Although purple prose sounds pretty and like a way you would want your writing described, it’s actually not a good thing to have your writing described this way.
If someone calls your writing purple prose, essentially they’re calling it flowery. Meaning, they think it’s too wordy, formal or trying too hard to be poetic.
Although there are some genres and authors who think purple prose is a badge of honor as a writer, we’ll let you decide that for yourself.
In this article, we’ll dive into what purple prose is, where it comes from in history, take a look at some examples, and ultimately go over how to avoid it as a writer.
What is Purple Prose?
Purple prose is writing that is too formal, poetic, or wordy. It’s when too many adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors are used to describe things.
Generally, there is not a specific rule about what is or is not purple prose, it’s more of a, “You know it when you see it” kind of thing.
It’s also subjective sometimes and not everyone agrees if some pieces are purple prose or not.
With that in mind, it can be hard to define exactly what it is, but the novelist and poet Paul West had this to say about it:
“It takes a certain amount of sass to speak up for prose that’s rich, succulent and full of novelty. Purple is immoral, undemocratic and insincere; at best artsy, at worst the exterminating angel of depravity.”
Paul West from his article “In Defense of Purple Prose” in the New York Times
Ultimately, writers don’t want to be too flowery and go on for too long. You’ll want to tighten up your sentences and make sure you keep your readers engaged.
Where Does the Phrase Purple Prose Come From?
The Roman poet Horace was the first to coin the phrase purple prose in his poem The Art of Poetry.
Here is the translated version:
Your opening shows great promise, and yet flashy purple patches; as when describing a sacred grove, or the altar of Diana, or a stream meandering through fields, or the river Rhine, or a rainbow; but this was not the place for them. If you can realistically render a cypress tree, would you include one when commissioned to paint a sailor in the midst of a shipwreck?
From The Art of Poetry by Horace
For context, at the time, purple dye was incredibly expensive and having any purple in your clothes was a sign of wealth. Many people who wanted to portray being wealthy would put purple fabric into their cheaper clothes to appear richer than they were, thus why it started to be thought of as flashy and gaudy.
That’s why Horace drew a line between the purple fabric in society and the purple prose in writing. People then used it to describe any kind of writing that was simply trying too hard and was turning away readers.
Purple prose is deeper than write on sentences, and instead it’s writing that’s flashy for the sake of being flashy, without giving meaning or depth to the writing.
Once again, it’s up to you as the writer to include or exclude all the details you want, but you will want to avoid including so many metaphors you lose what you’re trying to say.
Examples of Purple Prose
As you read some of the examples below, see if you can figure out why they are defined as purple prose or not. You might even want to read them out loud for more of an understanding.
Most of us have heard the line, “It’s was a dark and stormy night…” but not many people know it’s a commonly mocked piece of writing and a perfect example of purple prose.
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Paul Clifford
Another example from Jerome K. Jerome. This one might be a little more obvious as you can see it’s a whole sentence on its own as an example. As you read through it, see if it holds your attention or if your eyes start to glaze over at a certain point in the sentences.
“The river—with the sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets, gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths, chasing shadows o’er the shallows, flinging diamonds from the mill-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies, wantoning with the weirs’ white waters, silvering moss-grown walls and bridges, brightening every tiny townlet, making sweet each lane and meadow, lying tangled in the rushes, peeping, laughing, from each inlet, gleaming gay on many a far sail, making soft the air with glory—is a golden fairy stream.”
Jerome K. Jerome from Three Men in a Boat
For a more modern example of purple prose, look to romance novels, particularly ones from the 70s and 80s where graphic scenes were described using metaphors and outlandish metaphors to describe things so their novels wouldn’t be so raunchy.
How to Avoid Purple Prose
Keep in mind if you’re just starting out as a writer, you’re bound to have a ton of mistakes. It’s the cost of entry to making it as a professional writer.
If you’re trying to make your writing creative and poetic, it’s better to overdo it at the start as you learn how to write creatively and say what you want to say.
With that in mind, you’re bound to create purple prose here and there, but as long as you make sure you’re going back in to edit it out and only keep in the strong parts of your sentences, you should be just fine.
As always as a writer, you should constantly be editing your work and thinking about any extra parts you want to cut out. If you let too much fluffy language in your writing, it can not only turn off readers, but it can distract them from the main point you’re trying to say at that moment.
You know how some authors write over people’s heads on purpose? Like they use language that is fancy so they can show off how smart they are? That is generally what you want to avoid as a writer, you always want to write directly to the people you want to read your book.
One way to test out if your writing is too fluffy is to have test readers who will give you an honest opinion.
There are also writing tools out there that can help show you where your writing could be stronger or weaker.
You could also read your writing out loud to see how many breaths you need to take to finish a single sentence, which can be a sign of it being far too long and wordy.
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