How can I improve my writing skills?

Writing is one of those skills that can only be improved through practice and study. That is: read a lot, write a lot, get feedback on your writing, quit watching TV so much and quit wasting time on the internet.

Study and practice.
Sorry, i know we all think it should just come naturally, but it does not.
It is a skill you have to learn just like carpentry or brick laying.

Read a ton, when you do the reading you watch how that author constructed their story, look at their pacing in the plot, how they used the specific wording they did to move the reader along.

get a best seller and read it , and examine each page, what they do that made you not want to put it down......
reading other books help a lot in getting use to seeing the way words are used, it just seems to put your mind into that mode language.
copy from best sellers words that seem to be more descriptive. put them in a notebook and put tabs on it, to use for later ,............write a chapter......let it nest (set) for awhile...go back and read it out loud and see how that sounded,l always edit mine when I do that, ..I usually put about 300 words on my Microsoft word page( most books have that many on per page, or 270...then go back and read it and edit it when it doesn't sound right...........I also examine it and see if I can make a word sound more descriptive.....always....always have a window on your pc opened to a thesaurus..........for example .....say I wrote=> ..2 boys went fishing on uncle brad's farm and it started raining and they ran for shelter......change it now to sound more descriptive to this => BILL AND OWEN WAS FISHING ON UNCLE BRAD'S LARGE TOBACCO FARM , A STORM LOOKED LIKE IT WAS BREWING FROM THE DARK CLOUDS AND THEY SCOUTED THE AREA FOR SHELTER AND SAW AN OLD WEATHER BEATEN BARN AND TOOK A RUN FOR IT, THE RAIN PINGED THE TIN ROOF.....see how more interesting it became the second time, you can also improve the second one before you go on., maybe mention bill could out race owen..........I also go to thesaurus.com and look up words that can make it more alive............ instead of large...the thesaurus might say enormous...or monstrous....massive......

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also look at the sentence and see if each word could be changed to make it come more alive , pretend you are telling your blind friend a movie you are watching and you want them to visualize it. such as...........instead of "SHE FROWN AT THE THOUGHT OF IT".... say " HER EYEBROWS KNITTED TOGETHER AT THE THOUGHT OF IT...that's showing instead of telling. instead of "SHE PICKED UP THE PAPER FROM THE HEARTH'......say.."SHE STROLLED OVER TO THE HEARTH OF THE FIREPLACE AND GRACEFULLY SQUATED TO RETRIEVE THE MORNING NEWS PAPER" all describing words. to make the reading visualize that person's movements

practice and more practice.

By writing.

Besides a good dictionary, one of the best aids to a writer in the English language is known as a "manual of style". Where British-influenced English is common, the standard reference is the "New Harts Rules". For American style English, the standard reference is "The Chicago Manual of Style". Almost all libraries and bookstores have them and any serious writer or editor always has one close to hand. The Chicago manual is also accessible online.

Stop complicate things