"How do you write immersive descriptions?" |
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- Опубликовано: 4 сен 2024
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Welcome back to Ask Abbie, where I answer YOUR writing questions and help you make your story matter! Today I'm answering a common writing question: How do you write immersive and colorful descriptions? How do you find the happy medium between "purple prose" and "beige prose"? In this video, I share my best advice for writing immersive, character-based description that will pull your readers into the story and make them forget they're even reading a book.
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Okay, Abbie, this is getting scary: do have premonition or something? Every time I'm struggling with something you load up a video on that topic. I'm literally right now struggling to find the best way to describe my protagonist's organization's compound and people in it trying not to write an info dump by my character or in "purple pros" filling 5 pages with description 😂
I just finished a similar chapter and boy was it hard. My general rule of thumb was just to have super simple descriptions for the time being, and only introduce them when the main characters interact directly. It's certainly my least liked chapter, so I'll have to go back to it later and see how to fix it more lol!
I'm having a weirdly coincidence thing happen, but with books. I'll be reading and have a plot point happen in one book and then I'll pick up another book (I read more than one book at a time, from vastly different genres) and usually within a page or two I'll see the same plot point occur in the second book. Or with a game and book. Or a movie and book.
It's strange, because these plot points are semi-unique and usually just small things that wouldn't be SO common as to be in every or every other book XD
Haha maybe I do have a sixth sense... 🤔 I'm so glad this video came at the right time for you!
Nope that's just your unfriendly google and goverment watching your every move 🤠
Flesh it out when it matters for your character.
Actually this an incredible concept for all writing. I always assumed a characters voice was only useful when writing first person, gonna experiment with this right away.
It definitely works in third person too! 👍
Your purple examples were hilarious. I tend more toward the beige end of the spectrum, especially in first drafts. I have to consciously add character-based descriptions when editing.
same here! anytime i even try to write descriptively it comes out to be purple descriptions lol. unless i’m editing, then things come out weirdly perfect.
If you are reading this. Know that everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear❤️
I actually thought that I was weird because when I wrote my novel, I basically tapped into my MC. Were like totally the same person, but she's probably the better side of me. And I can also relate to her so much.
That's awesome!! 😍
Oh, same here. (Apart from the tonns of trauma I have dumped on the poor guy, we are quite similar.😅 Probably too similar.)
This is a very interesting question and response. Love how Abbie focuses on the advice to write to make the reader feel something and to write using a character's voice. It makes me think deeper about the writing I read and the writing I do.
At the same time, though, I wonder if the difference between "purple" and "beige" prose is in the eye of the beholder and might also has something to do with the author's writing style.
Hemingway is famously known for his "beige" prose that is spare and likely influenced in part by his career as a journalist and his 20th century Midwestern upbringing. Poe, in contrast, is known for his comparitively "purple" prose that is ornate and likely influenced in part by his career as a poet and his Victorian East Coast upbringing.
Not everyone likes either author and people tend to point to their writing style as the reason. Personally, I prefer Poe to Hemingway in part because I like the Victoriana better, but I know people who disagree with me.
I'm wondering if writers should also stay true to their own writing style and not worry too much about how others may label their writing. The people who like it probably won't label it either "beige" or "purple" - they'll just enjoy it.
Yes💕
@@naomiuchiha0906 💗
Absolutely! Also, it's not always that simple or straightforward to determine which to use to describe a given situation... You'll probably end up overthinking it and getting frustrated! Instead, just focus on writing what comes most naturally to you in the moment. Then, when you review it, you will, in all likelihood, see flaws in it that will need to be corrected and revised. These flaws will include some or all the points mentioned this video, viz., narration being uncharacteristic of the character (not being consistent with the character voice), much too fancy language (purple prose), vapid descriptions with inadequate punch (beige prose), in addition to the usual, like too much info dumping, errors in logistics (inconsistencies with the other parts of the story), grammatical errors, spelling errors, etc. Sometimes reviewing it after a day or two will make a huge difference in whether you catch all these points or not!
