Well, I have been too long in school to know doing many repeats of drafts and drafts again... But I do have some other tips other than the above.
To prevent Writer's Block happening, remember that inspiration comes all over with anything, around the street to something naturally boring. There is always a story WAITING to be told in your perspective.
If you don't have any ideas or stuck in a page of writing, just take a break with music. It is really effective, for giving inspiration in rythm, and takes you to a wonderful story to be told.
Another one is for essays or narratives to teachers. They most importantly, want to hear your voice in the writing essay of your choice which you need to master when deliving imagination of your tale or story towards any reader, even teachers.
Put very interesting facts, and twist it as you will to make the reader connected to real life, and add combinations of action/drama or comedy/mystery to give some complicity of the story. You also want the reader to feel disired to read more of your story, make it tooo boring or long, he doesn't want to read. Mostly they see if its good by it's catching sentence or paragraph which tells the reader if it's good or not.
One more thing, just like movies, make a trailer or poster of the story, seems odd but it makes the imaginative part of the story to be illustrated in a poster. Make it in a banner, flash animation, or lego stop motion, to let it give feel and image of the story. It might seem very hard, but making a story needs time, patience, and work on a desirable story, that is a passion.
Make it clean, simple, really enjoyable for the reader, be imaginative, have voice, complex vocabulary, and have fun with it.
