Virginia Woolf

I asked my writing teacher how I might expedite the process of writing. I find myself languishing over every minutia in a scene - the subtle raising of an eyebrow, the grasping of opposite elbows in a reveal of self-consciousness. In short, it takes me forever to get to the dialogue and get the scene underway and finished.

I really liked his advice in that he gave none: "Well, someone once asked Virginia Woolf how she had done after hours and hours of writing and she answered, 'I did okay - I managed to get her from the bedroom into the drawing room.'"

And so I toil, but I do so love Virginia Woolf and therefore greatly appreciated his advice. Here is one of my favorite Woolf quotes, from A Room of One's Own:

The beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.