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What a Song Won't Say
On silence, withholding, and the word you left out.
mgmuszik
Apr 222 min read
Against the Word That Flatters
On vanity, velvet, and the plain line that was always the point. THE WORD BEHIND THE SONG · COVENANT MEMBERS ☾ There is a word in every draft I write that is trying to make me look good. That is the word I kill first. Every writer has a flattering vocabulary. It is the small collection of words and images we return to because they have, at some point, been praised. Someone told us the line with the ocean in it was beautiful. Someone quoted the line with the word ember. Now we
mgmuszik
Apr 222 min read
The Architecture of a Line That Stays
On breath, vowel, and the agreement between the writer and the throat.
mgmuszik
Apr 222 min read
Comfort Is the Enemy of the Line
On the flinch, the tightened shoulder, and the line that earns its rest.
mgmuszik
Apr 222 min read
The Verb Does the Bleeding
On the mechanics of the line, and the word that carries the weight.
mgmuszik
Apr 222 min read
Why I Write in Wounds
On craft, precision, and the discipline of not looking away. · THE WORD BEHIND THE SONG · FREE TO READ ☾ I don't write from peace. Peace is a cul-de-sac for a lyric — nowhere to turn, nothing to reach for. A wound, on the other hand, is architecture. It has a shape. A before. A bottom. It gives the pen something to walk toward and something to walk away from, which is the whole of what a song needs: direction, and the pressure of leaving. Let me be precise, because this is a
mgmuszik
Apr 223 min read
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