Writers’ Coaching Corner (April 2024): Minimize Logical Indicators and Intensifiers

Writers’ Coaching Corner
Written By Benjamin Vrbicek
“Good writing minimizes logical indicators and intensifiers”

This month is the next installment in the third season of the Writers’ Coaching Corner (S3:E4). Each month I take one paragraph from a GCD article to highlight some aspect of what makes for good writing. I’ll point out what made the writing work so well and how we can incorporate more of that writerly goodness into our craft.

This month I use an article by GCD regular contributor Tom Sugimura called “Unless the Seed Dies” to talk about the principle that good writing minimizes logical indicators and intensifiers. Tim Challies shared the article in his A La Carte on March 19, 2024 and called it “a sweet bit of writing.”

I draw heavily from a few pages in Verlyn Klinkenborg’s book Several Short Sentences about Writing (pp. 118–19). I also mention Lara d’Entremont, a GCD staff writer, and her new book A Mother Held: Essays on Anxiety and Motherhood.

You can watch all the Writers’ Coaching Corner videos here.

Benjamin Vrbicek

Benjamin Vrbicek is the lead pastor at Community Evangelical Free Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and the managing editor for Gospel-Centered Discipleship. He and his wife, Brooke, have six children. He earned an M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary. Benjamin is the author of Don’t Just Send a Resume and Struggle Against Porn, and coauthor of Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World. He blogs regularly at Fan and Flame, and you can follow him on Twitter.

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