tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post3015872700560835349..comments2024-03-28T01:44:27.279-06:00Comments on Blood-Red Pencil: Writing PurpleDanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471919576687777886noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-66355589554302314242012-09-18T14:35:47.044-06:002012-09-18T14:35:47.044-06:00Sheesh ... I had to smoke a cigarette after readin...Sheesh ... I had to smoke a cigarette after reading this.Christopher Hudsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03667548312923348614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-78491503436130009842012-09-18T06:59:53.239-06:002012-09-18T06:59:53.239-06:00Interesting about slang such as "purple prose...Interesting about slang such as "purple prose"—I suppose everyone has a different definition of it. I don't think much of what Larry and others put forth is purple at all. Elle's example surely isn't. It is flowery, to be sure, but rich with meaning—that's a stylistic issue. To me purple prose is more of a structural issue: you (as author) have not yet earned to right to use such emotional language. This sin is typically committed in the opening, where right after knocking on the front cover of a book we readers are expected to jump right unto the sturm and drang of the depths of a character's life without any other orientation. The reader is not oriented—is this comedy? Drama? One thing for sure: it's purple! Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-47016856328403342762012-09-18T00:51:08.633-06:002012-09-18T00:51:08.633-06:00Ah, purple prose. It's so tempting to fresh au...Ah, purple prose. It's so tempting to fresh authors. My favorite purple prose line includes the phrase, "the radar screen of his loins." (gag)Heidiwriterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593338979995203659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-29642424647684235012012-09-17T17:06:46.141-06:002012-09-17T17:06:46.141-06:00Sometimes it's easier to go over the top than ...Sometimes it's easier to go over the top than under it!<br /><br />Morgan Mandel<br />http://www.morganmandel.com<br />Morgan Mandelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10118929301591850918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-7921655488389494082012-09-17T14:14:09.031-06:002012-09-17T14:14:09.031-06:00"Kill the Purple Prose. If you try to beat it..."Kill the Purple Prose. If you try to beat it into shape, it just gets bruised and more purple." Great suggestion, Helen! Always remember - the harder you argue in favor of a sentence, the more likely it's a darling. Danihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14471919576687777886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-75107847520682988452012-09-17T14:10:53.575-06:002012-09-17T14:10:53.575-06:00Where "the indigo impulse seems to flash and ...Where "the indigo impulse seems to flash and flare", Larry? LOL.Danihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14471919576687777886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-59733117279683555502012-09-17T13:56:01.307-06:002012-09-17T13:56:01.307-06:00I agree. Kill the Purple Prose. If you try to beat...I agree. Kill the Purple Prose. If you try to beat it into shape, it just gets bruised and more purple.<br /><br />As both a reader and a writer, I want to glide through a book. I like it when I stop and re-read something because it was so moving or original or descriptive or spot-on, but I don't want to read something that makes me stop and close the book.Helen Gingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09794759602654727110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-77680034103822756582012-09-17T12:02:58.578-06:002012-09-17T12:02:58.578-06:00I've never heard of purple prose. I suppose 50...I've never heard of purple prose. I suppose 50 Shades of Grey could be considered purple prose. Interesting premise.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-24160486013869256352012-09-17T10:42:57.000-06:002012-09-17T10:42:57.000-06:00I actually like the color purple, even in prose. I...I actually like the color purple, even in prose. I only try to kill it if it detracts from the narrative or the point being made. I love some of these examples -- Larry's salty trail like warm dew made me very happy. I also agree with Linda that the key is always Balance, Balance, Balance. (As in life, too.) Kim Pearsonhttp://www.primary-sources.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-15366127344677316562012-09-17T10:20:44.845-06:002012-09-17T10:20:44.845-06:00I think, on the whole, I'd rather have purple ...I think, on the whole, I'd rather have purple prose than the boring language, stripped bare and reduced to a list, so favoured by editors.Jenny Twisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15716569675973035423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-41564855405249678822012-09-17T10:07:03.722-06:002012-09-17T10:07:03.722-06:00Balance. Balance. Balance.
