Good Writing Examples from the World’s All-Time Bestseller

No, it’s not the Harry Potter series. Those books would come in at a distant second.

The world’s all-time bestseller never needed promotion or a marketing campaign. In fact, many folks, even today, have suffered for the privilege to own it. One researcher estimates there are over 6 billion copies in print.

The name of this bestseller?

The Bible.

 

I understand that the Bible is much more than literature. It’s the living and powerful Word of God. But still, it makes sense to me that the “God-breathed” book would also contain great writing.

I’ve often taught my students that the quickest way to improve their writing is to use vivid verbs and specific nouns. So let’s take a look at the verbs and nouns in a single chapter of the world's best selling book. Here’s a quick list from Job 39.

Verbs: scorns, explores, searches, bind, harrow, flap, abandons, forgets, tramples, lifts, laughs clothe, leaps, rattles, races, scents, soars, mounts up, lodges, spies out, suck up

Nouns: mountain goats, wild donkey, wild ox, threshing floor, ostriches, plumage, snorting, quiver, spear, javelin, thunder, hawk, cliff, crag

If you’d like a quick-fix to your writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, check your verbs and nouns. Make the verbs dynamic and the nouns specific.

What others methods would you suggest for a quick remedy?

Have your ever looked at the Bible as, not only God's Word, but as great literature?