The bottom line is that every situation in the story will be suited to a different style of writing. When you're describing a leisurely event (like the MC exploring her college campus for the first time, for example), more flowery, poetic prose might fit the narration better than, say, the climax, when the villain has the MC in their power and is about to deal the final deathblow... This is no time to launch into a description of flitting butterflies and warm summer breezes caressing hollyhocks in the well-manicured garden outside as fluffy, cotton-candy clouds laze across the azure sky... Highly inappropriate language for the situation! A telegram-style approach would convey the urgency and direness of it far more effectively!
What do you think?
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@@srinivastatachar4951 Use the writing style most appropriate to a given situation? Yup. Couldn't agree more.🙂
I think it’s relative to the writer. Maybe Poe’s “beige” is at the same level as Hemmingway’s “purple”. I think it’s still a good idea to evaluate your prose based on your own tastes and make sure you’re hitting your own true North.
Thank you for answering my question Abbie!! I really appreciate your practical examples, I struggle with abstract advice and you hit the nail on the head all the time! Thank you very much 😄❤
This was a fantastic question, Jasleen! I'm so glad you found my answer helpful. 😊
A-HA! THIS is why I'm finding it so hard to create good descriptions for my first-person POV sc-fi story! She's had her memory wiped, but before that she lived on the streets, and has had no formal education. This means I can't use any 'fancy' words that she would've heard in a school English class, or use any terms or names for things that she, as a poor girl living on the streets, would never have owned or even seen. But I still have to get creative with the more basic vocabulary she *does* have, so it doesn't sound like an Early Learning book. Sometimes I can nail it, but other times it's pretty darn hard!
Oooh, this is an interesting concept to explore! 🤔
uh. there are a few things that come to mind - for me.
1. purple prose is fine, but if it takes away from your intent or whatever particular vision you want to express, then it isn't helping you deliver. it is... dead weight. it's like too many explosions and you can't see what's going on in the scene. or too many slow motion shots and you get bored. if whatever line you give the audience is NOT helping you "set up" or "pay off"... you could be replacing that with something that actually DOES help.
2. jasleen seems to be asking more about "i'm not feeling very confident on my writing of what i think is important to me, and i was wondering what could help me do that without my writing going overboard." and i think abbie's advice of finding the character's voice can be helpful here, especially if you are writing in first person. uh, you COULD have your prose deliberately represent a particular character's mental and emotional state, their dialect and cadence of speech, how they judge the things that they are reacting to, etc.
3. but if jasleen is referring to third person, i would say that descriptive language... should really be used instead to provide TONE and PACING. uh, i don't really think that DESCRIPTIONS matter so much to an audience, unless they have a reason to be emotionally invested in it. so... i could describe a city for some procedural crime drama, but the story may not even need it. the important thing is that the audience sees the magic trick that you are setting up for them and will eventually pay off later.
... i would say... descriptions are like stage props... you can spend so much time finding the perfect prop for your scene, but, unless you have a specific story beat related to that prop, you are most likely wasting your time on extraneous detail.
... when you could be spending your energy on writing the story instead.
just a thought. or three.
I would argue most “purple prose” (that is, prose deemed “bad”) is actually the most vivid of prose. Too much of it today wants to “get to the point”. That’s jarring, to me. I don’t understand what’s going on in a vast majority of scenes in popular books, because I’m not given the opportunity to really understand my surroundings.
Now for a caveat: I don’t have this cinematic view a lot of writers have, when writing-or even that a lot of readers have, when reading. So even the most basic scenes are difficult to grasp. I think my concern mostly goes to: how can I avoid writing “purple prose”, while trying to make sure I get the scene detailed exactly as I see it, as someone who has a hard time visualizing what’s supposed to be the scene as written.
