Writers’ Coaching Corner (December 2023): Prefer the Concrete

“Good writing prefers the concrete over the general, especially in applications.”

This month is the first installment in the third season of the Writers’ Coaching Corner (S3:E1). 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 staff writer Chrys Jones’s article “The Local Church Helps Rid Me of Morbid Introspection” to talk about the principle that good writing prefers the concrete over the general, especially in applications.

I also mention Tim Wilson’s article “13 Pieces of Unconventional Preaching Advice,” Timarie Friesen’s interview with Hannah Anderson titled “What to Review for Authentic Storytelling,” and Roy Peter Clark’s book Murder Your Darlings: And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser.

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

---