Grace Paley was giving a lecture at 2 P.M. Grace Paley was—and remains—one of my heroes. I went straight to the auditorium and claimed a front row seat. For the next hour, Paley talked in her no-nonsense, Brooklyn-accented way about writing. “Every story is two stories,” she said. “The one on the surface and the one bubbling beneath. The climax is when they collide.” I wrote it down. I whispered it to myself as I walked back to my dorm room. Every story is two stories. I thought of every story I loved, from The Great Gatsby to “The Lady With the Pet Dog.” Every one of them, I realized thanks to Paley’s advice, two stories. Ann Hood