(An interesting thing I would note: this is also in the family of problems I have trying to understand where we are in an action scene. I think this makes most action scenes bad, bc if you’re trying to immerse me, maybe spend a minute on what’s happening, rather than focusing on the pacing, which, ironically, gets destroyed by trying to do 50 things in the span of 60 seconds.)
Also, not focusing on one’s style, rather FAVORING the character’s voice, this seems like something only achievable once you have established the character’s voice. Which you can only do by figuring out your style.
Why do I feel that the purple proses have a beauty? Like they are obviously overgrown, but just a little trim is what they need. I can't stand the beige ones though. Need some clarity🥲. Is it because i prefer third person narration over first person?
PS: no offense to the actual prose.
I agree. I tend to write a bit of purple prose-ish and none of my reader friends complain. They like it but I do try to keep things to the point even if it's descriptive and metaphorical
Within the first few pages of reading Tessa and Weston's perspectives, I could tell how unique and distinctive their voices were! I keep coming back to them as inspiration to remind myself to write in my own character's voices. Thank you Abbie for writing such great characters!
It may be because my narrators are always omniscient and never characters within the story but I really liked the beige prose. It was so easy to follow and kept up a nice pace. I tend to sprinkle in a few extravagant descriptions for emphasis or to imbue an emotion but never metaphors or similes. Metaphors are where my attention lapses even if I'm heavily invested in the scene
Thanks! I really like the topic of this video, because it’s what I’m currently dealing with right now.
The only thing I wanna say is, Abbie, you saved my life! Thank you so much. I am a fetus writer I writer Fanfictions tbh, and since I found your channel, I'm more into writing. your videos not only help me with writing but also motivate me to write more and more and discover myself. I was struggling to write better descriptions for my story, and now I got it. I write more in 'beige' than 'purple', but I'll try to write more immersive descriptions. Thanks for the video.
I swear, the purple prose is so terrible, unless your character totally DOES view every day like that. (I could see the purple prose being such a VIBE for a character if done right... totally not thinking the character would have to be a type 4, but I'm /just/ saying)
I have a character that uses purple prose. The whole book is themed around flowers so the "flowery" prose thing is a fun joke for me.
I do agree, though. Over the top prose without a purpose makes reading pretty difficult, sometimes.
this comment immediately made me think about fischl from genshin impact
@@snaining2054 I didn’t notice at first but you’re 100% right
Haha, definitely does NOT have to be type 4 🤫
I think purple prose is an overrated concept. I think people are just afraid to indulge in understanding the nuances of their story, so they relegate it to this thing that is BAD and call it “purple prose”.
There’s not really that much purple prose.
By all this, today’s classics are TERRIBLE form. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?
I was like, "How much is too much description?" And then you showed the example and I'm like, "JFC yeah that's too much". Thanks for this!
I love the idea of writing descriptions from the character's point of view rather than the writer's point of view. Thank you so much for this writing advice. :)
*Quietly erases my 5-page description of someone eating spaghetti*
Bahahah frrrr 😂
Haha, thanks for the video and actual examples, Abbie! Is it bad that I actually liked the "purple prose" example of your book scenes? Of course it's overdone but with toning it down a bit, just a tiny bit, I would totally enjoy reading that!❤ Sure, it doesn't sound like a modern teen thoughts at all, but many novels from the 18th and 19th century actually sound like that!
What can I say? I am a sucker for long, dramatic and poetic sentences, as in the old romantic novels. 😊
Anyways, thank you for the great advice about speaking from your character's perspective. It does make a difference and allows the reader to relate and put themselves in the characters's shoes.
This is definitively the toughest part of writing. I’m always learning new words when I read
Chapter 1:
Echoes Of Childhood
35 years ago…
In my playroom, I leaned out of the window, admiring the sweet sun, like a lively friend, welcoming the shivering sky by bouncing on marshmallow clouds; playing an endless game of tag. A warm, woozy summer breeze brushed against my face, softly moving my hair as if inviting me to join its dance. The trees and bushes waved left and right to me, saying hello. The cheerful chirping of singing birds was like music to my ears, making me giggle and clap my tiny hands with delight. Everything outside seemed like a magical playground, and I couldn't help but smile at the wonders of this amazing day, that was building up my excitement.
