In junior high, I thought it would be a great idea to read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I’m not sure why, because the text went way over my head at the time. I think I set it down halfway through and picked up Ella Enchanted instead (still a great book, just not quite the same).

But as we all try to do with classics from time to time, I picked it up recently and read it again. This time, I couldn’t help notice the great observations Woolf makes about the craft of writing. Two of them stay...