The Importance of Studying Writing

I was really interested in your experience of learning about writing and how it shaped you as a writer. I mean, do you think that you could have written the three great novels that you've written if you hadn't done that studying? I'm not sure I could. It helped me hugely to believe in myself as a write. And there was so much about the course that helped me. But then of course, you've just got to turn up every day at the desk and doing the work.