/lit/ - Literature

Here's a daily warm up I'm happy with. Still looking for tips though. I personally feel I might benefit from another passage detailing the overall position of the figure, but it isn't needed. It would only help visualizing mostly. Will critique others in my next post. Thanks in advance!

The tender stone figure before me was carved by careful hands into delicate curvatures accentuated by her statute form. A flowing sheet of marble drapes the figure's right shoulder and surfs along her breasts and back, gently settling into her lap and the basin she lies in. Gripping tight the rim of the hemisphere, the woman's left arm bends up against the inner wall. Her opposite hand and arm reach out to the very direction which she stares. Her eyes, disarming yet betrayed, are welled with tears beginning to stream along her cheek bones. Does she choose to stare so intently in my direction, her curled fingers slightly pointed to me as though expecting my hand slipped into hers? Once ahold of my hand, does she expect me to hold tight and pull her out? Or would she grip my hand firmly, attempting to pull me in?
Walking behind the figure, I look carefully to her hand gripping the basin's edge. The knuckles of her hand lock her forefingers to the outside of the lip as her thumb presses against the interior. As if she's not lifting herself out of the bowl but pushing herself in. And once behind the sculpture, the tears running her cheek can be seen down the back of her neck, her left shoulder and arm, and the basin wall, where the droplets have begun to pool and fill the bottom, covering the feet and buttocks of the woman.
Slowly I circle round the figure. Looking again to her stoic face I feel even more that her arm reaches to bring me in. For it is not my hand by which she desires to be rescued but my eyes, my being. I thoughtlessly reach to her hand as I stare into the blank eyes of the empty figure filling the basin. Shame grips me stone tight. And after grasping the hand for a moment, I pull my arm away and reach into the pocket of my jacket. Beginning to leave the statue, I take my phone out and dial a number before placing it to my ear. Glancing back to the sculpture, as the ringer chimes in my ear, I note the name of the piece before making my way out of the building: Amor Matris.

What would be more beneficial to an English writer looking to improve his craft:

1) Reading a universally recognized English works (i.e. "Moby Dick", "The Great Gatsby", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", etc.)

2) Reading "Improve your Writing" books (i.e."Reading like a Writer", "The Anatomy of Story", "Negotiating with the Dead", etc.)

And yes, I know the proper answer is read both, but which will you get more bang for your buck?

What do you do to invoke the Muses before you write?

Is there ANY other reason to take a creative writing course other than to network with other writers and possibly, maybe get introduced to some publishing companies?

It's not like you're going to get anything else out of it that you couldn't get online for free, nor can it teach talent.

>bring up tough problem with categorizing novel
>ask professor what he thinks
>"I don't know, people use different models"
fuckin hell mate you're supposed to be teaching me this isn't an exercise in futility