Many “how to become a better writer” books are of dubious quality, but I have been pleased to take direction from The Writer’s Portable Mentor, by Seattle poet Priscilla Long. Rather than focusing on principles of fiction (Conflict! Character arcs! Hero’s Journey!) or inspirational confidence-building, it devotes itself mostly to the tasks of improving the quality of one’s sentences and paragraphs, penetrating to deeper levels of meaning, and honing one’s observational skills.
This is a lovely idea!