Yzabel / August 6, 2005

At first, it didn’t occur to me that this could be an appropriate topic to blog about here, but it suddenly dawned on me—it is. Even though I’ve encountered many essays in purple prose while browsing recollections of bad role-playing posts, and not too much in the novels I read—it definitely is.Purple prose is exactly something I’ve tended to cultivate, much unvoluntarily, when I was younger (younger as in “still in high school” or “even before that”), younger, stupid, and convinced that the more words I could slam down on a page to describe a situation or a character, the better my “style” would be. Purple prose is now what I’m trying to avoid like the plague, since I know that it will make everything look horrible, with the added stench of “beginner” stamped on it in bold red letters. Purple prose, as can be found on Wikipedia, is “a term of literary criticism, […] used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so overly extravagant, ornate or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensuously evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It also refers to writing that employs certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader’s response.”In other words, and in all honesty, purple prose sucks.Depending on the individuals, this term doesn’t refer to exactly the same thing. An avid reader of very descriptive novels will probably see less “purple” in his/her favorite books than, say, a journalist looking for concision and short sentences in articles. A person used to a certain genre only may consider like too ornated the conventions of another genre. A technical writer will see purple prose everywhere (and discover that his/her job can have a nasty way of causing litterary skills to mysteriously rot, if not used enough after work. What, am I speaking from personal experience here?).Evidently, it doesn’t mean that one’s writing must end up devoid of any literary quality, stripped of any descriptive content. There simply is a limit to everything, and the overabundance of cliché phrasing as well as of flowery wording will quickly tire the readers. Describing a character’s eyes is alright. Using the word “orbs” in place of “eyes” isn’t. Doesn’t that sound like some cristal ball glowing from the inside, anyway? The ideal end look of a text should probably resemble an excerpt from a Raymond Chandler’s novel—if looking for something to remove in a sentence, you wouldn’t find anything, since all the words would be essentials, not ornaments.More about what to avoid, along with precise examples? Here’s The Purple Prose Eater by Deb Stove, focused primarily on romance writers, but also worth a read (and a chuckle) for writers who wish to specialize in other genres.Also, let’s not forget the golden rule of purple prose (aren’t there many colors in all of this): if upon proof-reading your text, it makes you laugh or even simply smile, get rid of it. Unless making fun of such a style is your intent, that is.Y Tags: writing | mistakes