Being a Better Writer: Purple Prose · 6:38pm Jun 23rd, 2014
Today's post, I would venture to guess, may cause some controversy, at least within the particular fandom that this wonderful site was constructed for. Because it's going to tackle something that has not only been talked about prominently by members of this fandom, but it's going to raise a dissenting opinion.
Yup. I'm dropping that warning early, in advance. Now you know what's coming. You can turn back now if you wish.
So, purple prose. This is one of those posts that will likely be a little short, because we're going to dive right in. Purple prose is the act of writing something out in which the language is so flowery, so over descriptive, as to almost completely bury all content and subtext beneath the words themselves. In purple prose, show versus tell is turned completely into show ... and then exponentially multiplied, so much so that the original intent of the words is given a backseat to the words themselves. Simple sentences become run-on paragraphs. Blades of grass, not even of tangential importance to the story, are examined and described in flowery metaphor that can stretch for a page or more. The term arises from a reference to a poem by Roman poet Horace, who in a reaction poem describes someone else's work as "flashy purple patches" before declaring that it was not the place for them and asking "If you can realistically render a cypress tree, would you include one when commissioned to paint a sailor in the midst of a shipwreck?"
The thing is, there's nothing wrong with being able to realistically render a cypress tree. That's a useful tool. However, Horace is calling attention to the fact that it has no place in a painting of a shipwreck. The inclusion of such is merely the artist showing off their skill at painting a cypress.
This is the battle of purple prose. Now, I realize that purple prose is very popular on Fimfiction. I've seen people praise purplist works on blog posts and public locations. I've even seen some popular fic review sites or groups reject stories for not having enough "purple prose." And I cannot be any clearer about this than the following statement:
This is not correct.
Whether it stems from a misunderstanding of what purple prose is or a dedication to the art of writing flowery language, the idea that plot, pacing, and character, as well as other critical elements of writing, should be judged equal with or even beneath prose is not only ludicrous, but ultimately damaging to not only writers but readers as well.
Why? Because purple prose is not story. It is not plot. It is not character. Purple prose, while occasionally being nice to read, is empty in all but aesthetic. A purely purple prose form will even often attempt to combat this by exaggerating emotion and feelings in order to sway the audience—in other words, by resorting to melodrama.
Is purple prose bad? No, not when used in moderation. Used in moderation, purple prose is like salt: A little bit goes a long way and adds some varied seasoning to your work that serves to make the other myriad "flavors" stand out. However, like salt, too much or too little, depending on your "recipe," can have enormously adverse affects. Flavoring your work with small patches of purple prose here and there, like you would sprinkle salt over a meal, can be an excellent way to season things. But serving a bowl of nothing but purple prose with a few sketches of plot is akin to serving someone a bowl of pure salt with naught but a few french fries buried in the mixture.
When I was in college, one of my English courses gave me a very peculiar assignment, one that took me some time to wrap my head around. The assignment was to write five to eight pages about any subject you wished (although there had to be a subject). The challenge, however, was to write it all in purple prose, saying as little as possible in the most amount of words. The goal was to read through it, get to the end, and have as little additional information about the subject as possible. But you couldn't write about other things, no, you had to talk about your subject. But you wanted your reader to reach the end knowing as little as possible as they had when they started.
The paper was a training exercise in purple prose. That was the goal. Our teacher wanted us to recognize it, not only so we could learn to recognize purple prose for what it was, but also so that we could see what it did to our writing and be better judges of where it did and didn't fit.
The message? That purple prose could be useful and flowery to read, but also a warning that purple prose puts the hold on everything. Purple prose exists only as the showiest of show versus tell, and by it's own nature conveys no real information. Which means the moment you dump it into your story, everything grinds to a halt. While your reader is reading purple prose, all other elements of the story are put on hold, as purple prose conveys very little information of consequence.
This is why those who call for stories to have "more purple prose" or rate/review them based on metric amounts of purple prose are flat out wrong in their assumptions (and this is one of the rare times I'll make such a declarative statement on this blog). They're either looking for more show than tell (and only using the incorrect terms) or, for whatever reason, admire flowery phraseology enough that they place more importance on it than anything else. They want a diet of salt, in other words. Of a single pack of Ramen with multiple flavor packets dumped in it.
They want something 99.8% of us don't actually want.
There is nothing wrong with writing purple prose for the sake of purple prose. It can be fun. It can even be educational (once you've written purple prose, go back and reread some speeches from your favorite politician and cringe with realization). But writing purple prose for it's own sake is not writing fiction. Inserting large amounts of purple prose into a fiction work can actively hurt it, rather than help. Purple prose, no matter how much you try, cannot replace the actual content of a work (although with applied melodrama, it can mask itself in an attempt to mimic it).
So take it easy with your purple segments. Show or tell. Save your purple for the moments where it will have the best impact, moments where it's fine for everything to go on hold while you show off a little. Moments that can be scattered in-between the big stuff in order to provide a nice compliment of flavor.
But not as a meal. Never as a meal.
So, writing prompt! Let's go with the assignment (in miniature) that I'd been handed all those years ago. Pick a topic/setting (a pond in winter, for example, was mine). Now write a quick, several paragraph piece that is as purple as possible, uses as many words as it can, while telling the reader as little as possible. The goal is to be showy and pleasurable to read, but leave the reader right back where they started with just as much information (a pond in winter, in my case). Have fun!
Thanks for reading!
I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to hear that anyone ever mentioned 'purple prose' as a positive trait.
