Purple prose is the name given to writing — or, well, prose– that’s just too flowery and too melodramatic for its own good. In other words, just way too much.
“Why would purple prose be a bad thing?”
Well, it clouds the meaning behind your writing and, frankly, doesn’t flatter the writer very well. By its sheer verbosity, purple prose can turn off your reader greatly– which is not a good thing to do if your reader happens to be your professor.
That being said, there actually is no ultimate, absolute definition of what constitutes prose, nor is there a definite list of symptoms. Figuring out whether you have in fact fallen victim to purple prose is often a subjective decision– one person’s purple prose may be another person’s vivid description. Unfortunately (or, fortunately, depending on who you are), this is largely a judgment call.
However, that is not to say that there aren’t basic ground rules to follow; this isn’t a free-for-all. (Sorry!)
So, here are a few things to keep in mind in order to avoid purpling your prose too much:
Avoid words that are too big and fancy. Obviously, there is merit to being erudite and eloquent. However, there is a difference between using a particular word because of its precise definition and using it because it makes you sound smarter. Be honest with yourself, your own writing style, and pay attention to the task at hand. It’s easy to spot when a student is using difficult words for the sake of using them– trust me, I know. Everyone has a particular writing style that is rather distinctive– much like someone’s speaking voice. So, when a student puts on airs, it’s much like someone you know well suddenly speaking in Muppet-voice. And it’s that much more obvious when unnecessarily difficult words are used where clear, simple wording would suffice.
Keep the urge to write flowery, overly vivid descriptions at bay. Descriptors are used to make the reader visualize what you’re describing. However, there is such thing as written sensory overload. Not sure what I mean? Well, here is an example:
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is an annual contest held by the English Department of San Jose State University. The contest challenges entrants to write the opening lines of the worst possible novels. Of course, each year’s submissions are hilariously bad renditions of “good fiction.” While they are opening lines to non-existent fiction (how is that for a double negative?), they are also excellent exercises in flowery writing, or purple prose.
This is the 2008 grand-prize winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest:
Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city, their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist breath through manhole covers stamped “Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N. J.”
Um, what?
First off, thanks for making New York sounds gross(er). Second, there are way too many descriptions–far more than what’s necessary. This, in all its flowery craziness, is an example of vivid imagery gone awry– this, my dear readers, is purple prose.
Avoid self-indulgent writing. Another clue to whether the writing is overdone is that it draws attention to itself rather than to the story. If you find yourself thinking, “By golly, that’s a lovely phrase”, then you’re in trouble. If the phrase is self-indulgent and is far more about your own cleverness than it is about your topic itself, then it has to go. This is, according to William Faulkner Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch*, is called “murdering your darlings.” In his series of lectures titled On the Art of Writing from 1916 (!), Sir Quiller-Couch wrote: “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it–wholeheartedly–and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.” Nicely done.
Of course, that is not to say that you have to slaughter or even dump every phrase you are particularly pleased with. You are allowed to marvel at your own genius, yes. So, if there is a phrase in mind that borders on possibly too much, think: if the phrase serves your topic well, it stays but, if it doesn’t, buh-bye. It’s that simple.
*William Faulkner is frequently attributed to the phrase “kill your darlings” when, in actuality, it was Sir Quiller-Couch who coined it. The more you know.
http://theadvancededit.com/academic-writing/purple-prose-what-it-is-and-how-to-avoid-it/ (assessed on Aug. 18, 2015)
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Rick Riordan
Art by Pamela Colebourn
Have you ever met those people who can’t seem to stop talking about themselves, or what happened with their spouse, their kids, etc.? Yeah, that’s not storytelling. That’s called a cry for attention, complaining, and/or self-indulgence. It’s most apparent on Facebook and some blogs. Facebook is the master of self-indulgence. And if you go to a blog and the blogger talks about themselves more than things others might find interesting, it’s called a self-indulgent blog. Storytelling, by definition, is the art of telling a story to entertain someone else.
Of course, we all indulge ourselves in some form or another. We have a right to be happy. But that’s not entertainment. That’s not storytelling. It’s just us being part of the audience.
What’s an example of an entertaining story? Try: “You won’t imagine what I saw on my way back home the other night. I had to walk because my car broke down. All the lights were out and I only had the light from my cell phone. My battery was running low and I could only guess I was going in the right direction. Finally, just as I was about to walk into a lit street, there in the bushes, I saw…”
It’s got a few elements that grab attention: 1) suspense, 2) fear, and 3) dealing with a tricky situation. A self-indulgent version would be:
“Urgh, I had to walk home last night after my car broke down. Such a piece of junk. The entire street was blacked out too, it was so frustrating. My stupid phone kept dying and I just wanted to cry. My boyfriend wouldn’t pick up his phone either, he’s such a d-bag. So then, I was right about to get out of this horrible dark street…”
I’m already asleep. Please, save the punch line. Maybe it will knock you out.
What we have to try to do instead is to make our stories relevant to the person we’re speaking to. That way they’ll grab onto what they want to get from it, and at the same time absorb the rest of the details.
Writing for yourself is like telling yourself a story, and only yourself. There are a few ways to figure out if this is the case:
1) Did you have a person or a group in mind when you were writing the story?
2) Have you imagined how this person/group might react to where the story was going?
3) Have you written scenes in the story that you didn’t necessary want to write but knew the person/group you were writing for might enjoy them?
The key here really is: were you thinking of anyone other than yourself and your characters when you wrote the story? After all, your characters are really an extension of yourself. Yes, it may also be important to make sure they get the best development they can, but sometimes it may not be a wise idea to put them before your readers.
