The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes

This is not a 'how to write' book - rather, it's one that points out where you're going wrong (or where you may go wrong if you haven't yet started writing). I came to it halfway through a rubbish first draft and found it great as it helped me see exactly where I was going wrong, and why - embarrassing mistakes at which any publisher or agent would surely laugh. It's been a crucial part of the learning process for me.
The short chapters are easy to dip into into and they get the point across in an easy-to-understand way but, as well as being instructional, it's also inspirational - if I'm ever stuck with my writing, just reading a few chapters of this book is enough to get me back on track.

...then this is the book for you. It does give a comprehensive overview of a lot of the pitfalls in writing and warrants the two starts for being clear about what they are and how to avoid them. However, if you've got a decent idea of what good writing is, then there's nothing new here.

If you feel relatively competent, then there are better books out there.

Whilst by no means a complete waste of time, Bickman's book doesn't have the general application that some better guides offer. It's probably quite useful if you write romance, or pulp westerns and espionage thrillers as Mr Bickman himself apparently did - anything with a single protagonist battling against the odds - but for most other genres his limited (and limiting) advice is less than helpful. Personally I write fantasy, horror and science-fiction, and the model he puts forward as mandatory for any good fiction would exlude many of the great works in those genres (as well as the majority of literary classics, for that matter). As proof of this there's the fact that Bickman offers almost no examples to cooborate his arguments, and a couple of the few there are are from his own works! On the plus side, it's a very readable and stirring book, and even if like me you disagree with much of what's said, it at least pushes you to question your own style and decisions. Personally I would recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King, as a much more generally applicable and less personal and occassionally bizzare guide than this.

...then you have found the book you need. Excellent advice, easy to read and you will spot improvements you can make in your own work very quickly after picking up this book.
Great Stuff

Save your money, buy something else. As a writer of 8 published non-fiction works who is working on a novel and a collection of short stories I devour anything I can on technique. I ploughed through this book desperate to learn something. If you really know absolutely nothing about writing you may learn something from this, but I doubt it.