There are only two books I would ever really say have been helpful 'writer' books for me. One of them is Strunk and White, the Elements of Style. The other is Stephen King's On Writing.
I have looked at a variety of other ones...I even read a few blog posts about the topic. (This one seems particularly nice and not complete crap.) I find that people who don't know what to write have a lot a to say about writing, most of which I disagree with.
This is not so much a how to about writing, but more of a thought process as I reread King's book of writing advice, which is part autobiography, part King's literary history, and part writer's advice from someone who captured the American mind in many ways, and spoke to both its desire for the fantastic and horrible, as well as the deeply cultural roots of how people are in America, and their relationship with religion and politics. It's fair if you say you don't like a lot of his books (I know I have a take-it-or-leave-it relationship with about half of what he's written) but you'd be hard pressed to find a better modern writer who is also what people would deem a financial success. (And someone who people still consider a writing powerhouse today, even though his novels haven't recently made headlines like Carrie or It did.)
His writing style is very heavy, and probably not my writing style, nor is his subject matter what I would try (thrillers edging on horror). What I do think, is that his books are for people who want to learn about writing. Even his worst books are something worth reading.
I think the one thing missed by most books on writing is how little people care for technical advice: people want to believe that people like them exist. And King does an excellent job of explaining his life as a writer, and how much his life has been made better by writing.
In this day and age, writing well is a hard skill to master...people are moving away from words, and toward images. But King is 70 years old, and still publishing almost a book a year.
If I could do anything half as good as that, I think I could be quite happy.
