While study, practice and feedback will improve your technical skills as a writer, some of the essential qualities of good writing are more elusive:

 Empathy – the ability to put yourself in the mind of your reader or your characters. Empathy allows the blogger or freelance writer to connect powerfully with their chosen audience. It helps the novelist create believable characters who are nothing like their creator.

 Imagination – the unique ideas and connections that exist below the surface of your writing. Imagination helps the fantasy writer create unfamiliar yet believable worlds. It helps a non-fiction author view an old problem from a fresh perspective. It gives the short story writer the premise for her next tale.

 Passion – a love of language, a desire to communicate, and a delight in telling stories. Passion is the creative energy that carries you through times of uncertainty and rejection. It’s the voice that says quietly and consistently “be a writer.”

These are the qualities that help you capture the heads and hearts of your audience.
These are the qualities that create a unique and urgent voice that doesn’t need to fight for attention.
These are the qualities that separate the good writers from the tragic wannabes.
But if empathy, imagination and passion can’t be learned, how are they acquired?

To be continued...

I am working hard on all three but really struggling with Passion - at times communication seems to elude me