Is this too much description? Is this a character-based description? Is this description enough to start my first chapter?
Holy moly, that was pretty good to me but i dont know, i hadn't write for long. How do you achieve this level of writing?
Before I start waxing eloquently about the content of the video, I want to give you several points of encouragement. First, I appreciate the time and effort you put into making these videos; it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there like this. Second, I find your content to be thought-provoking and helpful in revisiting and analyzing anew my conceptions regarding the written word, especially when I don’t fully agree with your personal perspectives. Third, I am of the opinion that the feedback we receive as writers that helps us the most is generally quite critical and bordering on pettifogging; so, any disagreement I voice should be interpreted through the understanding that I see potential and value in your talents and endeavors, and I want to offer feedback that can help you hone your craft.
Now that the preamble is good and done, let’s dive into some content. Ofttimes people in RUclips comments sections have a tendency to attempt to lend credence and credibility to their assertions through trotting out their credentials, and I have, at times, been guilty of the very same. But by and large, that behavior amounts to little more than a logically fallacious appeal to authority. Therefore, I’m not going to tout my bonafides; I’ll simply let my analysis speak for itself and hope you can see value in what I’m trying to share.
While I agree with you that there is a proper balance to be struck between flat and pretentious prose (I find color descriptors in these topics to be unnecessarily confusing for many), I have a few fundamental disagreements with you about how to write good prose. First and foremost, despite being an intriguing exercise in tense and perspective, the first person present narrative style that has been popular in recent years, trying to ride Suzanne Collins’ coattails, is by far one of the least effective, least stable, and least reliable types of prose at our disposal, as authors; using an excerpt from a book written in that style as an example in this video is unnecessarily muddled to the point of being practically useless, because most prose is not (and arguably should not be) written in that fashion. But more to the point of your examples, I found the actual published excerpt to be the least effective and least believable of the three, each time. Of course, the other two examples were flat and pretentious, respectively, as intended, but they seemed to have a much more believable voice and conveyed the narrative in a more easily accessible manner. And I think that illustrates my final and most important point. I fundamentally disagree with you about style, voice, and perspective. Point of view within a story is extremely impactful and important; that’s why there are so many novels and short stories that experiment with unreliable narrators, changing narrators from chapter to chapter, and informing readers of details to which the characters are not privy. Collins’ work in The Hunger Games, for example, was ground-breaking for using such a unique perspective, but the prose, and indeed the storytelling itself, doesn’t stand up to scrutiny now that the initial hype has faded. Hanging a story on the gamble that you can manufacture empathy for a character that will overcome idiosyncrasies and ill-advised use of modern vernacular within the prose itself is a level of hubris that no author should ever embrace. …“Good prose should be transparent, like a windowpane.” -George Orwell … When we tie our stories to character perspective to the extent displayed in these examples, we run the very real risk of driving a disconnecting wedge between our characters and our readers. There wasn’t a single example in this video of what I would consider transparent prose. More to the point, I fundamentally disagree with the idea that we should be trying to make our readers feel something or make them empathize with our characters. The goal of our writing, especially in long form fiction, should be to convey a story that is meaningful enough that readers can understand it and find their own paths within it; we should be constructing a framework wherein readers can wrestle with important concepts and questions as they arrive at a destination we have constructed to encourage catharsis within their own, unique reading experience. An excellent novel doesn’t shoehorn the reader into a perspective that removes their own agency and replaces it with that of our perspective characters; an excellent novel doesn’t attempt to manufacture empathy in a reader. Good prose allows readers to see, understand, and appreciate the paths of the characters, while still wending their own unique paths through the text. What you’ve described as the higher goal of a story is a really low form of writing that alienates entire populations of readers.
