What are some good books on writing? I bet there's something that is a practical guide for a noob on how to write good stories or essays

On Writing, Stephen king
Elements of Style, I forget the author

I've read quite a few and the most important one for me has been "Scene and Structure" by Jack Bickham. Works for essays too. Each piece of writing needs a compass. A goal. A point it's moving towards and as writer you need to make it clear.

The Writer's Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long

The Writer's Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long
https://www.priscillalong.net/books/

+1 all the suggestions for King's On Writing. 

Harmon's Story Circle and Vonnegut 's Shape of Story is also great places to start for fiction:

+1 all the suggestions for King's On Writing. 

Harmon's Story Circle and Vonnegut 's Shape of Story is also great places to start for fiction:
https://youtu.be/GOGru_4z1Vc?si=BHGiHkCVBRnceOJL

1. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
2. On Writing, Stephen King

I like this a lot: 
https://www.bbcmaestro.com/courses/alan-moore/storytelling

+1 for Strunk and White’s Elements of Style for the foundations

Then bring it up to speed with Dreyer’s English 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves for a quick laugh 

Zen in the Art of Writing to wrangle your voice and your muse

On Writing Well as the capstone

Books

Has anyone read this and put the ‘slip box’ method discussed into practice?

a) physically - can you share a pic?

b) electronically - what app? Zotero?

Would love to know if it improved your life if you’re not specially an academic writer, it seems pretty useful so far

Very practical and deals with the problem from the bottom (actually collecting content to write about) up

Very practical and deals with the problem from the bottom (actually collecting content to write about) up
https://warpcast.com/jamesmccomish.eth/0xe07904b6

Pro-tip. Set up an old laptop and nuke the wi-fi drivers. Was the only way I could complete a book.

Steven King actually wrote a book "How to write books", worth to check out even if you don't like his books in particular