If you want to study writing, read Dickens. That's how to study writing, or Faulkner, or D.H. Lawrence, or John Keats. They can teach you everything you need to know about writing.
The sea always offers up incredible stories of survivors' fortitude. Myths of a lot of countries have variations on that.
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.