Shaler Library Writers Group
September
This month we will feature the writing style of Virginia Woolf, 1882 - 1941. Woolf is a modernist writer who explored many genres: novels, nonfiction books, short story collections, biography, autobiography and diaries. Her writing is poetic and lyrical. She took the Interior monologue and Stream of Consciousness style created by James Joyce and mastered it with some modifications.
She mixes narration with her characters' inner voice. Rather than the traditional narrator telling us what happens next, we hear how characters react to what happens. Woolf leads us into their minds. She explores the psychological and emotional motives of her characters.
In her novel Orlando, she breaks new ground with a mix of satirically historical biography and exploration of gender roles. This is the story of a young nobleman in Elizabethan England. At the age of 30 he falls asleep for a week. When he awakes, he finds that he has metamorphosed into a woman, yet his mind and personality remain male.
September Writing prompts:
- Virginia Woolf said that diaries brought freedom to her writing. Try her method of free writing. Write your thoughts on whatever subject you like. Don't worry about spelling or grammar, or how it reads - you don't even need to read it back yourself. Write 2 or 3 pages.
- Point of View. It is important to write effectively from different viewpoints. In Orlando Woolf wrote from both male and female perspective within the same character. EXERCISE: A man is sitting at a table on his own in a crowded Italian restaurant. A woman from another table gets up, walks over to his table, and sits down opposite of him. Write three versions of the same scene from three different perspectives. First person from the man's perspective. First person from the Woman's perspective and third person narrator.
- Write a short piece using the following line from Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse: "Little daily miracles."