Necessarily Abstaining from Execessive Use of Violaceous Exposition (Avoiding Purple Prose)

That is by far the worst headline I've ever written, but I'd rather prove my point that way that write the entire blog like that. Anyway, I thought this topic would be appropriate (in the spirit of Mardi Gras) by addressing a decadent writing style.

Purple prose, according to Bartleby.com, is "writing full of ornate flowery language" or as a teacher of my high school English class once called it, "drunk on words." Purple prose can be recognized as being littered heavily with adjectives and adverbs. This "style" is often associated with romance novels (or so I've heard. I don't read romances.) and is frowned about as poor writing. That's not to say that everyone agrees completely with this. I stumbled upon an ezine that publishes and celebrates it, and the web is loaded with purple prose parody sites as well. Often beginning writers will believe more adjectives will enhance their descriptions and make them better writers (Been there, done that).

This leads to the question: How do we write quality descriptions without purple prose? Believe it or not, the following suggestions will help clean up your prose.

*Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly, if you must use them at all. In other words, put the thesaurus down and step away. If you need to search for these "descriptive words," you don't need to use them. I've seen articles that suggest avoiding adjectives and adverbs completely. I find that isn't always possible, but that may be a failing on my part. Stay clear of hunting for these gems in your thesaurus though, and remove as many as you can in your editing phase.

*Use "strong" verbs. Beginning writers will use adjectives and adverbs to compensate for weak verbs, or those that don't express action. If you must reach for a thesaurus, look for a verb, not an adverb, even then be careful. Your prose will not flow as it should when the words are "borrowed." Active verbs reduce the need for adjectives and adverbs.

Bad writing doesn't always surface in the form of purple prose, but it's an aspect you can avoid. Keep writing... and editing.