You might have more self-confidence than I, but on the bookshelf across from my desk at home, there's a line of books on writing.  From the beat up copy of Strunk and White I accidentally kept from my high school journalism class to a few I'm not even sure I've ever opened, I suppose I think one of these books has a secret formula that makes bad writing good, but that really isn't the case.  From any book, you hope to learn a few things and reach the last page a little better for the trip.  Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools isn't some sort of miraculous gift from the writing muse, but it does manage to have something useful on nearly every page for any writer, regardless of your level of experience, and that might be all you can ask for a book of this sort.

What I really enjoyed about Writing Tools is that Clark has formatted the book in a way that makes it readable straight through (like normal people read books, I suppose), but I think I might just leave a copy by my computer for the days when I just can't figure out what to do with a sentence, paragraph or pages of whatever I'm working on.  Flip the book open to the "special effects" section and read whatever chapter you land on:  "Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction", for example.  Clark gives a brief explanation of what abstraction is, breaks down how it manifests itself, and then uses an essay by John Updike to explain how it's used.  At the end of the chapter, like all the chapters of the book, there's a "workshop" giving the reader a few things to try.  Clark's work feels like a guidebook created by the writing instructor we always wanted...not preachy or dogmatic, just a variety of sources combined with the author's own experience providing practical information that's as fun to read as it is beneficial.  Clark isn't setting a series of rules out that define the boundaries of quality writing, merely providing a toolset that will come in handy in different forms and functions someday.  Writing Tools might go up on the bookshelf for a little while, but it won't stay there for long.

Writing Tools [Amazon]