7 writing secrets from the greatest modernist literary figure of the 20th century (Part I)
The writing secrets of Virginia Woolf with comments by Susan McKenzie
1. TREAT ALL WRITING AS AN ESSAY
A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: Treat all writing including business writing as a form of essay writing – where you have a beginning, a middle and a great ending.
2. WORK OF ART: Almost any biographer, if he respects facts, can give us much more than another fact to add to our collection. He can give us the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: The biographer is the writer of another person’s life. He takes the facts and creates a new gloss and angle on the story – we get to see so much more. Do that with your writing too. You can create anew when you rewrite.
3. YOUR WRITING DEFINES YOU: Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: You are your writing. You are your writing so make sure it reflects the best of you.
4. FACT AND FICTION: Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: Actually we get a lot of idioms and examples from great literature and we can use these to give examples. Think the hare and the tortoise. The lessons from fiction can have an impact on the real world. Also many writers draw upon real life when writing their fiction. Think of the adage – Fact is stranger than fiction. Both should be considered and used as a tool when appropriate.
5. Language is wine upon the lips. (Viringia Woolf)
Susan McKenzie: Wine for millions of people has a sweet taste, a beautiful taste. The language that comes out of our mouths should have a beauty to it. We cannot be truly beautiful unless we taste beauty as we speak. I wonder how many people consciously try to only let beauty come from their lips? Do it more – it is beautiful.
6. Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice. (Virginia Woolf).
Susan McKenzie: Consider learning as a building up process – Rome was not built in a day – is a famous adage that anything great takes time to build. Another adage is Practice Makes Perfect – and again requires daily or regular practice. In other words as Virgina Woolf says – masterpieces are the outcome of many years – thinking, doing, creating, honing, refining, reworking and thinking.
7. We write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.” Virginia Woolf,Orlando, A Biography.
SUSAN MCKENZIE: Virginia is so right – we write with our whole being. Make sure you realize that and consciously put your whole being into all your writing – and your writing will be so much more lively, exciting, polished and hitting the spot of the reader.
- Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works. (Virginia Woolf)
The writing secrets of Virginia Woolf with comments by Susan McKenzie
1. TREAT ALL WRITING AS AN ESSAY
A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: Treat all writing including business writing as a form of essay writing – where you have a beginning, a middle and a great ending.
2. WORK OF ART: Almost any biographer, if he respects facts, can give us much more than another fact to add to our collection. He can give us the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: The biographer is the writer of another person’s life. He takes the facts and creates a new gloss and angle on the story – we get to see so much more. Do that with your writing too. You can create anew when you rewrite.
3. YOUR WRITING DEFINES YOU: Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: You are your writing. You are your writing so make sure it reflects the best of you.
4. FACT AND FICTION: Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible. (Virginia Woolf).
SUSAN MCKENZIE: Actually we get a lot of idioms and examples from great literature and we can use these to give examples. Think the hare and the tortoise. The lessons from fiction can have an impact on the real world. Also many writers draw upon real life when writing their fiction. Think of the adage – Fact is stranger than fiction. Both should be considered and used as a tool when appropriate.
5. Language is wine upon the lips. (Viringia Woolf)
Susan McKenzie: Wine for millions of people has a sweet taste, a beautiful taste. The language that comes out of our mouths should have a beauty to it. We cannot be truly beautiful unless we taste beauty as we speak. I wonder how many people consciously try to only let beauty come from their lips? Do it more – it is beautiful.
6. Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice. (Virginia Woolf).
Susan McKenzie: Consider learning as a building up process – Rome was not built in a day – is a famous adage that anything great takes time to build. Another adage is Practice Makes Perfect – and again requires daily or regular practice. In other words as Virgina Woolf says – masterpieces are the outcome of many years – thinking, doing, creating, honing, refining, reworking and thinking.
7. We write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.” Virginia Woolf,Orlando, A Biography.
SUSAN MCKENZIE: Virginia is so right – we write with our whole being. Make sure you realize that and consciously put your whole being into all your writing – and your writing will be so much more lively, exciting, polished and hitting the spot of the reader.
- Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works. (Virginia Woolf)
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