Every now and then I find my English writing abilities inadequate to express myself - largely because the way my mind works. Trained as a computer scientist, I find comfort in generalization. There is that mathematician inside me asking to find simple and clear definitions which can be used to describe the complex situation which I am looking to understand and describe. Fewer descriptions and simpler words are better than ornate details. Clearly this tendency works antagonistically with good writing.
A good writer finds the right word not by seeking building blocks of a grand theory but by choosing a word that associates a familiar feeling or a phenomenon with what he or she intends to describe. Perception is a lot more important than theorization here. Of course a good writer doesn't knows how to balance these two tendencies whereas I don't.
Another factor could be that English is hardly a first language for me. To this day I find faults with English grammar - as if to justify my shortcomings. I don't like the fact that just logically putting words together is never enough in English writing. One has to worry about how the whole sentence sounds in the end, checking if there are any word-repetitions of any kind, avoiding a sentence so long that the modifiers get detached, making sure the pronouns are referring to the right subjects and so on, If you're accustomed to using mathematical languages or a language with a heavy-weight grammar like that of Sanskrit or Latin, then such activities seems just extraneous and often boring.
Here are some examples where I wish English grammar could provide some enhancements :
1. The form What + are, Whatever+are is hardly used in English. "The cup can be replaced by what is now in gift box." is OK, but "The flowers would be replaced by what are on the patio." sounds awkward. An English speaker deals with the unavailability of the plural form of what in English by adding dummy objects. "The flowers would be replaced by things lying on the patio." is a perfectly fine sentence. But a plural what could've been better.
2. The problem with ambiguity with the modifier's object is well-known. In a sentence, "I read the book lying on the floor."- one doesn't know whether it is the book or the person lying on the floor.
3. Could we make sure words like welfare and farewell don't mean things so different?