How a Sentence Changed My Life
"At the tennis courts, two young women were in the middle of a match, playing well, their pleated skirts flying as they raced after the ball." That one sentence changed my life. More to the point, it changed the direction of my art. I doubt the author - Sarah Waters - even remembers writing the words. They describe a scene in a park as observed by the two protagonists in her novel, The Paying Guests . I focused on them because of tennis (obviously) but within my imagination something came to life. The two women playing became Anna and Adah, who had a story all of their own, a story I had to tell. I was at the inevitable low point that follows the completion of a major project. I'd finished my first novel and, because I was steadfastly procrastinating its editing, I re-started work on another novel project I'd left unfinished while in grad school. After a couple weeks miserably slogging and fighting my way toward an ending, I realized I was deadlocked. I...