#yes i'm obsessed with virginia woolf so what

[motownfiction]

19-25, 36, 37

19. how do you keep yourself motivated?

you know, it's honestly not that hard for me because of the way i balance it? i work on school stuff a lot. so much that i will always need a break. this is that break.

20. how many WIPs and story ideas do you have?

two mini series that i would love to update if i ever had the time. i also kick around ideas about elenore from time to time. i've been thinking about whether she stays a lawyer, whether she stays married to sean despite really loving him, etc. i think the answer is yes to both, especially the sean thing. but i kick stuff around just to see what might work and what would not.

21. who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

lucy and sam. i don't know how many different ways i can say it, lol. they're the characters that feel the most me to me. i love being able to be both of them. i think lucy is who i really am, and sam is the character i play in front of people i don't know that well (e.g. students). either way, they're both very real parts of me, and i love them. but like, you know i love will and sadie, too. so those original four are always going to be my favorites to write about, but i have an even more special place for lucy and sam.

22. who is/are your favourite pairing(s) to write?

i'm going to be difficult and answer this question in a few ways, lmao.

my favorite canon endgame romantic relationship is obviously lucy and will. god. they love each other so much. it's unreal. he is devoted to her, and she is devoted to him. they like each other. they understand each other. they grow up together in a way that the other pairings do not, and i think that makes them so much stronger. like, yeah, sadie and daniel were kids together, and they'll always have that frame of reference. but lucy and will catapulted into adulthood at age sixteen together, and no one will ever quite understand that time like they do. they're bonded by mutual admiration, trust, and unique circumstances. i love that they're a given for each other, but neither of them ever takes the other for granted.

my favorite canon non-endgame romantic relationship is sam and carrie. i don't count sam and steph because even though they weren't technically together at the time of sam's death, i think it's either strongly implied or just outright stated that they were headed there. but oh, sam and carrie. what could have been! like lucy and will, i think they get each other in ways that no one else can really broach. sam understands carrie's quirks and the creativity that rattles awkwardly inside her mind. he wants to help her let it out, while charlie is too often oblivious to the fact that it's there. and carrie can see through to sam's silent emotions, see through his jokes, his song-and-dance numbers. sam is so easy to pair with all sorts of characters. i can't deny that. but there is a large part of me that thinks, even with steph in the picture, sam should have ended up with carrie. steph can still end up with katie! but sam and carrie should have been forever.

and my favorite non-canon romantic relationship, which could have happened in a very different world where very different things occurred, is lucy and sam. i think, in a world where neither of them ever knew will, or will had never been born, this would have been a great partnership. their personalities just sing to each other, imo. she is the seriousness to his silliness, but they are both so brilliant, so witty, so cool. these two very unusual, very glittery people could have been a great team. in their reality, they have no romantic or sexual tension whatsoever, as they're both busy being obsessed with will (💜). but they could have been together in another world.

23. favourite author

idk, lol ... jane austen, charlotte brontë, virginia woolf, charles dickens, chinua achebe, some works by jerry spinelli (really just stargirl and its sequel), katherine mansfield ... it could go on.

24. favourite genre to write and read

i mean, broadly, realistic fiction with an emphasis on youth and coming-of-age. and you know what i mean by that: not necessarily school dances and first crushes, not necessarily high school stuff. but just a young person navigating a difficult situation.

25. favourite part of writing

dialogue and character dynamics.

36. last sentence you wrote

She’s not supposed to know anything, but she can’t help reading Elenore like a dog-eared copy of a deeply old book.

37. first sentence or your current WIP

Lucy knows what’s been going on, but she hasn’t told anyone yet.

[definitely-not-an-alb]

[@genericusername37 asked 'Like, a shifting pov? What the hell is "head-hopping"??']

Hope it's okay to pull this out but I need a bit more than the answerbox.

Head-Hopping is one of the Writing Sins the Online Writing Advice Listicle Bubble is obsessed with, it's when (ostensibly bad, young, inexperienced) authors in ostensibly third person limited 'hop' from perspective to perspective in a single scene, so;

'Oh Janet, damnit, I love you!' cried Brad, thinking Let's hope it wasn't the ring I dropped in the parking lots' gutter earlier. 'Oh, Brad!', Janet moaned in surprise. Oh damn, she thought. Not what I hoped he'd say but there really aren't any other men in this stupid town and I guess he's not so bad?

