Instructor: Award-winning writer, educator, broadcaster and musician
Vivien Goldman
FIND YOUR CREATIVE WRITING RHYTHM:
The 5 Sessions
As with all in life, rhythm underpins the craft of writing and defines each author’s individual voice. Many of us have a story we feel driven to tell, or a theme we long to explore doing something familiar that we may not often use creatively – writing.
Whether you’re a novice, a writer who wants to finesse a cherished project, or an entrepreneur eager to craft a winning proposal, Vivien Goldman’s 5 Sessions will help you find a new ease and flow with your writing, structure, and the thinking that lies behind it all.
Thinking rhythmically about your writing will help you streamline your words and thoughts. It will also encourage the mental discipline needed to close and complete your project, which we are calling “The Work”.
I can help make your words sing in your own distinctive way.
After that, it is up to you.
ABOUT VIVIEN GOLDMAN
I was first published in 1974, in my native UK. Writing and music have always been deeply intertwined in my DNA. Fresh out of university, as a music PR, I wrote the record company bios that helped to sell the then unknown Bob Marley – and am still in demand to write marketing material and websites for musicians today. Shifting to music journalism, I became a Features Editor, and helped determine the media face of punk and its sister music, reggae. I have been, and continue to be published in virtually innumerable outlets, including The Guardian, the New York Times, the New Statesman, Okayplayer.com, Red Bull, Rolling Stone, NPR.com and Pitchfork. The legends I have interviewed are too numerous to list; but future readers will discover more in the anthology of my newspaper and magazine journalism being published in Spring 2024 by White Rabbit Books/Hat & Beard Press.
Both on rewind and fast forward, it is a busy time with books for me. As well as my journalism anthology, a new art/music book is coming out in 2024, plus two of my seven previously published works are also being re-issued next year, decades after their original publication. My most recent book, the award-winning “Revenge of the She-Punks,” is translated into several languages. The photos here are from its launches at the Austin Central Library, Texas, and the McNallyJackson Bookstore in Soho, New York - just two of the many high energy international gatherings of the She-Punks clan that have celebrated my book.
My confidence in the pivotal role of rhythm in all media, and in one’s thinking, springs from having worked in so many. Moving into independent television in the 1980s, I scripted, produced and directed documentaries and videos for clients like Channel 4 and the BBC; my music video work has been shown in New York’s Museum of the Moving Image. And I still write scripts for production companies today.
These Sessions use music to stimulate your writing rhythm. With noted post-punk luminaries, I first recorded music in the early 1980s, and its constant undercurrent has re-emerged for me in recent years. My songs appear on many compilations and have featured in the much-loved series, HBO’s The Wire and BBC/Masterpiece Theatre’s Death In Paradise.
Whichever medium I operate in, I am always conscious of its role as a cultural force. And the power of writing, shaped by rhythm, is at the heart of them all.
Since 2004, I have been an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music; they call me The Punk Professor. As well as lecturing in major museums and institutions globally, I have taught writing at Rutgers University. In teaching, I combine all the lessons I have learned in my multi-media life.
Here’s one. There is no escape from editing, and editing, again and again, so with the help of these Sessions, you can learn to enjoy its subtle discipline.
And this. Whatever The Work, the crucial key to making it sing is rhythm. Not only of writing, but of thinking too. The rhythm of conceptualizing and imagining, if followed by a sustained writing rhythm, will elevate The Work to another level.
I will help you experience the satisfaction of finding your own individual authentic expression, and unleash your own creative writing rhythm.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
Finishing The Work completely in 5 weeks is not the aim of this course. My goal is to set you up so that you will discover your personal writing rhythm and be ready to continue writing this and future Works, more confidently, for the rest of your life.
Unlike generic one-class-fits-all creative writing lectures available online, Find Your Creative Writing Rhythm is a bespoke opportunity to interact directly, get immediate responses and grow your creative writing in a dialog with me, your Instructor, just as we would in a university classroom. Sessions will include music, additional readings and other curated media.
