How did Virginia Woolf use stream-of-consciousness writing?

Virginia Woolf was a pioneering Modernist writer who utilized stream-of-consciousness techniques to explore the fluid, non-linear nature of human perception and consciousness. Unlike some of her contemporaries who strictly separated individual interior monologues, Woolf’s narratives often moved fluidly between characters and between their inner and outer worlds without clear demarcations.123

Her approach was characterized by several key elements:

• Fluidity of Perspective: Woolf viewed perception as fluid rather than fixed, famously suggesting that we are not single entities. In novels like Mrs. Dalloway, she combined third-person narration with the internal thoughts of various characters to provide a deeply personal look into their minds.14
• Tunneling: She aimed to "tunnel" into her characters, connecting them through motifs and shared experiences, such as the juxtaposition of Clarissa Dalloway’s affirmations and Septimus Smith’s negations.2
• Abstract and Impersonal Forms: In The Waves, she pushed this experimentation further, using poetic interludes and the voices of six characters to illustrate how each individual uniquely experiences life, ultimately merging their distinct perspectives into a sense of oneness.23

By focusing on character essence rather than traditional plot, Woolf’s style captured the "shivering fragments" of experience, significantly altering the course of 20th-century literature.124