Creative Writing: Literature Studies for Musicians

Suzanne Cope

Authored by Suzanne Cope

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Course Code: OLART-201

In this undergraduate writing course, you study creative writing through literature shaped by music and musical lives. By analyzing works across genres and practicing your own writing, you strengthen narrative craft, critical reading, and revision skills within a collaborative workshop environment.

Level 2
Intermediate
Modality
Online
Duration
12 Weeks
3-Credit Tuition
$1,575
Semester Starts
Apr 6
Accreditation
NECHE

Key Learning Outcomes

  • Analyze creative writing across genres by examining narrative craft, author background, and artistic context
  • Produce original creative work in multiple literary genres, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and playwriting
  • Apply workshop-based constructive criticism and revision strategies to strengthen creative writing through feedback and self-assessment
  • Evaluate music, performance, and visual art using both subjective response and objective critical frameworks
Overview Syllabus Requirements Instructors Related Music Career Roles
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Course Description

"“I began it as an investigation. I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.”" — 
-Arthur Rimbaud

Creative writing, like music, is about expressing yourself, connecting with others, and finding meaning in the world around you. Creative Writing: Literature Studies for Musicians is designed to strengthen your writing skills and creative expression by exploring and learning from the works of musician-writers and those for whom music has had a profound influence.

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Each week presents a different facet of creative writing, from nonfiction, such as autobiography and biography, to fiction, poetry, playwriting, and music reviews. You will explore compelling examples of how music infuses writing, examples from Langston Hughes, Theodore Roethke, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Billy Collins, and others. You will also examine how musicians have written about their lives and shared their unique perspectives on the world, from reading Charles Mingus's Beneath the Underdog to Patti Smith's Just Kids.

The goal of the course is to use these examples as springboards to further develop your own writing. Throughout the course, you will practice writing in these various creative genres and for various audiences and purposes. To support this work, the course covers such topics as the elements of narrative, point of view, how the background of an author influences his or her writing, setting, character development, scene analysis, assessing and writing about live performance, and subjective versus objective writing, among others.

The course is inspired by a traditional in-person course taught at Berklee College of Music, in which students collaborate in a supportive writing-workshop environment, so that they can benefit from the insights of their classmates and instructor. As such, this course will hone your ability to critique creative works constructively and use feedback on your own work to improve your craft. This knowledge will inform your broad creative practice, whether in writing, music, or other artistic pursuits.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Engage in critical discussions on various genres of literature, including creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and playwriting
  • Recognize the connections between creative approaches to writing and music
  • Apply narrative elements such as setting, character, structure, and point of view within creative nonfiction and fiction
  • Incorporate research and external sources to contextualize and support creative and critical writing
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Syllabus

Lesson 1: Narratives

  • What Is a Narrative?
  • Basic Elements of a Narrative
  • Critical Thinking About Narratives Within Creative Works
  • Assignment 1: Narratives

Lesson 2: Background and Point of View in Creative Nonfiction

  • Defining Creative Nonfiction
  • Creative Nonfiction Examples
  • Vocabulary of Literature
  • Narrative Craft: Point of View
  • How the Background of an Author Influences Their Writing
  • Assignment 2: Elements of Nonfiction Literature

Lesson 3: Setting and Character in Creative Nonfiction

  • Development of Setting in Literary Creative Nonfiction
  • Development of Character in Literary Creative Nonfiction
  • Development of Characters
  • Development of Setting and Verisimilitude
  • Assignment 3: Character Study

Lesson 4: Structure and Reflection in Creative Nonfiction

  • Common Terms and Options for Structure
  • Elements of Scene
  • Structuring Your Own Creative Nonfiction Pieces
  • Reflection in Creative Nonfiction Writing
  • Assignment 4: Nonfiction Narrative and Soliciting Feedback

Lesson 5: Writing, Critiquing, and Revising Creative Nonfiction

  • Knowing When a Piece Is Done
  • Soliciting Feedback
  • Guidelines and Techniques for Critiquing Others’ Pieces
  • Critiquing Your Classmates’ Pieces
  • Options and Techniques for Revising Your Own Work
  • Assignment 5: Writing, Critiquing, and Revising Creative Nonfiction

Lesson 6: Analyzing Fictional Narratives

  • Use of Point of View in Fictional Narratives
  • Fiction and First-Person Perspective
  • Fiction and Second-Person Perspective
  • Use of Setting in Fiction
  • Assignment 6: Fiction Versus Nonfiction

Lesson 7: Writing Fictional Narratives

  • Developing Character in Fictional Narrative Through Guided Exercises
  • Archetypes
  • Developing Setting in Fictional Narratives
  • Examples of Setting in a Fictional Narrative
  • Understanding the Use of Scene, Plot, and Action
  • Assignment 7: Fictional Scene or Short Story

Lesson 8: Poetry

  • The Basic Elements of Poetry
  • Common Poetic Forms
  • Analyzing Poetry Using Introduced Vocabulary
  • Element of Sound in Poetry
  • Assignment 8: Poetry Writing and Analysis

Lesson 9: Playwriting

  • Basic Elements of Playwriting and Overview Terms
  • Development of Character, Action, and Motivation
  • Scene Analysis
  • Development of Conflict
  • Assignment 9: Playwriting or Analysis

Lesson 10: The Written Music Review

  • Objective vs. Subjective Writing
  • Anatomy of a Review
  • Dissecting a Review
  • Focusing on the Subjective
  • Assignment 10: Review First Draft

Lesson 11: Incorporating Research

  • Areas for Research
  • Berklee Online Library Resources
  • MLA Format
  • Assignment 11: Review with Research and Citations

Lesson 12: Music to Words Project

  • Multi-Modal Thinking and Creating
  • Approaches to Multi-Modal Art
  • Assignment 12: Final Project
  • Artistic Analysis

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements 

Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
English Proficiency Requirements
All students enrolled in this course, must know English well enough to:

  • Easily understand recorded videos and written class lessons
  • Participate successfully in written and oral class discussions
  • Read, write, and study without being hindered by language problems
  • Possess intermediate or advanced grammar skills related to punctuation and verb conjugation

Textbook(s)

Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.

General Course Requirements

Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course. 

Mac Users

  • macOS Monterey 12.0 or later

PC Users

All Users

  • Latest version of Google Chrome
  • Zoom meeting software
  • Webcam
  • Speakers or headphones
  • External or internal microphone
  • Broadband Internet connection

Instructors

Suzanne Cope
Suzanne Cope

Author & Instructor

Suzanne Cope is an author and scholar of food studies and narrative with a PhD in Adult Learning and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Her most recent book is Small Batch: Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits, and the Return of Artisanal Food (2014, Rowman & Littlefield). Recent conferences contributions include Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Northeast Modern Language Association, Food + Tech Connect/ Cookbook Conference, and Association for the Study of Food and Society and recent and upcoming articles and essays include academic publications in Italian American Review and New Directions in Teaching in Learning; articles in Edible Boston, Edible Cape Cod, Edible Buffalo, and Culinate; and essays and stories in New Plains Review, Blue Lyra Review, Foliate Oak Magazine, among others.

What's Next?

When taken for credit, Creative Writing: Literature Studies for Musicians can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:

Related Certificate Programs

Related Degree Majors

Related Music Career Roles

Employers look for skills learned in this course, when hiring for the following music career roles:

Music Journalist

Proofreader

Questions?

Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.

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