I figured a decent number of people here are interested in writing. I’m putting in some links to sites or books that have helped me. I’m not sponsored by anyone, so I don’t get anything by linking to these sites or books except a sense of satisfaction at helping the two people who visit my website.
Critters: This website has writers of all different ability levels, from beginners to published authors, critiquing each other’s work. I have found it very useful for improving my writing in general and for learning the problems in specific stories.
Odyssey Workshop critiquing service: Odyssey has a writing workshop, but they also offer a critiquing service for either three short stories or part of a novel. Their feedback helped my writing go up a notch.
Robert J. Sawyer’s advice: Robert J. Sawyer is an author and has put some writing advice on his website. I particularly liked this bit he wrote about making your prose interesting. His novel Rollback was awesome and I recommend it.
The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass: This book gives some great methods for evoking emotional reactions in readers and, the part that I found particularly helpful, it gives a lot of great exercises for either practicing in general or for improving a story you’re already working on.
Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass: Another book by Donald Maass that improved my writing and has some good exercises.
DreamForge Dreamcasters: DreamForge is interested in cultivating writers in general. They also have a discussion group with writing prompts, guest speakers, etc.
Wulf Moon’s Super Secrets. DreamForge has published excerpts from this book, and I recently took a workshop by Wulf Moon. I haven’t read the book yet, but the workshop was very helpful, so I expect the book to be, also.