The most entertaining and useful books I've read about writing are by Lawrence Block, writer of the Matthew Scudder and Burglar books, as well as many other novels.

* Writing the Novel From Plot to Print (1979)
* Telling Lies for Fun & Profit (1981)
* Write For Your Life (1986)
* Spider, Spin Me a Web (1987)

They're focused more on novel writing than short fiction, but many of the lessons contained within apply to both.

Currently I'm reading Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee. Again, it's not really geared toward short fiction, but so far there's quite a bit of useful information in there.

Any others?

John Braine How to Write A Novel I thought very useful - like all teachers oif English, I suspect, I have tried my hand at it and this one got me further than most, although his technique is not for everyone.

http://books.google.com/books?id=EP8DAA ... ite&pgis=1

This is a handy one, Monk.

Frank may mock me for saying this, but grammar is like math to me. When confronted with rules and instructions about it, my brain just locks up. Obviously, I'll need to get past that eventually.

Not sure I'd recommend any 'How To' books (because I haven't read any) but Umberto Eco's theoretical and critical writing is very interesting and instructive.

I don't think so - you instinctively write correctly when you are someone who has read a great deal (See, I know that that should be 'one' and I don't care) So why do you need to 'get past it'? Writing, in fiction anyway, needs to be lively and engaging, to construct believable characters and situations, to convey excitement, pathos and drama: sort those things out, THEN do a grammar check if you are in any doubt.

Many, many published authors write sentences that a pedant might condemn as 'ungrammatical' but whose meaning is perfectly clear and precise: but then, English has so many arbitrary and useless rules, confusing and arcane requirements (split infinitive - so fucking what? I am not writing Latin) and all the rest of it that it often does little good to worry overmuch about 'correct' or not. Of course you have to be careful not to make foolish errors, but write from your heart first.

This has been a public information message from the Campaign for Realistic Attention to Punctuation, or CRAP.

Grammar is like math to me, as well, but in a good way.

Oh, and even if you're not writing science fiction or fantasy, you'll find plenty of good lessons in Orson Scott Card's books about writing:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Science ... 158297103X

And if you go to http://hatrack.com/, you can read some additional writing lessons from Uncle Orson.

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