Goodreads asked David West:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

David West Study the craft. My first book was non-fiction, but I enjoyed the process so much that I enrolled on a creative writing course. My wife really enjoyed my first story, but my tutor asked what the point of the story was. That night we watched University Challenge and one of the questions was "who wrote The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories?" I thought, I don't know, but I need to read that book. I did, and my next short story scored 97% and was shortlisted in a competition. It's by Christopher Booker, by the way.

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