Newsletter #11: Virginia Woolf

Jan 27

Hey!

I’m excited for this week’s newsletter. Virginia Woolf is easily one of my favorite writers. Her writing is ethereal yet strangely familiar. I hope you enjoy this small buffet of her work.

And now here’s this week’s newsletter on Virginia Woolf.

Three Sentences by Woolf to Imitate and Study

I see you everywhere, in the stars, in the river, to me you're everything that exists; the reality of everything.

from Night and Day

Practice: Try this sentence frame using a concept from your writing:

I ____ you ____, in the ____, in the ____, to me you’re ____; the ____ of ____.

Here’s an example I came up with:

I hear your voice everywhere, in the morning when I see the ring I gave you, in the evening when I drive by the park where we met, to me you’re the quiet roar in my heart; the sound of a lost love.

II.

He smiled the most exquisite smile, veiled by memory, tinged by dreams.

from To the Lighthouse

Practice: Try this sentence frame using a concept from your writing:

_____ (verb) the most (adjective) (noun), _____ by ______, _____ by _____.

Here’s an example I came up with:

She danced the most intoxicating dance, inspired by desire, fueled by passion.

III.

To love makes one solitary.

from Mrs. Dalloway

Practice: Try this sentence frame using a concept from your writing:

To _____ makes one _____ .

Here’s an example I came up with:

To dream makes one infinite.

Two Quotes by Woolf on used books and the verb “dissolve”

“Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.”

Journal Prompt: If you have a used book, take a few moments and look it over. Imagine the people who owned the book before you. Who were they? Why did they buy the book? Did they like it? Did they even read it? After examining the book, write for 10 minutes about who those people are and how the book you now own connects all of you.

II.

“I am in the mood to dissolve in the sky.”

Journal Prompt: What does this sentence mean? Look up synonyms for “dissolve” and use each one in the sentence. How do they change the tone of the sentence? What about antonyms? How might the antonym of “dissolve” change the meaning and tone of the sentence?

One Cool Thing - The Only Recording of Woolf’s Voice & The Death of the Moth

This is the only survive audio recording of Virginia Woolf. It was part of a BBC series on the craft of writing, and in this section Woolf discusses words - old words, new words, their beauty, their utility, and their faults. It’s a fascinating listen, one in which you can feel the tone of her voice and how it perfectly matches the tone of her writing.

Around the Interwebs

Here are a few links I found that I thought you’d like.

One of my goals this year is to get up on stage at a Moth StorySLAM in Los Angeles and tell a story from my life in front of a bunch of strangers. To prepare, I’ve been listening to The Moth Radio Hour every morning on my drive to work. Fantastic stories and a great tool for learning how to tell a story.
Phillip Vance Smith, II writes about being an editor of a prison newspaper.
Scott Myers at Go Into the Story writes about which three scripts he would use to teach screenwriting. What three scripts would you choose?