Reading the Instructions

I find myself a first-time author at the age of fifty-one. I’m not from a writing background; my day job is medical (previously a GP, now a surgical assistant). I have no formal qualifications in writing, no degree or MFA. I often feel I have no idea what I’m doing—I simply write and re-write until a story sounds better. But though my first attempt at fiction (since high school) was only eleven years ago, I’ve always been a reader. And surely reading is one of the greatest lessons in writing.