Professor: Abigail Fine
4 credits
This course explores a core premise that interesting, evocative, human writing is essentially musical. Three questions drive the course: what does musical vs. unmusical writing look (and sound) like? Does writing about music challenge and stimulate the creative use of language, given that music as a medium is difficult to talk about in words? And is musicality (some of) what makes writing human in an era of AI-generated text? Through a series of writing experiments, students work through these open-ended questions together. The aim is to cultivate energetic and colorful writing through a close study of models drawn from fiction, poetry, and academic and journalistic nonfiction. Topics include the musicality of phrase structure; swift tempo vs. slow reading; using timbre, sound, and free association to promote colorful word use; charismatic speechmakers as a key to reader engagement; no redundancy, streamlining, and staving off boredom; understanding the “red thread” as melodic line or thematic development; and powerful endings. Students aim not only to become “strong” writers in the sense of clear thinking and communication, but to be inventive, beautifully imperfect writers whose words are animated by hidden music.