Congrats! If you’re at the manuscript writing stage that means that you’ve done a lot of hard work to propose your research, collect your data, and analyze it. It may not feel like it, but I think writing is one of the most creative and rewarding parts of science. It’s also one of the most challenging.

First, I’ll start with some resources. Dynamic Ecology has written much about the subject, including:

• Five Pivotal Paragraphs of a Paper
• How not to start your introduction
• Advice for writing discussions
• Tricks for clear writing

Other sage advice here

• Communicating what you find (Karban Ch. 8)
• FE’s guide to scientific writing