In some ways, writing...Balance. Balance. Balance. <br /><br />In some ways, writing might be compared to decorating a room. Go with the neutral, perhaps add an accent wall, but definitely throw in splashes of color. Too much intensity (aka purple) overwhelms viewers and drives them away. Touches of purple, however, add depth and power and intensity. It's an emotional color, the color of royalty, and in its most subtle hues gently soothing. <br /><br />Interesting post, Kim. Hey, we all need some color in our lives. :-)Linda Lanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06686488133905538811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-2832040143785314672012-09-17T07:34:33.476-06:002012-09-17T07:34:33.476-06:00OMG, Kim, kill that sentence. LOL
Seriously, what...OMG, Kim, kill that sentence. LOL<br /><br />Seriously, what a great reminder this post is, although I do think Larry and Elle make a good point about how some purple can work well to evoke mood and scene.<br /><br />In Elle's example, I would have suggested the author cut "The grass looked wetgreen and pleased. Happy earthworms frolicked purple in the slush. Green nettles nodded. Trees bent." To me those bits of description added little to the scene and broke the connection between the previous sentence and the coming of Estha. But who am I to edit a master? LOLMaryannwriteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09479027709233807149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-44602307718221398092012-09-17T07:22:56.122-06:002012-09-17T07:22:56.122-06:00Ah, Kim, I love this line! : your stories will shi...Ah, Kim, I love this line! : your stories will shine brighter against black and white.<br /><br />Now THAT's beautiful writing, sans purple!Susan Mary Malonehttp://www.maloneeditorial.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-74671709580924849552012-09-17T07:17:43.241-06:002012-09-17T07:17:43.241-06:00Not a whole lot of purple prose in the mysteries I...Not a whole lot of purple prose in the mysteries I like to read. My romance reading is romantic suspense, which is very much the same except for the relationship bits. And since I really have trouble with metaphors and similes, which to me are where that purple shading comes in, I don't think I write purple -- maybe a little lavender in my sex scenes. <br />Terry <br /><a href="http://terryodell.com/terrysplace" rel="nofollow">Terry's Place</a><br />Terry Odellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11610682530545306687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-59051112038583595762012-09-17T05:09:08.801-06:002012-09-17T05:09:08.801-06:00Take a bow, Larry.
Ah, there are so many truly go...Take a bow, Larry.<br /><br />Ah, there are so many truly gorgeously purple passages in some of my favourite books. At random, here's one from Arundhati Roy's <i>The God of Small Things</i>:<br /><br />"It hadn't changed, the June Rain.<br /><br />Heaven opened and the water hammered down, reviving the reluctant old well, greenmossing the pigless pigsty, carpet bombing still, tea-colored puddles the way memory bombs still, tea-colored minds. The grass looked wetgreen and pleased. Happy earthworms frolicked purple in the slush. Green nettles nodded. Trees bent.<br /><br />Further away, in the wind and rain, on the banks of the river, in the sudden thunderdarkness of the day, Estha was walking. He was wearing a crushed-strawberry-pink T-shirt, drenched darker now, and he knew that Rahel had come." Elle Carter Nealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02266309723919011181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-19141762120283904702012-09-17T04:21:57.021-06:002012-09-17T04:21:57.021-06:00I sometimes have to beat down the temptation, part...I sometimes have to beat down the temptation, particularly in essays, where the indigo impulse seems to flash and flare with such ease. But purple prose has its place, particularly in the hands of a master, which I am not. What justifies it on occasion is the masterful turn of phrase built of the just-so string of modifiers where neither others nor fewer could quite carry the same power to evoke.<br /><br />As an editor, I would suggest to you, Kim, that sweat is more slick than slimy, and that if you really are seeing the scene through rose-colored lenses, perhaps you might as well go completely over the top with something along the lines of "leaving a salty trail, like warm dew, on the rose petals of her nipples." Or...well, you get the idea. Saturated color, as it were.<br /><br />Purple can make for grand prose when every word adds to the hue and leaves the reader sweating, jaw agape. A recent essay by the inimitable Simon Schama in the Financial Times called "Why I Write," a tribute to Orwell with asides to most of Simon's literary heroes, was such a tightly controlled paint pot from the violet end of the spectrum. One must either admire or deplore a writer whose opening purple paragraph uses "dithyrambic" so perfectly.<br /><br />See, you get me started and look what happens! Now I have to clean up the magenta slime from my keyboard.<br /><br />--Larry Constantine (pen name, Lior Samson)Larry Constantine (Lior Samson)http://amazon.com/author/liorsamson/noreply@blogger.com