Beige Prose Vs. Purple Prose

I actually prefer somewhere in the middle, normally, unless they serve a specific purpose. Beige Prose I found to be a bit... too dry. Purple Prose I can get frustrated and I'll skip things.

I agree. I prefer the writing to be somewhere in the middle. Too much purple and you'll look like a pretentious asshole. Too much beige and you'll suck the soul write out of the story. However, I lean more towards the purple end. I've had a bad experience with beige prose.

Purple Prose is more immediately annoying, but boring prose can kill a book. From my experience, the real harm comes when you try to be one or the other; either trying to be beautiful or sparse. Not trying to emulate Lovecraft or Hemingway and going with what feels natural tends to have the best result, usually in the middle. At least for me.

When Beige Prose is done badly, it's simply blah. But when Purple Prose is done badly, it can be like a car wreck—you just can't look away. That might be why young writers are encouraged to be terse. (that, and literary fashion—will the cult of Hemingway never die out?)

I think it will die when Elements of Style does. It was taught in my school, and I don't see them changing any time soon. That said, cutting unnecessary words is generally good advise. The problem comes when you try to define necessary.

When adjectives outnumber actions, you've got too many words.

See, I believe that's a safe rule, but not necessarily an inevitable rule. And it might be the kind of rule that impoverishes literature a little, even as it protects the newbie from gross missteps. We're safe from Bulwer-Lyttons, but equally safe from Melvilles.

Indeed. One of the things I love about the slightly more violet shade of the spectrum is that great feeling of rhythm it gets. Sometimes a word might be redundant, but it helps build up a great pace to it and it gives the prose a certain almost lyrical quality.

Lovecraft is the only writer that I thought got far too purple but was still good. Likewise Hemingway is the only person who's prose can get extremely beige and I'd still find it engaging. Pretty much every other writer should be somewhere in the middle, slightly leaning one way or the other based on the tone and purpose of the book.

It honestly depends on the book I'm reading.

Let's say I'm reading a young adult adventure novel taking place in another world that isn't like the world we're in now (Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Harry Potter, certain parts of Percy Jackson). I'd rather have too much detail than too little. I'd like to know exactly what Hogwarts or Olympus looks like, or know what the monsters Frodo and the others are fighting look like. When you're describing something that doesn't exist, I'd like to know the details so I can picture it better.

However, a book that takes place in an already established place with established species and traits, I don't need to know a whole lot about what I'm looking at. That's what really bothered me about Twilight. I know just by the fact that they're in Forks Washington, it's going to be rainy and lush. You can stop there. Also, describing Edward as perfect, pale, and red haired is enough for me to know that he's a vampire. I seriously think that I read a two paragraph description of Edward in one of the books that WASN'T EVEN THE FIRST BOOK. He had already been described, and yet here I was reading a page about his marbled abs.

So it really depends on the situation.

: I gotta agree with that, actually. When it comes to the familiar, a lot of details can and will bog the writing down. But when you come to something unique and different and novel, I want to see it really fleshed out. Not only does it feed my curiosity about the world and the writer's head, but the wealth of detail makes it seem more real and alive.

I personally tend to write in Purple Prose, so it's my default preference. I'm a sucker for details, especially since my favorite genre is mystery - and mystery is ALL about those little details.

I mean, I don't hate Beige Prose, but it bores me just a little, and when I read I always think, "Okay, how can I spice up that paragraph?"

: Heh. I do that too. When I read a book, I'm always thinking about how I would rewrite something or what I would've done differently. It's pretty good practice, actually. And then sometimes I run into weird situations, where things like, say, the verb choice is really beige, but the author picks up on a really specific detail that seems more like something a "purpler" author would pick up on. (I hope that makes sense.)

I adore ornate language, one of my Christmas gifts that particularly delighted me was a pair of Kai Lung books by Ernst Bramah. It's not even particularly descriptive necessarily, just... fun. He's snarky as all get out, which helps too.

Has there been any media works that manages to combine both beige and purple prose together? Like, flip-flop from one to another at the drop of a hat?