This is considered bad style because it ostensibly makes the narrative confusing, takes the reader out of the story (by reminding them it is a story they are reading) and creates emotional distance between reader and character. Now I know I was just here yesterday saying yes actually get gud at language and now today I'm saying fuck a third person limited, lets go head-skipping. But the * that comes with that writing advice is that it only applies if your explicit goal is to create currently-fashionable 'invisible' workmanlike genre prose with high reader immersion and high character identification, in which case, yes, 'head-hopping', in addition to being plainly out of fashion is maybe not the right stylistic technique to use.

(I actually once read a romantasy that used head-hopping to great and clearly explicitly wanted effect, because the only people head-hopping were the romance leads and only after they'd consummated their magic-mind-meld-soul-bond-marriage! It was a cool use of the technique!)

(The 'this is confusing your readers!' thing is such a silly complaint, tho, like come on. "Genre-prose" head-hopping comes with indicators like thinky-tags. If, as an author, think your readers are so bad at reading that they cannot figure out who's thinking what thought in the example up there ... maybe have less contempt for your readers?!)

The literary term I was looking for was Free Indirect Discourse, a Modernist narrative technique/mode which discards both the omniscient third narrator, limited first narrator and the third person limited POV for a free-floating focus that takes on whichever character (or sometimes object) is currently the centre of narrative attention.

To borrow from cinema, imagine a long-take tracking shot like the one in Goodfellas (1990) in the Copacabana, were yes, stuff's confusing, but there's clearly, like, one specific guy we're following through the scene. Compare that to the tracking shot from Wings (1927), were we flit through the café, passing all these different couples each only for a second, but always long enough to get a glimpse into their specific dynamic, creating this multifaceted image of what a romantic relationship can look like at different stages and in different situations, priming the audience for the wwi-action-rom-com about to unfold.

And Free Indirect Discourse is not solely the domain of modernist and postmodernist ect pp litfic. One of the authors known for it is Jane Austen. You've read this and you've probably not even noticed (because she's so good at it). At the 'very noticeably and (purposefully) confusing' end of the spectrum you've got something like Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party.

The reason I'm so bitchy here is that this kind of cheap listicle shit is objectively worse than just bad advice because it makes the people who read, regurgitate and follow it incurious and actively worse at writing, reading and discussing literature. And it's also really annoying when I forget what it's called and try to google 'shifting perspective head-hopping literary device modernism' and only get brain-dead booktube shit as results.

Like. Virginia Woolf and XXXbloodyrists666XXX both [notoriously 'head-hop'/make expert use of Free Indirect Discourse] but arguing that and that alone is what makes their work [good/bad] to the point of [complete incomprehensibility/defining a generation] [please strike N/A] is ridiculous.

On the one hand it is true that most writing 'rules' can be safely disregarded, on the other hand it is true that there is such a thing as better or good writing and it is not solely down to taste, and on the third hand which I will need to borrow off someone real quick I currently cannot find the literary term for the example I wanted to use to illustrate this because the internet is top to bottom swamped with god-awful 'what is head-hopping and why is it RUINING YOUR NOVEL' writing 'help' articles completely obscuring the valid literary term for the valid literary technique this also refers to when you do it well & on purpose.

[russiansappho]

Vita & Virginia’s Anniversary!

💌 𝐕𝐢𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞-𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝟗𝟖 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨, 𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟒, 𝟏𝟗𝟐𝟐.

✨ 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐢𝐭𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨: "𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞".

🌊 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟒𝟏.

[russiansappho]

This photo of Vita Sackville-West reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf > everything else

[russiansappho]

Looks like a love letter Virginia Woolf wrote to Vita Sackville-West

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

Damn, if i had your talent i would never stop writing. I have so many ideas but when i try to put write them down it just, has no life.

I've read everything even from fandoms i don't belong to. Do you write profesionally?

first of all, thank you so much. this was so kind that i was genuinely shocked and stunned speechless. i've been having a rough year, really, with some personal and family issues recently so this was a nice pick-me-up.

(anon, if you have a tumblr, i'd love to put a name to the person who brought a smile to my face)

secondly, don't disparage your own skills !!! i'm glad you like my writing so much. truly. but there are lots of my currently still published (i've orphaned some works from pre-pandemic) works that i'm not excessively fond of. i like them all, but i can safely say i'm not satisfied with any of them per se. i think it's difficult to be satisfied by your own writing ever. so truly, if you feel your own writing is shit, i want you to know i feel that too, even about the fics you may love. one man's trash is another man's treasure, and writing is so inherently personal and subjective, it's hard to analyze quality by your own judgement alone. i say with this full honesty and frankness, i dont think your writing is shit, anon op.

i don't think writers give life to their works, as much as readers do. readers adopt these worlds i've written and breathe life into it, by connecting and sympathising with it. just as i can say, i don't think writers will love their writing the most, it'll always be the readers. there are certain fics out there which i'm entirely obsessed with, my holy grail truly. and i hope for you, and any of my other readers out there, i hope you find comfort in any of my fics. i think the hallmark of a writer isn't necessarily to persuade their readers to do this or that, but to help them find something, a small thing, in a certain work that identifies with them. i hope my works identify with you. again with writing being so inherently personal, almost like you're like looking into myself, it takes a lot of courage to publish and put it out there, and knowing others empathise with me is another joy, unable to be put into words. i don't think i write action, romance, emotions, metaphors, or description or a very good many list of things well, but that doesn't matter as long as someone can identify and find comfort in certain aspects of my fics.

(apologies for this long and dragged on explanation, concision is something i really struggle with. and my virginia woolf is very much so responsible for the stream of consciousness writing that i can't stop.)

also, i'm truly flattered you've read my fics. i've written 91 ones as of rn, and i have countless others i've anon-ed and orphaned, and it's no joke to even read 91 of them. i have an insane schedule and i know that (amongst my many flaws, lack of self-awareness isn't one of them). i truly don't know what to say but thank you. it really is motivation for me to write more, esp when im struggling with many irl things rn.

finally to answer your question, the answer is sort of. i write for my uni newspaper (it's actually pretty renowned but since this platform relies on anonymity that i crave, i won't say which) as a journalist. other than that, i publish poetry and creative writing to my uni creative writing journal (see above explanation) and i get paid to write basically. because i won a fellowship, and it ranges from around 10k usd per sem. besides that, i do academic writing for my econ lab and internship at an international economic non-governmental authority.

i also work as a graphic designer and copy writer.

so, yes. i'm kinda a professional writer. i do not have any proper published novels and the like, but as a uni student, i do a fair bit of writing. other than what my school homework already requires and what not.

[russiansappho]

I can’t stop thinking how “Portrait de la jeune fille en feu” is similar to “Orlando”:

Céline Sciamma dedicated her film to Adèle Haenel in the same way Virginia Woolf dedicated her novel to Vita Sackville-West.

Imagine your beloved immortalizing you in her work, capturing your soul in art...

The power of these women leaves me in awe!

[russiansappho]

« Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs. Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs. Ramsay’s knee. »

~ Virginia Woolf, “To the Lighthouse”

[russiansappho]

~ from “The Years”

“she did not want to move or to speak. She wanted to rest, to learn, to dream. she felt very tired.” 

- Virginia Woolf 

[russiansappho]

I've celebrated Virginia’s birthday with my growing collection.

[russiansappho]

“Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semitransparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.”

~ Adeline Virginia Woolf

(25 January, 1882 - 28 March, 1941)

[russiansappho]

Happy Birthday, Virginia!  I wish I could convey how devoutly thankful I am for the chance to behold your sophisticated soul.  I can't help being mesmerized by your mind, which 'hums with scraps of poetry and madness'. Words fail me - I love you so much and can say so little...

[russiansappho]

Dedicated to Virginia Woolf 🌊✨

𝘈 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘺,

𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴

𝘌𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘦,

𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘩��𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘦

𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘬𝘺, 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘪𝘳

𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦

𝘌𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳 -

𝘝𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢

𝘐𝘯 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮.

𝘙𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦,

𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴.

𝘐𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘦,

𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭.

𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘵, 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵,

𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘳𝘺.

𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵,

𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯: 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘦 -

𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥.

[russiansappho]

“Then came the most exquisite moment of her whole life passing a stone urn with flowers in it. Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips. The whole world might have turned upside down!

The others disappeared; there she was alone with Sally. And she felt that she had been given a present, wrapped up, and told just to keep it, not to look at it — a diamond, something infinitely precious, wrapped up, which, as they walked (up and down, up and down), she uncovered, or the radiance burnt through, the revelation, the religious feeling!”

~Virginia Woolf,

“Mrs. Dalloway”

alessandra ferri and francesca hayward photographed performing in "i now, i then" section of wayne mcgregor's woolf works by darren thomas

[russiansappho]

Yes, I really do celebrate anniversaries of historical lesbians, thank you for coming to my ted talk.💖

Vita & Virginia’s Anniversary!

💌 𝐕𝐢𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞-𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝟗𝟖 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨, 𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟒, 𝟏𝟗𝟐𝟐.

✨ 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐢𝐭𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨: "𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞".

🌊 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟒𝟏.