Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

Reviewer rating: 

3

Pros: 

Examples of how to write from some of the all-time greatest authors.

Cons: 

Perhaps not the most convincing book ever on improving writing technique.

Prose’s proposition is that writers can learn by studying wonderful examples of writing, and this at the micro level of the text – from picking the right word, to constructing the perfect sentence and choosing the exact moment to mark a new paragraph.

Break Into Fiction

Reviewer rating: 

5

Pros: 

Easy to understand and use templates and examples

Cons: 

None

Who could resist a title like that? And when it's co-authored by Dianna Love and Mary Buckham, you shouldn't resist it.

The First Five Pages: a Writer's Guide for Staying out of the Rejection Pile (A Fireside book)

Reviewer rating: 

5

Pros: 

Short, easy-to-understand chapters broken down into an order that makes sense. End-of-chapter exercises so you can instantly tweak a finished manuscript.

Cons: 

None

The sub-title is A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. That alone is worth buying it.