Purple would be if it was 4 pages of this. This is perfectly acceptable for introducing the setting. I imagine the writing is going to focus on the person driving next, hence progressing the plot, which is not purple. Who wants their books to start with “he killed a guy and is driving to bury his body right now during a storm”
>inconsistent style
I think you and I can both agree we wouldn't want to read a book that is although out written with same voice, be it undecorated or decorated prose. A good writer will modulate his voice to suit his needs. I won't go into details here but you can research it by acquainting yourself with Method Writing.
This is considered purple? This seems perfectly readable to me
The only thing that's really bad about that is that its imagery is clumsy. There are some nice moments of rhythm but the section is bad mostly for its melodramatic tone, and for the neophytic tendency to make everything the absolute peak of drama. Rain can't just fall, it has to patter against the leaves in a deafening rhythm.
pic related is not purple prose. And even if any of you knew what it meant, you wouldn't be able to recognize it because you don't read.
OP here. I never claimed pic rel is purple prose. It's the first image that popped up in the search results. I'm asking for examples of purple prose -- passages from authors.
>This is perfectly acceptable for introducing the setting
No, it's not. It's extremely redundant. >It was a dark and stormy night
got it >blackened clouds rumbling
yeah, cause it's stormy and it's night >with the sounds of thunder
why else would clouds be rumbling? >yellow light... illuminating
yes, light does illuminate >grey clouds
you already said they were black clouds >old and dusty road made muddy
the road can't be dusty and muddy at once >pattering against the leaves
the leaves on the road or the leaves in the trees from the previous sentence? >deafening rhythm
deafening describes volume, rhythm is more about tempo, so a deafening rhythm is poor word choice.
It's not the most egregious example of purple prose, but it is definitely purple and poorly written. When it isn't being redundant, it's being contradictory.
Sweetie the road was dusty and has now been made muddy, pay attention. The principal problem in OP is writing in idiom, like J. K. Rowling does. >dark and stormy >rumbling clouds >crashing thunder >old and dusty >pattering rain >deafening rhythm (idiom has to be rescued by an "almost" to save it from ridiculousness)
100% correct. Shakespeare could be accused of being too "elaborate or ornate".
Every author from the advent of the novel until the beat generation would spend paragraphs describing a room piece by piece, using metaphor to limn the architecture. Purple prose is a term to dismiss beauty and detail, and replace it for simplicity because the people using this term actually want to read screenplays in a novel format.
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OP here. I never claimed pic rel is purple prose. It's the first image that popped up in the search results. I'm asking for examples of purple prose -- passages from authors.
IQfy doesn't understand context because nobody here reads.
The only thing that's really bad about that is that its imagery is clumsy. There are some nice moments of rhythm but the section is bad mostly for its melodramatic tone, and for the neophytic tendency to make everything the absolute peak of drama. Rain can't just fall, it has to patter against the leaves in a deafening rhythm.
A good technique is to put yourself in the mind of the main POV character and then consider if the description aligns with his experience. Even if you aren't using his voice for the passage, you can still describe the scene in terms that would be appropriate. That is, would the character notice and care about the rain pattering on the leaves?
Blood Meridian is filled with what you refer to as purple prose. Pages upon pages explaining the landscape, the surroundings, in beautiful but excruciating detail
Purple would be if it was 4 pages of this. This is perfectly acceptable for introducing the setting. I imagine the writing is going to focus on the person driving next, hence progressing the plot, which is not purple. Who wants their books to start with “he killed a guy and is driving to bury his body right now during a storm”
Inconsistent style is worse than purple prose.
Do you think before posting?
>inconsistent style
I think you and I can both agree we wouldn't want to read a book that is although out written with same voice, be it undecorated or decorated prose. A good writer will modulate his voice to suit his needs. I won't go into details here but you can research it by acquainting yourself with Method Writing.
>that is although out written with same voice,
I wouldn't want to read whatever fricking book you wrote.
Anon said nothing about inconsistent style. Writing different sections with different purpose is not changing styles.
OP here. I never claimed pic rel is purple prose. It's the first image that popped up in the search results. I'm asking for examples of purple prose -- passages from authors.
moron
>This is perfectly acceptable for introducing the setting
No, it's not. It's extremely redundant.
>It was a dark and stormy night
got it
>blackened clouds rumbling
yeah, cause it's stormy and it's night
>with the sounds of thunder
why else would clouds be rumbling?
>yellow light... illuminating
yes, light does illuminate
>grey clouds
you already said they were black clouds
>old and dusty road made muddy
the road can't be dusty and muddy at once
>pattering against the leaves
the leaves on the road or the leaves in the trees from the previous sentence?
>deafening rhythm
deafening describes volume, rhythm is more about tempo, so a deafening rhythm is poor word choice.
It's not the most egregious example of purple prose, but it is definitely purple and poorly written. When it isn't being redundant, it's being contradictory.
Sweetie the road was dusty and has now been made muddy, pay attention. The principal problem in OP is writing in idiom, like J. K. Rowling does.
>dark and stormy
>rumbling clouds
>crashing thunder
>old and dusty
>pattering rain
>deafening rhythm (idiom has to be rescued by an "almost" to save it from ridiculousness)
Why care that the road was once dusty?
If you were my editor I'd fake my own death and move to Arkansas.
This is considered purple? This seems perfectly readable to me
my diary tbh, unironically
I try to write some fancy stuff in there whenever I can.
"Purple prose" doesn't exist.
Horace spoke of "purple PATCHES"...
Read Poe's Philosophy of Composition;
the criterion of judgment here is the Unity of Effect.
>the criterion of judgment here is the Unity of Effect.
Yea
100% correct. Shakespeare could be accused of being too "elaborate or ornate".
Every author from the advent of the novel until the beat generation would spend paragraphs describing a room piece by piece, using metaphor to limn the architecture. Purple prose is a term to dismiss beauty and detail, and replace it for simplicity because the people using this term actually want to read screenplays in a novel format.
IQfy doesn't understand context because nobody here reads.
>more matter, with less art
- Shakespeare
The homie wrote page long soliloquies.
The only thing that's really bad about that is that its imagery is clumsy. There are some nice moments of rhythm but the section is bad mostly for its melodramatic tone, and for the neophytic tendency to make everything the absolute peak of drama. Rain can't just fall, it has to patter against the leaves in a deafening rhythm.
How does one learn restraint?
Read Shakespeare, write something then read Hemingway and write the same thing
Hemingway is a goblin. Read Longinus.
A good technique is to put yourself in the mind of the main POV character and then consider if the description aligns with his experience. Even if you aren't using his voice for the passage, you can still describe the scene in terms that would be appropriate. That is, would the character notice and care about the rain pattering on the leaves?
pic related is not purple prose. And even if any of you knew what it meant, you wouldn't be able to recognize it because you don't read.
Blood Meridian is filled with what you refer to as purple prose. Pages upon pages explaining the landscape, the surroundings, in beautiful but excruciating detail
If you want more examples of purple prose I recommend reading Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. It's pretty purple.
Anything by Janny Wurts.
why don't they just *bim bim bim*