Writing Classic Prose by Mark Turner and Francis Noel Thomas opened my eyes to a different way of thinking about prose style. Instead of focusing on surface features like "avoid the passive voice" and "use adverbs sparingly", it delves into the underlying assumptions of a specific style like the fictional situation (people in conversation), attitude to truth (it's possible to tell the truth about something so you don't need constant hedging), and the audience.
It's well worth reading that book, but it can be a bit repetitive. There's a chapter in Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style that explains classic style more concisely, and also has excellent advice about writing clearly and coherently founded on a more scientific understanding of how grammar and language cognition actually works.
It's well worth reading that book, but it can be a bit repetitive. There's a chapter in Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style that explains classic style more concisely, and also has excellent advice about writing clearly and coherently founded on a more scientific understanding of how grammar and language cognition actually works.