P.S. In the second excerpt, the authentic version was much more “purple prose” than the one you attempted to make pretentious; the pretentious one suffered primarily from not consulting (or perhaps excessively consulting) a writer’s thesaurus. Bad word choice is not the same thing as “purple prose”.
I loved the purple prose, it has this cyberpunky noir flair to it :-)
It would be a lot of fun to read a dialog between a beige and a purple.
I am aware that what I write is very beige, and I sometimes try to write purple just to break out of that and end up in the happy medium. I should do it more often, but I oftentimes simply want to just get words on a page since I write so gosh-darn slow.
usually, I don't comment a lot o YT, but Abbie, I gotta say: you really save my writer's life.
I discovered your channel only a few days ago but I have scribbled and took notes in a notebook while binging your videos and I have to say: thank you. thank you SO, so much. I am stuck iny my fantasy story for a while now and kept rewriting, adjusting things, but for some reason, it felt like I didn't even make anything better except for my writing style. And I had no idea why until I discovered your channel.
your advice is so inredibly helpful and with every video I watch from your channel, I get a better view on what the problems of my story are and how to get rid of them. my notebook is halfway filled with notes of your vids (it's a big notebook) and I cannot express how much I adore your advice and the excellent, down-to-the-point explanations you give. 🥰
I can't wait for your new videos :)
big thanks from Germany.
Ok but I love purple prose though 😂
I've been having so much trouble writing descriptions recently.
...I've joked over and over to my family about my poor sentence "The air whooshed through the air". Yes, I'm a writer, yes a wrote that. (Yes, it's in a published fanfiction.)
Any information and help I can get is much appreciated and helpful.
As a further question: What if I'm writing 3rd person? Does the "character describing the scene" still apply to this?
I think so. Even in the third person, we do have the main characters.
I can really picture the air whooshing when I read that.
@@JoeMama-yd1ve I know right?! Lol
I noticed in the Dune series for example, which is all 3rd person, that the POV of the narrator switches along with whatever character is on focus on that chapter. It's not super blatant, just the adjectives used, the opinions being written, the way some facts are interpreted, etc. So yes, when you're writing in 3rd person, it (usually) is you the narrator and not the character who is writing the descriptions, but you can write them as if it were through the eyes and opinions of the character. That's also a good way of achieving an unreliable narrator, BTW
There's more than one type of third person, if that helps.
'Close third person' is almost the same as first person in terms of who's 'telling the story;' it's as if the anonymous 'narrator' is telling the story with a view inside the head of the 'chosen POV' (either THE protagonist for the whole book, or, if you have multiple POV characters, whoever's 'turn' it is to have the 'camera' turned on them.) This means that, like in first-person POV, the narrator will be seeing everything through that POV character's eyes, feeling the same responses and using the same language they'd use for their inner thoughts (the only difference is that you're using she/he/they instead of I.)
At the opposite end is 'omniscient third person,' which is where the narrator is a whole, separate character themselves, telling the story like an observer, reporter or even a spy in the room. They can't express the internal thoughts of any characters or feel anything they feel (because they don't get to go 'inside the head' of any characters,) but they *can* (and often do) have their own, separate opinions about and responses to everything all the other characters say and do. Which means an omnisicient POV is in itself an entire POV just like the first-person or close third-person is - one who's WATCHING and REPORTING events as they happen, but not necessarily ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING themselves.
Did you ever watch 'Desperate Housewives?' The Narrator Voice in that show was actually a housewife that was dead the whole time, talking about all the other housewives in the Close -- that's about the best example I can come up with right now that isn't a bit obscure.
I hope that more writers watch this video! I'm currently reading an interesting story. The theme and plot are so good, but man, the prose is ultraviolet purple! There's a wall of text between each dialogue, with description after description of what anguish and mental torment the characters are going through. You're absolutely right, purple prose hurts!!
Really helpful video, definitely something I've been thinking about and of course, as always Abbie has the answers.
