Purple prose: What is it, and should you be using it?

If you’ve ever taken a writing class, the subject of purple prose might have come up – or maybe you’ve never heard of it before! In this short guide, I’ll go over exactly what purple prose means, whether you should use it, and compare with lyrical and poetic writing more generally.

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Purple prose defined

Purple prose is an overly elaborate, ornate way of writing – to the point of taking the reader out of the story. It tends to include excessive descriptions and adjectives, lots of metaphors/similes, overly flowery language, and lengthy or overly detailed paragraphs.

In purpose prose, there are often so many descriptions and ambiguous uses of flowery language that the writing can become confusing and unclear. It can also be characterised by melodrama – emotions might be overblown in a way that feels unnatural, or described to the point of feeling theatrical and comical.

To use another term, purple prose is overwriting to the point of distracting your readers and making it harder for them to engage with the story.

Here’s a definition of purple prose from the Cambridge Dictionary:

a piece of writing that is long and complicated or sounds false because the writer has tried too hard to make the style interesting

In this definition, we can see that purple prose is often a result of the author trying too hard to impress their audience, resulting in a style that feels unnatural or forced at best, and at worst, difficult to understand.

Why “purple” prose?

If you’re wondering why it’s called purple prose, the term comes from a section of Arts Poetica, by Horace, a Roman poet:

Weighty openings and grand declarations often
Have one or two purple patches tacked on, that gleam
Far and wide, when Diana’s grove and her altar,
The winding stream hastening through lovely fields,
Or the river Rhine, or the rainbow’s being described.
There’s no place for them here. Perhaps you know how
To draw a cypress tree: so what, if you’ve been given
Money to paint a sailor plunging from a shipwreck
In despair?

In these lines, Horace is describing “weighty openings and grand declarations” as having “purple patches”, and that’s where the term comes from.

There are a few other colours used to describe prose that have also cropped up:

Beige prose: Writing that is very simplistic, straightforward, and plain. Essentially, this is the opposite of purple prose! You can find this style in journalism or news reports.
Blue prose: This refers to very steamy or sexual writing, or prose that is crude. You can expect to find swearing and sexually explicit content.

I love descriptive writing and lyrical language! Why is purple prose bad?

Purple prose is a term that refers to extreme overwriting to the point of making things more difficult for your readers in one way or another. You might confuse them with unclear or overblown descriptions, or make it challenging for them to invest in your plot because they can’t get past the long-winded paragraphs and unclear descriptions. That’s very different to using lyrical, poetic language more generally and having a pretty writing style.

Lyrical or beautiful language isn’t bad at all, and a highly descriptive or flowery style doesn’t automatically mean a book suffers from purple prose. Lots of readers and writers enjoy books that are written in a more lyrical style, myself included.

Purple prose is simply when flowery language is taken to an extreme, to the point that it may be damaging to the book and to the reader’s enjoyment of it.

Elements of purple prose to watch out for

Overuse of adjectives

If a sentence or paragraph is packed full of adjectives, to the point of overwhelming the text with them, this can be an indicator that the prose is too purple. Readers could end up feeling overwhelmed by all the descriptors.

Overusing adjectives can also impact pacing, slowing things down and making readers feel frustrated because they simply want to get on with the story. Readers might end up wondering when you’re going to get to the point if you include far too many adjectives!

Melodramatic or excessive emotion

Overwriting when it comes to emotions can make characters seem melodramatic and theatrical, and at times, younger than they are – especially if they’re supposed to be grown adults. This type of purple prose can involve overly magnified reactions to events, or describing the same emotion too many times.

For example, imagine if an adult character threw themselves onto the sofa, kicked their feet, sobbed with rivers of tears streaming down their cheeks, turned bright red in the face, hiccuped, and wailed shrilly, all while reminiscing about how melancholy they are and how the sadness is breaking their heart into pieces and making them a husk of their former self.

Sounds more like a very young child having a tantrum, no? This is how purple prose can impact writing when it comes to emotion.

Try to think about how you, or people you know, might react when it comes to a particular emotion. More subtle descriptions are usually more effective than overblown ones. Think about your characters’ personality traits and have them act more authentically and in line with who they are.

There’s a great reference book you can use for writing emotions called The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, with plenty of ideas for effective descriptions and behaviours when describing emotions.

Ambiguity

Watch out for overly descriptive passages in your writing that could sound too ambiguous or unclear. A major issue with purple prose is that readers can end up very confused by excessive amounts of abstract language. Where a writer thinks they’re being poetic and clever, the reader is simply scratching their head and trying to decipher the meaning.

Lengthy, overly detailed passages

Using too many lengthy, overly detailed passages in your writing can bog things down and slow down the pacing, leading to boredom in your readers.

Context does matter here, of course. There’s a time and a place for being detailed and descriptive (within reason and not overly excessively), such as when you’re setting the scene when characters arrive at a new location.

However, if you’re using an overabundance of flowery, detailed language for the duration of an action sequence or exciting battle, that’s going to impact the pacing and flow of event. Readers will end up struggling to engage – or worse, might not finish the book at all – because they feel bored during moments where they should be excited and gripped.

Over-complicating

Try not to over-complicate your use of language too much, as this can also lead to confusion from a reader’s perspective. If it sounds like you’re pulling out a thesaurus every second word, you’re probably over-complicating it. If you read something like, I’m extremely choleric and ireful, and itch to grouse and grizzle with my wingmen forthright, it might take you a few minutes to figure out that I feel irritated and want to complain to my friends.

Should you use purple prose?

Purple prose – as in, writing in such an overly abundant way that readers get distracted or confused – is best avoided! But you absolutely can use beautiful language and lyrical and poetic prose to make your writing sing. Balance is key!

If you’re worried about purple prose and would like some help with your manuscript, check out my editorial services – I’d love to hear from you about your project!