YOUR WORK IS
“THE WORK”
The Work is the project in your head, or in draft form, that we will coax into a fuller and deeper life during our Sessions together. It might be a proposal or pitch, a journalistic article, screenplay, short story or book, fiction or non-fiction. Each week, students will receive an Assignment, including music playlists and supplementary reading as appropriate, to be delivered the morning before our next Session. After five Sessions, you will find your rhythm and your voice, and The Work will be a big step closer to reality.
THE 5 SESSIONS
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Formulate the idea you want to write and how best to approach The Work. It helps to bring some ideas on paper, or even a draft manuscript. Together, we will outline your Creative Writing goal and how to achieve it, setting benchmarks for the 5 Sessions.
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The Work takes shape, from its embryonic stage. Through discussion, reading, listening, watching, we further your direction and expand your scope. Does the concept stand? How is your writing serving your ideas? Fleshing out The Work, we explore its possibilities and test new routes together, using individually curated music as a rhythmic prompt, as appropriate.
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As you feel more assured and in control about the direction, structure, and deeper meaning of The Work, it becomes easier to take conscious stylistic risks, as you know what you are “playing with,” or shuffling and shaping. We will focus on how to release your writing and make it more supple. Pinpoint inner meanings, metaphors, resonance and themes. Refine expression, dialog and character. Expand descriptions, let The Work breathe. Invigorate The Work’s inner life. Cut ruthlessly to keep it moving.
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In Session 4, we test The Work, discuss it, and analyze what is needed for your Final Tweak. With the early lessons learned, the Student must think, then edit, edit, edit… and then polish and refine all over again. Welcome to the author’s life: writing means editing. Then more editing. And you don’t stop till the instinct the Sessions have helped you develop tells you the work is finally satisfactory.
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The shape of Session 5 depends on how far you’ve come. Aided by music, I will help you access the flow and meaning of your writing, the essential rhythm that best conveys what you want to communicate. We will identify areas that still need attention, and give some final focus to the physical, mental, and creative act of writing itself. We will discuss next directions and future strategies, and send you off toward your goals with a renewed sense of purpose and the tools to reach your full potential.
TESTIMONIALS
“Vivien Goldman is my literary north star. She is not only one of the greatest living music journalists, she is also an exemplary educator, whom I have hired to teach and guest lecture at two different institutions, and a brilliant social critic with a keen eye for the power of language and rhythm. Any aspiring writer would be very lucky to work with her.”
“Vivien Goldman is an original, gifted, and versatile writer, adept at journalism, essays, fiction, and film. And I have seen her dazzle and inspire students in the classroom with her thoughtful and witty advice. Her writing about reggae, punk, and women musicians broke important ground.”
“If you want to further your writing skills, being taught by Vivien Goldman is a great way to do it. She is one of the most gifted writers and editors I have come across in four decades in publishing, and I know her to be an engaging and inspirational teacher. I have been trusting Goldman’s writing and editing since I first got a chance to employ her as a writer, some fourteen years ago. Since then, we have worked on several books together, and I am proud to be publishing three that she has written, over the next couple of years. ”
“During my student years at the Clive Davis Institute, I found Goldman to be one of the most authentic, instructive and entertaining of my Professors. I admired her background as a writer, musician and documentary director and it inspired my own career. Looking back, I still appreciate Professor Goldman’s classes, which conveyed a lot of information with their clear narrative structure, thought-provoking in-class discussions, and her rigor about our use of language. I am glad we are still in touch today.”
PRICING & SCHEDULING
This course consists of 5 sessions.
A session lasts 2 hours at a mutually convenient time. Costs are as follows:
One-on-one session via Zoom:
$300.00 per session
Group seminar of up to 3 Students via Zoom: $200.00/student per session
First and last week's classes to be paid at the start of the course.