What's next, 'your story doesn't have enough lavender unicorn syndrome'?
That said, I'm grinning wide because this blog post is very relevant to a story I just wrote last night. It goes on for 1700 words for a couple minutes at most of action.
I'm pretty sure I averaged two or three metaphors per paragraph.
That said, it was enormously fun to let all the verbal swag hang out, and I think it actually turned out pretty magnificent.
Here's a snippet... I'm curious to find out where it registers on your purpleometer:
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Even more oddly, I've seen it espoused alongside calls for less LUS. Which really implies that the original writers probably don't have a solid grasp on exactly what purple prose is. Certainly some seem to talk about it as if it's show.
And as far as the snippet: yes, that's definitely got some purple. Quite a bit of it, in fact. It's not purple in the sense that nothing is happening, but it definitely spaces out several seconds into a flurry of paragraphs that come side equipped with a link to a thesaurus.
Not to say it isn't good writing (it is, IMO), but it's definitely got purple!
I suspect there's some sleight-of-hand going on here. If, when we define purple prose, we include its faults -- being empty of all but aesthetic, as you say -- then it's not surprising that it has its faults.
But that's cheating. No-one sensible would advocate purple prose in that case. Not if being poor writing was one of its necessary features.
Now, ornate prose -- that's a different story. I can see why people would want that. (Though it's unpopular among the genre fiction community, most of whom aren't stylists.)
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Purple prose, however, isn't poor writing. It takes plenty of skill, and done properly is not poor at all, but can be quite pleasing visually or linguistically. The problem isn't that it's bad writing, but that it's writing that doesn't add anything to a work but stylistic appeal.
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Ah, okay. That's fair enough. But is that adding-nothing clause necessary? Because the same thing might apply there.
I know, by contrast, that ornate prose in the hands of a skilled author can communicate an awful lot: Characterisation, emotional tenor, the relative importance of events. It can also aid immersivity to a point.
I agree with your point in general, though. Like everything else, it's a tool to be used intelligently, not something to be slapped on everything in the name of good writing.
Now I'm curious about this assignment... You still happen to have it?
Oooh, I should probably try that exercise sometime. I tend to write pretty sparse description, especially when it comes to setting, and have been told to expand on it more. I guess that's what I get for imagining everything in script format.
I don't want to be purple, but being able to describe physical things at length might be good.
Yet even more confusion to add into the mix.
I feel as if am also partly guilty in using a bit too much purple prose myself.
Then again, I am what one could call a "terribad" writer, so I suppose that isn't much of a surprise.
Still, when writers such as yourself go and detail such faults that are common to newborn or rising authors, I cannot help but compare and contrast my own work and sigh as even my longest works are merely but cannon fodder to be chewed by a chapter from one such as yourself.
Bah. It could be worse I suppose. Least you're here to show what writing is really all about and make sure that literature does not devolve into something most heinous indeed.
Thus begs the question of why do I even bother to write when there are superior writers on the site? Practice makes perfect I suppose, but... Yeah. Only when it actually produces results that don't produce cringes on the first read through at all.
One can take solace in the fact there are at least a few decent writers here on site.
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You are correct that in the hands of a skilled writer, it can add to various elements. But I think the observation should be made that it should be done sparingly, because purple prose is so limited. I mean ... like I said, it's salt. You don't want very much of it, but a saltless meal is pretty bland.
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Maybe? I don't know. I have a lot of saved things from my college days. I don't know if that's one of them.
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In getting to purple you'll definitely pick up some descriptive techniques. This was the same class that had us sit down with an object at random (one of mine was a yellow smiley face cup) and write for ten solid minutes about it, describing it in every conceivable way, every day for a week. I learned some things with that exercise.
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AGH!
Not my goal at all! I mean, yes, you want to find those areas you want to work on, but don't let it stop being fun, and don't overload yourself by looking at a peak and saying "I want to be there, but I'm at the bottom of the mountain." I look at my stuff all the time and find flaws with it (even ones I've written about here that have slipped in). I either fix them later, fix them as I go, or shrug and try to do better with the next words that I write out.
My goal is not to inspire people to not write, but rather lay out a lot of stuff I was both trained on and learned from trial and error, and I hope nothing I put here makes you want to throw in the towel.
Don't view these as "you're terrible for doing these things" but rather guideposts along a trail pointing towards the peak.
The way you state purple prose reminds me of padding in stories. Can be nice when used right, but can be overwhelming if too much. Not sure what padding would be in the metaphor. Side dishes? Stuffing? I'll go with stuffing. Then that would make a plate full of salty stuffing the worst thing... Now I'm hungry.
Ok, on topic now. Amused at the snipe on politicians, as it is very much true. Don't really see a huge problem with purple prose for the sake of fun. Just don't expect everyone to worship the ground you're walking on should you release it for public consumption. Though it is pretty fun to read stuff like that out loud to poke fun at it. I had a fun time mocking Twilight by reading random passages.
In line with your salt metaphor, should it be mixed thoroughly throughout the story, or just sprinkled on here and there? I'm guessing the latter. Should the writer try and cater the salt tolerance to the general folk, or make it salty for those who like it salty as such? And how much does large words tie into purple prose, i.e. right-click->synonyms->fanciest-of-the-bunch?
Hmm. Here's my shot at it. How purple is this? (You can't believe how long this took. Was ok writing the basic structure, then was gagging when I dumped salt over the whole thing in editing. Thesaurus was my best friend in this endeavor. Ugh.)