I like to consider myself a pretty proficient writer. I've loved writing since I was a wee lad writing horror stories for english classes. Of course, those stories weren't entirely mine. They were based off horror stories I had already heard and vaguely remembered. I got better at writing through my AP classes. I took AP Language & Composition and credit that class for most of my improvement. I also read a lot as a child, and I still have that same drive to consume books like MREs. Currently, I'm reading Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. It's filled with the kind of prose that I love employing in my own work (which is mostly just fanfiction). A lot of the writers that I read have some sort of influence on my own sentence structure, metaphors, analogies. I take little bits and pieces from them and make them my own, twisting the image to fit the one in my mind. My most prominent inspiration is Richard Siken. He has a way of describing the normal, little things of everyday life and using them to fit a certain theme or motif that he wants to communicate. It's incredibly melancholy and flowery, and I absolutely love it. Anyway, back to the practical writing.
I write a lot for my legal courses, mostly technical work. It still gives me that same pleasure, though. I find that writing, whether it be legal applications or creative writing, or even something as simple as this paragraph, requires the writer to hack into a module in their mind. You have to carefully piece together the words, like puzzle pieces, and hope that your surveyors can see the big, beautiful picture you want to show them. Writing is an incredibly useful tool for me because of this. I struggle with voicing my thoughts aloud. I write better than I speak. I can write 10 page essays about film, music, any topic, really, but I can't admit my own feelings to someone I care about. That's just the reality of it.
Of course, I plan to get better at being vocal about things. People don't read minds, after all. For the time being, I plan on improving my writing to the point where it can be an insight into my mind; a crystal clear vision of who I am.