I want to start some writing. Options

[ImperialSnob]

Any tips or tricks of the trade?

[Colonel Mustard]

Most useful books I've read to teach you about writing are On Writing by Stephen King, Into the Woods: a Five Act Journey into Story by John Yorke and Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. Two other useful guides are the transcripts of Arther Quiller Couche's 'Q' lectures (though they're not easy to get hold of, though ebay may be your firend) and Aristotle's Poetics, though you should be wary of taking all of Aristotle's guides of what to include in a story as gospel. There's plenty of room to tell a good story with what he says a story should be made up, but it's certainly not the only right way to do it, not by a long shot.

As well as that, read. A lot. And read a lot of everything. Include the classic authors; Shakespeare, Chekov, Poe, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Dumas, the Brontes and all of those as well. They've stuck around because they're good at what they do, and there's a lot they can teach you.