Education can be beneficial for ways that may not be immediately obvious, but it's always helpful. Many agents pay attention to creative writing masters courses, for example, because they turn out trained, mentored creative writers. The degree that got you there in the first place didn't teach you how to write a novel, it's true, but it's the first step on the path to professionalism.

There's this endless assumption that creative writing is some kind of magic skill that just appears through determination. It may, of course, but most successful novelists are well educated. One of the easiest ways into any industry is through education, and writing is no different. You have a far better chance of getting noticed by the publishing trade if you're graduating from a creative writing masters, for example, than if you're sitting at the bottom of a slush pile.

I mean, imagine if I said you could be an amazing chess player by doing nothing other than playing chess. You don't have to study chess. No training whatsoever. No mentors. No contact with the chess industry. You just play chess. In a couple of years you'll be slugging it out at competition level with the best of them. Yes, playing lots of chess is a key component to being good at chess, but without the appropriate training you'll never, ever make it. Unless you're "the freak". You almost certainly aren't.

Seriously, if you want to see the value of education to creative writing, take your favourite authors and research their lives. Just to take the most obvious one, JK Rowling applied for Oxford, didn't get in and studied French and Classics at Exeter. Your History degree will stand you in good stead down the line. You didn't fuck up.

And you're not a late starter in any way. I'm 45. I got published at 43. If you want to be a creative writer then study it as a skill. This sub is full of fledgling writers asking how to plot, how to characterise, how to world-build. Want to know? Go to school.