Goodreads asked R.C. Hancock:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

R.C. Hancock I think the three most important things you can do to quickly improve your writing are (in this order):
1. WRITE. The more you do it, the better you'll get. (Your first few novels won't be your best work. Just keep pumping them out until they are.)
2. READ. Both books you like and especially books on how to write. Some of my favorite craft books are Story by Robert McKee, Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Rene Brown, Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, and Character & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card.
3. Make it a point to AVOID CLICHES. The first idea that comes into your head is the same thing that comes into everybody elses. Whenever you're chosing a setting, describing a protagonist, outlining a plot, don't just go with your first idea. Make a list of increasingly original and more outlandish options, then look back at it and pick the freshest, most interesting. I'm willing to bet it won't be the first one you wrote down. Do this with everything you write. If it's been done before, give it a twist no one's ever seen. Write the unexpected. It's a lot of hard mental work, but your writing will stand out like a diamond in a sea of sequins.

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