Purple Prose? Nay, Nay, Thrice Nay
While browsing in a bookshop some years ago I came across a book by a well-known tv presenter. A master of her subject, she possesses that rare gift of being able to explain a complex issue to a five year old. More than that, she enthuses them to want to find out more about the subject for themselves.
So how disappointing to discover, on leafing through the book, that she had fallen into the trap of thinking, “I am a Writer (with a capital ‘w’).” (It’s a well-known syndrome, the writerly equivalent of actors who have decided “I am a Thespian (with a capital ‘t’)”, with all the histrionics and exaggerations which that implies. You know the sort. You watch them on television, and instead of thinking “He is a doctor”, you think “There is an actor pretending to be a doctor.”)
Gone were the plain, simple sentences. In their place, metaphors falling over each other as they vied for attention. Every sentence crammed with words that seemed to shriek “Me! Me! Look at me!”
But the heart of the matter is not necessarily that the words and sentences were too florid in themselves — although once you start to notice the writing, it has become a barrier to the enjoyment and understanding of the subject matter. Nor am I suggesting that simple is always best. (I challenge anyone to read a David Foster Wallace or a Borges essay for more than five minutes before needing to consult a dictionary, but if anything that adds to their appeal.) No. What jarred was the fact that the style she had adopted was artificial, not really her at all. Anyone buying her book because they assumed it would be as straightforward as her commentaries would, I suggest, have been very disappointed.
The lesson to be taken from this, I think, is that the best ‘voice’ a writer can adopt is their own one. Artificial voices always come across as, well, artificial. If you’re known and admired for speaking in a particular way, then write in that way. One of the finest compliments you can be paid is someone saying, “As I was reading your work I could hear your voice.” Praise indeed.
Terry Freedman publishes the ICT in Education blog and the Writers’ Know-how blog.
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