The Purple Prose Eater by Deb Stover
Description:
Purple Prose. What is it? Where did this term originate, and how did romance authors become the lucky professionals to be slapped with this label? Mr. Webster failed to provide a definition, so I felt duty-bound to compose one myself.
Purple prose consists of words and phrases that sound stilted, overly descriptive, or cliché. Now that doesn't mean we should never use beautiful, descriptive language. Not at all. What it means is the overuse of it irritates your reader and can mutate into the dreaded purple prose.
Excerpt:
The phrase "his hardness" makes me think of royalty for some reason. I don't think that was the author's intention.
"Throbbing member?" Well...
"Turgid shaft." Even I'm guilty of that one. Sigh.
"Her gaze traveled down his muscular chest and lean hips to his softly swaying promise of future delight." It doesn't do a thing for me.
Robin Williams once used the phrases "throbbing love machine" and "heat-seeking moisture missile" in reference to the male sex organ in its aroused state.Included in How to Write a Romance For The New Markets Genesis Press, Inc ISBN: 1-885478-46-1 Copyright by Deb Stover -- All Rights ReservedSo what are some of your favorite purple moments? I almost included this in the 'Ridiculous Romance' thread but it didn't quite fit so I thought I'd throw it out in its own thread.
I find historical romance tends to have more purple prose than anything else largely because they are trying to not be vulgar - euphamisms abound in these books and they are just so bad!
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