Do you write for yourself or for an audience?
-The Story Addict
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One of the greatest mysteries of all time is the power of storytelling. Films, books, music, advertisements, comics, and animation are just a few formats we use, but what makes a story worth telling? This blog is my personal take on storytelling based on stories that transcend time and keep us wanting more.
Featured Quote
“My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each day. And if you were found with a book, it was an automatic death penalty. She had gotten hold of a copy of ‘Gone With the Wind’, and she would take three or four hours out of her sleeping time each night to read. And then, during the hour or so when they were sewing the next day, she would tell them all the story. These girls were risking certain death for a story. And when she told me that story herself, it actually made what I do feel more important. Because giving people stories is not a luxury. It’s actually one of the things that you live and die for.”
— Neil Gaiman (Creator of Hugo, Coraline, and Stardust)
Featured Quote
“My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each day. And if you were found with a book, it was an automatic death penalty. She had gotten hold of a copy of ‘Gone With the Wind’, and she would take three or four hours out of her sleeping time each night to read. And then, during the hour or so when they were sewing the next day, she would tell them all the story. These girls were risking certain death for a story. And when she told me that story herself, it actually made what I do feel more important. Because giving people stories is not a luxury. It’s actually one of the things that you live and die for.”
— Neil Gaiman (Creator of Hugo, Coraline, and Stardust)
https://addictivestory.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/self-indulgent-storytelling-on-writing-for-yourself-versus-writing-for-an-audience/ (assessed 08-18-2015)
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人物贡献编辑
钱先生在文学研究和文学创作方面的卓越成就。特别是在科学地扬弃中国传统文化和有选择地借鉴外来文化方面，具有重要的启示意义。
[12] 钱钟书以一种文化批判精神观照中国与世界。在精熟中国文化和通览世界文化的基础上，钱先生在观察中西文化事物时，总是表现出一种清醒的头脑和一种深刻的洞察力。他不拒绝任何一种理论学说，也不盲从任何一个权威。他毕生致力于确定中国文学艺术在世界文学艺术宫殿中的适当位置，从而促使中国文学艺术走向世界，加入到世界文学艺术的总的格局中去。为此，他既深刻地阐发了中国文化精神的深厚意蕴和独特价值，也恰切地指出了其历史局限性和地域局限性。他既批评中国人由于某些幻觉而对本土文化的妄自尊大，又毫不留情地横扫了西方人由于无知而以欧美文化为中心的偏见。钱先生对于推进中外文化的交流、使中国人了解西方的学术以及使西方人了解中国的文化，起了很好的作用。
[12] 因为伯父没有儿子，按照惯例，钱钟书一生下来就过继给了伯父。他刚满周岁“
抓周”，抓到一本书，因而取名为钟书。钟书四岁，伯父教他认字。六岁，送入秦氏小学，不到半年，因为一场病，伯父让他呆在家不再上学。后来进私塾，伯父又嫌不方便，干脆自己教钟书。上午伯父出去喝茶，给一铜板让他去买酥饼吃，给二铜板让他去看小人书。钟书经常跟伯父去伯母娘家，那有一个大庄园，钟书成天贪玩，耽误些功课，伯母娘家人都抽大烟，总是半夜吃夜餐，生活无规律。一回来，父亲见钟书染上许多坏毛病，大骂，但他总不当着其他孩子的面骂。钟书十一岁，考取
东林小学，而伯父不久也去世了。尽管父亲负责他的学杂费，但其它开支无法弥补，没有作业本，他就用伯父曾钉起的旧本子；笔尖断了，他就把竹筷削尖替用。钟书十四岁考上桃坞中学，父亲在清华大学任教，对钟书的作文始终不满意，他从此用功读书，阅读了大量的书，渐渐地他可以代父亲写信、写诗，父亲的脸上终于露出了得意的笑容。
[13]
代父写序
钱钟书18岁时考入美国圣公会无锡辅仁中学。他常为父亲
钱基博代笔写信，由口授而代写，由代写信而代做文章。
一次钱钟书代父亲为乡下一家大户代作墓志铭。偶然间，他听见父亲对母亲称赞那篇文章，这是钱钟书第一次听到父亲称赞他，高兴得简直要跳起来。杨绛晚年回忆，钱穆的《
国学概论》1931年由商务印书馆出版，他请钱基博为之作序。钱基博就让钱钟书代笔。序写好后，父亲一个字也没有改动。《国学概论》出版时，没有人看出这篇序是一个刚满20岁的年轻人代写的。
[14] 钱钟书的记忆能力无疑是超凡的，他精通多种语言，能背诵无数的诗词和文献，能将经史子集随手拈来、头
头是道，比起今天电视上外强中干的学术超女超男来判若云泥。
[15] 钱钟书学富五车、才高八斗，被誉为是“博学鸿儒”、“文化昆仑”。
[16] 钱钟书还是个幽默大师，他健谈善辩，口若悬河，舌璨莲花，隽思妙语，常常令人捧腹。钱氏的健谈雄辩大有孟子、韩愈遗风，在中国社会科学院几乎无人不晓。
[17]
Have you ever met those people who can’t seem to stop talking about themselves, or what happened with their spouse, their kids, etc.? Yeah, that’s not storytelling. That’s called a cry for attention, complaining, and/or self-indulgence. It’s most apparent on Facebook and some blogs. Facebook is the master of self-indulgence. And if you go to a blog and the blogger talks about themselves more than things others might find interesting, it’s called a self-indulgent blog. Storytelling, by definition, is the art of telling a story to entertain someone else.