Just the best thing I needed at the time when I needed it. Thank you!
Thanks, points noted. Trying to avoid formal is very difficult for me when writing. 🙏
One solid, foolproof way to improve ones writing is to intake as many stories (or writing advice) from as many sources as possible. So, when you're making a story or trying to figure out how to word something a certain way, your brain will already have this blended mulch of all these different books (and writing advice) to pull from. Take notes on what you liked in a book, or didn't. What worked in a story and made you love the characters or what event brought some great emotion out of you and what took you out of the book.
Also, read good books, but also bad ones. From all genres.
Doing this is like putting a bunch of pins into a bunch of corkboards and gives you an idea of what has already done (in terms of story ideas and how stories are written/the words and phrases they use) and what works or what doesn't
(SIDE NOTE: in defense of 'purple prose' and 'beige prose'--they do have their places. What I mean is 'over-complicated/colorful' or 'bare bones' prose.)
(That second purple prose example, especially in her voice, sounds like it would fit a really smart, likely bookish female character. Someone who would very likely, when angry, rant internally and use larger words (likely to win whatever made-up argument she has in her head and using large words would be her way of gaining back some control in her made-up (or real) arguments.))
(Same goes for 'bare bones' (minus the excessive, boring telling.) I recall being blown away by Blake Crouch's 'Run' novel by just how lacking it was in vast paragraphs of description or giant words that didn't seem to fit the piece.)
(Remember everything in moderation. And remember to use genre for your advantage. More 'colorful' prose might be desired for a romance (especially if it's a poetry-central romance like 'The Sky is Everywhere' by Jandy Nelson) while 'bare bones' might be desired for a thriller, so you don't trip your readers up on unnecessary stretches of words.)
(It all depends what you're going for)
Can you please make a study case in "tangled"? Just like what you've done with "pride and prejudice" like a solo study case pleaseee. Coz im writing an insta love rn just like tangled!
Ooo yes! I love that movie!
I love that movie too! I talked about how Tangled does "insta love" super well in this video: ruclips.net/video/kA6vdjTe-jY/видео.html (and I did a mini case study for it in this video: ruclips.net/video/5ndJuQUhkQc/видео.html)
LOL I have a feeling you enjoyed reading those beige and purple prose examples XDD Thank you for much for this!!!
throbbing with eager anticipation, I moved my finger to click on Abby's latest video offering, wondering pensively what writing advice I might tentatively incorporate into my own, high flying space opera?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You are giving very strong Nancy Wheeler vibes
Hiya Abbie!
I love your vids. They have helped me so much in all of my WIPs.
Do you think you could start a new series? It could be a weekly case study of different movies, books, and tv series, showing good examples verses bad examples.
Ive seen purple prose being used to an advantage is in Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho. Where the voice of the narrator is very cold and descriptive about what everyone is wearing, but it helps setting up how out of touch the character is.
I love this! I was just reading some pages i wrote that just felt super stale and i didnt know why, but I think I see it now! It was full of beige prose xD i think in general i write a lot of beige, this helped me understand character voice more tho :D thank youuuu
I was asking about if you will talk about these two prose and you already did it!
The focus on story is the plot. The description has to be effective. As you say, some will do long sentence for slow pace or short for fast paced.
Love Your Eclectic Style: You're The GOAT~
I joined your channel recently and realized so many things; for the sake of making this short, that I tend to write beige and TELL...no wonder I feel something's missing when I re read the finished chapters. Will definitely work on balancing the equation, thanks for the advice!! 🤗
Joe Abercrombie helped me understand this. He said that as part of his editing process, like you said, he would think in the character's POV, how does the environment affect the POV character specifically? Does it spark any memories, or do they relate with aspects of it in some way, and if so, how? Ask yourself how the character is feeling in the moment. A shadow can be simply a shadow to some, but to someone that is traumatized of the dark, and is alone, it could be something ominous. It all comes down to putting yourself in your character's head. This is a skill that all actors, and writers develop. It takes a lot of time and practice to perfect.
