what my mind creates. If my rhythm is too fast or too slow, if I use distracting grammar, or anything else that I feel might pull the reader out of the process of creating my story, I tweak it, then re-read and tweak again.
I've read thousands of pages by authors and editors about how to remove distracting language from my writing, and I've taken notes on scraps of paper and stuffed them into a little notebook. After several years I've created quite an unruly mess of "things to remember." I'm now compiling this information and putting it in one easy-to-navigate place. And that place can be found in the tabs along the top of this blog.
Right now I've only got about a dozen topics--my main points of weakness--and a short blurb for each one. But I'll be adding to these over time. Feel free to add any comments, so I can learn from you.
I hope you all have a beautiful day.