How to get better at writing in English?
I'm a non-native English speaker somewhere at the advanced level. I guess that I have a near-native reading comprehension (of course I struggle to read authors like Pynchon or Melville a bit), but I feel like I can't express myself in writing creatively enough. Should I just read as much books as possible and hope that my brain will absorb everything subconsciously and thus my writing would get better?
>>8632703
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation
>>8632703
Why do want to write in English? What's your mother tongue? Why do ESLs never state what their mother tongue is when they introduce themselves?
>>8632728
>Lithuanian
>Why do want to write in English?
1) academic papers
2) copywriting (not many people can produce a coherent English text in my country)
3) creative shitposting on lit
Yeah definitely read a lot of books
but just a side note you put "much books" when its supposed to be many as books is a countable noun
Good luck!
>>8632703
Portuguese, ESL here
Translate lots of texts. When I was in uni I'd translate texts for my professors and fellow students. Not only did it get me credits and make the professors my chums it was also excellent learning.
>>8632703
Fowler’s Modern English Usage teaches you good taste.
Also:
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit/
For fun:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncleftish_Beholding
The "Uncleftish" text sounds childlike to our ears, mostly because fairy tales and children's stories use very basic words, which in English are usually Germanic.
Latinate words sound clinical, authoritative, cold.
French words sound colourful, pompous.