P.S. Virginia Woolf's Notes for Mrs. Dalloway

"(a delicious idea comes to me that I will write anything I want to write)"

Midway through a draft of Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf has “a delicious idea.” She realizes that she can write whatever she wants:

(a delicious idea comes to me that I will write anything I want to write)

Woolf’s Notebook for Mrs. Dalloway, The British Library © The Society of Authors

Woolf’s moment of insight gets at a truth about writing: we can write anything. Of course, that’s also the challenge. We can write anything.

Woolf’s drafts and notes for Mrs. Dalloway fascinate me for precisely this reason: they show her mind working through possible narratives at a time before Mrs. Dalloway, the novel, existed. Before “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”¹

So, join me on this exploration of how Woolf took notes as she wrote what many consider to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

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These post-scripts offer paid subscribers a deeper dive into the note-takers I cover in Noted’s regular posts. You can read my full post on Virginia Woolf for free here. If you look forward to reading Noted, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get additional weekly content, and you’ll help keep this newsletter going!

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