HAHAHA I laughed SO hard at the purple prose example which was good because it was just so good at showing how it’s possible to make something WAY to descriptive. Thank you!!
100% this is the best answer to this question. Also always consider the character's knowledge level. Low-education characters should not describe with big words. But a pompous doctor of whatever SHOULD use extravagant language.
YES YES YES 👍 such a good point
This is amazing because I'm someone who doesn't even like writing the description of a characters appearance (when I read, I make up my own appearances so I like to write that way), but don't necessarily think that's a better way of writing. The story is about my characters, not me. Thank you for the wonderful advice!
It’s REALLY clever to visualise ‘overly-embellished ’ and ‘painfully unsubtle’ writing as “purple” and “beige”. And to bring everything back to being about character and their voice. I’ve never looked at purple prose through this lens, only ever been told that purple prose can confuse the reader and lacks clarity. And that too much telling can be cringe worthy and lacks subtlety. Which is true.
Soo soo helpful 😊
The purple version of Tessa, realizing she has feelings for Weston feels a bit like VC Andrews. Lol. I think that's why I kind of like it. I suppose it depends what you're going for, if you really really want to write something that's a bit cheese ball, almost theatrical in its floweriness, freaking... have fun with it. Lol. I mean I agree with what you're saying, like as a general rule for serious writers, but there is definitely a place for over the top pros. Like, part of me would be totally stoked to have my book on the shelf of a truck-stop gas station, gathering dust like an unseen jewel, only to be found up by some random traveler to pass the long hours with extravagant cheesiness. 🤪
i think that it also depends a lot in the genre and specific scenes. for example, i love fantasy and specifically high fantasy so sometimes a little digression like the kind you find in Tolkien or C.S. Lewis is acceptable.
Then again when scenes pick up pace or feel less understood by the character or are purposely meant to be concise for the sake of mystery and intrigue then simpler descriptions are better.
I say, write! write and compare and let yourself tweak your work as you go :)
Agreed! I read a lot of classic Gothic, which is influenced by Romanticism. I feel like the lofty, colorful writing is appropriate at the times of high drama and emotion. It's part of the tone and atmosphere. But definitely doesn't have to be persistent throughout.
love the way you have presented the subject.
Hi Abbie!! It's disturbing how I never saw anyone say this but you're BLOODY GORGEOUS. Seriously, your visuals are so aesthetically appealing :)
oh my gosh you're too kind 🥰
@@AbbieEmmons HOLY CHALK SMOOTHIEEEE YOU SAW MY COMMENT ABBIE😭😭😭😭
Incredible video as always, extremely helpful❤. I’d just like to elaborate on how much of a difference writing a description from the characters perspective makes, one of the great things I learned from reading Neil Gaiman. For example in Stardust (I don’t know if this the exact wording) he writes from the perspective of a boy who works in a tavern; as such instead of saying things like sepia, dark brown or red, he instead uses colours the boy would know like nut-brown, Apple-red, etc. This was poorly explained but you get the point 😂
actually, sometimes, i like to have hypothetical interviews of the characters, and see how they would fabricate or answer. i think that helps
This is honestly amongst your best videos, I must say. Loved the contrast between beige pros and purple pros
So glad you enjoyed it! 😁
Your videos literally cure my writers block 💗 ily
The examples of purple prose made me laugh 😄
Excellent examples here. I can't even read a book with purple prose. I'm going to practice immersive descriptives. Thank you!
Thanks. This was helpful. I don't think I could write this type of purple prose if I had a gun to my head. So flowery it's sickening. But your beige prose is wonderful.
Thank you Abbie. This was very helpful. I really appreciate it. I write in third person but sill from the main character's point of view so I struggle a little bit to avoid purple prose but now that I watched this video I know how to improve my writing.🙂
It hurts me to see how close my style is to beige. But atleast i learned something new today
The beige prose sounds the most natural to me and I’m not entirely sure why.
