Best of the Week: Writing Techniques

I'm not lying when I say that Orlando, last week, felt challenging and over my head. More often than not, I was perplexed rather than oriented. You see, my confusion wasn't really plot driven. I understood the main ideas and occurrences of Virginia Woolf's novel. However, I seemed to get caught up in her "trippy" and stream of consciousness writing style. It took me minutes to get through a single page, which was something that I wasn't used to. But thankfully, class was based off of discussions. During this time, I listened and learned from my peers, making sense out of the novel. While I can say that everyone's ideas helped connect the dots, there's one specific that really stuck out. This idea is how writing connects to the mind, rather than conforming to rules.

After one classmate read aloud the passage on page 119, I saw Mr. Allen's face light up with excitement. The passage went like this: "'Better is it,' she thought, 'to be clothed with poverty and ignorance, which are the dark garments of the female sex; better to leave the rule and discipline of the world to others; better to be quit of marital ambition, the love of power, and all the other manly desires if so one can more fully enjoy the most exalted raptures known to the human spirit, which are,' she said aloud, as her habit was when deeply moved, contemplation, solitude, love.'"

While his grin did make me feel more comforted in the classroom, it also worried me as to why I wasn't smiling as well. Word by word, Mr. Allen re-read the passage-again, and again, and again. The last time he read it, however, his voice stressed the emphasis on comma placement. At this point and time, it clicked. The reason why I was so caught up and distressed in Orlando was because of the way I'd gone about reading the novel. Virginia Woolf's writing style was completely contrary to my lessons in previous years in writing. She wrote for mind, instead of for the rules. Virginia placed emotion and thought into her writing, and she made it feel as if the reader could actually hear the speech that was written. For example, her commas separated actions of Orlando with Orlando's thoughts. In doing so, her writing felt fluid and rhythmic, just like the mind. I wasn't used to attacking a book in this manner, concluding why I felt so confused.

This made me think about and connect my years prior in English class. I'd always been drilled down to the core on my grammatical errors. Whether it was by placing too many commas in my sentences, or using the wrong tenses at times, I saw ink all over my papers for these reasons. However, none of my teachers ever wrote messages to me saying things like, "Work on rhythm" or "needs more fluidity." It seems as if so many of us disconnect writing with thinking. They are put on opposite ends of the spectrum. Even though writing originated as a way of expressing thoughts, we've put ourselves in a bubble and obstructed ourselves from certain opportunities. And although there are no solid rules to thinking, there are endless rules to writing.

I'm thankful that Virginia Woolf recognized my claim above and took action. I look forward to reading more of her writing, especially now that class taught me how to read it. I see myself adopting Virginia Woolf's writing in the future, now that I understand what makes it so special. Virginia Woolf really opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that writing can give to us, but only if we allow it to do so.