OCTOBER 2025
This month we look at the writing of Virginia Woolf, born in 1882 and died in 1941, she was a Modernist writer of novels and short stories and the foremost feminist writer of the twentieth century. She revolutionized narrative voice by mixing in character's inner voices, thus exploring psychological and emotional motives in the narration. Her language is intensely lyrical with her prose feeling most full of poetry.
EXERCISE #004 - A Writer's Diary
Virginia Woolf said that her diaries brought the freedom to "dance like nobody is watching: to her writing. Try her method of free writing.
Exercise: Either in longhand or typed, 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 to yourself. Think about whether this is something you might like to practice every day in your writing journal. 1 or2 pages will be perfect.
EXERCISE #005 - Point of View
It is important to write effectively from different viewpoints. In her novel Orlando, Woolf writes from both the male and female perspective within the same character.
Exercise: A man is sitting at a table on his won in a crowded Italian restaurant. A woman from another table gets up, walks over to his table, and sits down opposite him. Write three versions of the same scene from three different perspectives.
1. Write this scene in the first person from the perspective of one of the characters.
2. Write this scene in thee third person.
3 Write this scene entirely in dialogue.
EXERCISE #006 - Little Daily Miracles
Exercise: Write a short piece using the following line from Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse for inspiration:
"Little Daily Miracles"