![]() ![]() ![]() Vivid, lyrical writing is a fantastic tool in our arsenal when we’re doing this-but if we overdo that vivid writing, it has the opposite effect, yanking us right back into the real world. As authors, we want our readers to be fully present inside our stories, to be so immersed in our characters’ worlds that we’ll feel disoriented when the book ends. The goal of truly great writing is to make the reader forget that they’re reading a book. If those lines had been as long and vivid as the first one, it would have taken so much longer for us to get to the actual crux of the scene-which would have brought us perilously close to purple prose, because… But immediately, Menon grounds us back in the real world, with short sentences that give us the information without any adornment. Notice how that first line is deeply poetic, verging on the fanciful it uses description, an unusual metaphor, the striking image of sunlight through brown glass. She followed a bunch of vintage photography accounts on Instagram, and old apothecary bottles were a favorite subject.” One of my favorite lines from the book was this: “His eyes reminded her of old apothecary bottles, deep brown, when the sunlight hit them and turned them almost amber.” Can’t you just feel that description? Yet Menon’s followup is much simpler: “Dimple loved vintage things. Last month I read and loved Sandhya Menon’s bestselling young adult debut, When Dimple Met Rishi. If each line of your book is filled with metaphors, descriptions, and ten-dollar words, your story will quickly sink under its own weight. ![]() True lyricism is a mix of plainer, more serviceable lines with lines that stand out and sing. If you’re trying to write lyrically, it’s important to realize one thing: quality over quantity. Purple prose, in case you haven’t heard the phrase before, is-according to its Wikipedia entry-”text that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself.” So how, exactly, do you know when you’re writing something that would be classed as literary or lyrical, and when you’re veering into purple prose? Recently I got into a discussion with some friends on Twitter about how to find the line between pretty prose and purple prose. I love authors like Laini Taylor and Maggie Stiefvater, who have such a deft touch with phrasing that their books are not only engaging, they are positively delicious. I love writing that makes you see the world differently, that pulls you so deeply into its narrative that you can’t seem to leave that fictional world once you’re done. I live for poetic prose, for dazzling descriptions, for the sentences that make you feel like you’re sipping something delightful as you read. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |