Definition
Concrete language refers to words that describe things you can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste - a chipped coffee mug, the screech of a train, wet grass underfoot. Abstract language describes ideas, qualities, and concepts that exist only in thought - justice, freedom, love, anxiety. Both are essential. The trick is knowing when to use which, and how to ground abstract ideas in concrete details so they actually land.
Why It Matters
Abstract language tells readers what to think. Concrete language lets them experience it for themselves. When you write "she was devastated," you're asking the reader to do all the emotional work. When you write "she sat on the kitchen floor at 3am, eating cold rice from the pot with her hands," you don't need the word "devastated" at all. The best writing moves fluidly between both levels.
Types of Concrete vs Abstract Language
Famous Examples
Carver never writes "he learned empathy." Instead, the narrator draws a cathedral with his eyes closed, guided by a blind man's hand on his. The abstract concept of connection is made entirely concrete.
O'Brien lists the exact physical objects soldiers carry - pound by pound, item by item - to make the abstract weight of war concrete and measurable.
Coates grounds the abstraction of systemic racism in the concrete vulnerability of the body, returning again and again to physical experience to make the political personal.
Common Mistakes
"She felt a profound sense of loss and loneliness" is all abstract. Give us the empty chair at the dinner table, the second toothbrush still in the cup. Let the concrete detail carry the abstraction.
Concrete language can be deeply sophisticated. "She ironed his shirts even after the funeral" communicates grief, habit, denial, and love in nine words - all through a concrete action.
Don't write a vivid concrete image and then add "which made her feel sad." Trust your images. If you've shown it well, the reader will feel it without the label.
Try It Yourself
Pick an abstract concept - grief, joy, boredom, jealousy, freedom. Write a full paragraph about it without ever naming the emotion. Use only concrete details: objects, actions, sensory experiences, physical settings. Then ask someone to read it and guess the emotion. If they get it, you've nailed the concrete-abstract balance.
Find where your prose goes abstract
Novelium's Writing Analytics identifies passages that lean too heavily on abstract language and shows you exactly where a concrete detail could bring a scene to life. See the balance across your entire manuscript at a glance.