Storytelling Lesson of the Week: I spent some hours with a novelist the other night among a group of people she was just getting to know. It wasn’t a surprise to see that she was a good listener and attentive and had good questions for these strangers. But something became apparent to me as the conversations evolved, fragmented, redirected and evolved again: it was this genuine wonder I saw swell up in her as they spoke. Her eyes would get big or she would lean in or she would laugh with them or open her mouth in astonishment. There wasn’t a sense she was standing above or away as she listened. There wasn’t even nearly a sense that she was mining the moment for material. I’m talking about a multi-book, multi-honored, widely read and beloved writer. And she was absolutely present in awe and in laughter. It indicated to me a true love for human stories and a real affection for the human being in front of her. She was nowhere near a pen, paper or keyboard. But I think she was writing already in the sense that she has honed this keen and loving habit of attention to the world around her and the particulars of the people in it.