Purple Prose – A Grape By Any Other Name Would Still Hurt If It Hit You In The Eye
Purple prose is writing that is overly extravagant and ornate to the point that it becomes distracting or unpleasant to the reader. More often than not, it is complex simply for the sake of showing off (a less charitable person might call it authorial masturbation). It can also produce a few giggles, as well. Don’t believe me? How about we look at two pieces of prose, one purple and the other quite plain.
a) Billy went to school on a yellow bus. It was the first time he had ever caught the bus on his own, so he was worried when it got stuck in traffic. Luckily, the traffic jam didn’t last long, and he got to school on time.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the above example. Perhaps it is simple, but the point it’s trying to convey is also simple. So, why don’t we sex it up a little? Let’s turn the prose from grey… to purple (I’m talking purple like Barney the Dinosaur).
b) Billy set off for school upon a bus the same, gleaming yellow as the noon sun. He had never before journeyed on a bus bereft of his doting parents, so when the ungainly vehicle was trapped amongst a mass of cars, he was wrought with the most incredible tension. Quite felicitously, the crush of vehicles did not long endure, and he was able to arrive at his place of education in an appropriately punctual manner.
Not only does b) make me giggle but it also goes way over the top. A yellow bus is a yellow bus. It is not “a bus the same, gleaming yellow as the noon sun”. Anyone who describes it that way is looking for an excuse to show off their vocabulary at the expense of actually telling the reader what it happening in term that make sense.
True, it’s nice to have a large vocabulary. But there are also times when it’s better to simply call a spade a spade (and not a “hand-operated excavation tool”).
Not all purple prose is this obvious. Indeed, there can often be a very fine line between true eloquence and purple. One reader’s epic speech is another reader’s big, purple monstrosity.
Rather than going into the nitty-gritty of definitions, I’d like to focus on the question of why. Why do writers, many of them good, fall into the trap of purple prose? If we know why, then we can avoid making the same mistake.
Read more on my blog.
a) Billy went to school on a yellow bus. It was the first time he had ever caught the bus on his own, so he was worried when it got stuck in traffic. Luckily, the traffic jam didn’t last long, and he got to school on time.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the above example. Perhaps it is simple, but the point it’s trying to convey is also simple. So, why don’t we sex it up a little? Let’s turn the prose from grey… to purple (I’m talking purple like Barney the Dinosaur).
b) Billy set off for school upon a bus the same, gleaming yellow as the noon sun. He had never before journeyed on a bus bereft of his doting parents, so when the ungainly vehicle was trapped amongst a mass of cars, he was wrought with the most incredible tension. Quite felicitously, the crush of vehicles did not long endure, and he was able to arrive at his place of education in an appropriately punctual manner.
Not only does b) make me giggle but it also goes way over the top. A yellow bus is a yellow bus. It is not “a bus the same, gleaming yellow as the noon sun”. Anyone who describes it that way is looking for an excuse to show off their vocabulary at the expense of actually telling the reader what it happening in term that make sense.
True, it’s nice to have a large vocabulary. But there are also times when it’s better to simply call a spade a spade (and not a “hand-operated excavation tool”).
Not all purple prose is this obvious. Indeed, there can often be a very fine line between true eloquence and purple. One reader’s epic speech is another reader’s big, purple monstrosity.
Rather than going into the nitty-gritty of definitions, I’d like to focus on the question of why. Why do writers, many of them good, fall into the trap of purple prose? If we know why, then we can avoid making the same mistake.
Read more on my blog.
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