Blogging Woolf

Every month I sift through online literary journals to see what’s being published, to find those who may want to publish me. Imagine my delight at finding Killing the Angel magazine, “a literary experiment inspired by Virginia Woolf.” This new publication, preparing to launch its first issue, was started by Jessica Rosevear, self-described writer, teacher and Woolfian.

I also found Hippocampus Magazine, and in a section on “The Writing Life,” I came across “How I Joined the Working Class & Yet Also Maintained My Sanity and Lofty Literary Goals; or How Following Virginia Woolf’s Instructions is Tricky.” After quoting Woolf about “money and a room,” the author, Hilary Meyerson, starts off by saying “Women writers just love old Ginny,” following with some observations about solitude and space for writing. (A writer friend with whom I shared it said, “Ginny? What effrontery!”) But she takes an interesting approach, the dilemma of too much solitude. “When the writer’s world shrinks to a small sphere,” she risks becoming boring.

But, of course, the other ingredient is money, and Meyerson tells about having to take a job in order to pay the bills (until she strikes it rich with her writing, of course). She discovers that having co-workers and meetings opens up her world and her writing. As she describes it: “I write for pay – a hired gun – then go home and hang up my holster and write for love.” But she thinks “Ginny” would understand.