Lucy Barton learns to write

"Sarah Payne said, If there is a weakness in your story, address it head-on, take it in your teeth and address it, before the reader really knows. This is where you will get your authority, she said, during one of those classes when her face was filled with fatigue from teaching."

"Now I think of something else Sarah Payne said. 'You will have only one story,' she said. 'You’ll write your one story many ways. Don’t ever worry about story. You have only one.'”

-- Elizabeth Strout, My Name Is Lucy Barton