Thanks for a great video as always!
Even though i'm more of a fantasy reader/author, your tips are always insightful!
I’m waiting for your book, Abbie, but the shipping from US to Europe is so sloooow 😫
This definitely gave me a lot of much needed insight. But I do have a question...does having multiple possibilities in 1st person work, or is it best to do multiple pov in first person?
That purple prose section gave me like a ptsd flashback to a beta read I did recently 😅
while reading the purple prose the first thing that popped into my head was "What is insurmountable?"
Thanks for this, Abbie! The examples were enormously helpful.
Glad it was helpful! 👍
This is great advice to find balance in description. Thank You Abbie!
OMG you're writing examples were great!!! I still feel like I'm stuck in biege pros but this was super helpful! Just need to keep practicing!
Your purple prose example is exactly how I write!! 😂 called OUT.
I use both beige and purple!! T_T ono. Thanks for the advice.
God bless you, Abbie! You tips are so incredibly useful.
9:41 I felt that🤣🤣🤣
Abbie Emmons, nice content dude
Woah! Thanks! This was exactly the video i needed right now!
I laughed outloud at the purple prose examples hahaha
LOL. I suspect that the second example of purple prose had "fallen victim to a perverted pursuit of style"... :)
Nice examples. I feel like purple is so much, it's actually painful to read. Beige obviously lacks character but I think it is useful for a first draft to maybe outline what will happen and how it affects the characters.
If I were writing in their perspective, shouldn't I pretend to be them when I'm writing about them in that chapter? When I write, I play it out like a movie I'm watching at that moment.
Would this work for a book written in 3rd person? I tend to think there’s a difference between narrative voice and character voice. If anyone can answer that’d be great.
Thanks for this. How do I achieve this writing in third person limited POV?
You are the Saviour!
Great video. Thanks, Abbie!
Thank you Abbie!!!
How does one apply this advice for third person passages?
Wonderful advice! You are awesome!
stop Abbie's eyes are so pretty
I definitely find your correct "not purple/beige" paragraph not so likable too (personal preference, not writer's). And it makes perfect sense since I didn't read the book and don't know the voice of the guy, Weston, from the previous part of the book. It's pretty funny when think about it. I mean , WFT! Deathly silence? Can you be less dramatic, pal? 😂
Thanks for video.
So... taupe prose. Got it. ;)
Has any one heard of America's Next Great Author? The deadline to send in your submissions to be part of this reality competition starts very very VERY soon if anyone want to enter. Look it up, it's LEGIT!
I have been wanting a reality competition show just like this!
I looooooove this! As I recently read your book (last week actually), this was one of the sections I highlighted. the writing her is just sooooooooooo goooooood!!! Loved it!!! Ahhh... can we have a third book with them? :)
Oh my goodness, thank you so much! I'm so honored :')
Abbie such a glow up!!!!!!
I was wondering if you could do this when you are riding third person point of view? Maybe riding it in first person and then switching it to third person so that you kind of get what you are saying about the character's voice. LOL or maybe that's just me overthinking it. But I really enjoyed this video. Thank you!
Yes, I have done that exact trick! It's super helpful to first write in 1st person and then switch the pronouns to 3rd... after getting the hang of it, I can usually keep up the voice while staying in 3rd person. This definitely gives way more color to each individual POV. 😁
@@AbbieEmmons makes total sense! Thank you for taking the time to reply to my comment. I really enjoy watching your videos. Also really enjoyed your books especially the ending of 100 days of sunlight. I listen to it on audible. I think you did an amazing job with the audio and the emotions. You truly show through your writing on your books that you practice what you teach. Thank you!
The purple prose is so good tho🤣
So very useful, as always
I need this video.
The purple prose for Weston made me laugh 🤣 so not him! And it made me want to re-read the book ❤️
I know right? I laughed a lot writing it 😂