I have a self imposed rule where every so often, I read a novel that has won a Pulitzer prize. The down side is that it becomes immediately apparent that they write better than I do. Hopefully I learn something from them however. When I read a professionally written story, I enjoy the story but I'm also picking it apart to observe how it's written. You can learn a lot by doing that. I also took a college creative writing course this winter and that was very helpful. There's so much going on when one is writing a story because there are standard mechanics one should adhere to. It just like writing a song: verse 1, verse 2, chorus, verse 3, chorus, bridge, chorus and chorus. Songs don't just happen and neither do stories, not good ones anyway.