Flowery Prose

I am a bit of a flowery writer.

Before I began this whole journey to publishing, I had no idea what that even meant. I loved creating rich worlds, and describing every little thing down to the way drops of dew shimmered on the surface of an individual blade of grass.

As it turns out, flowery (or purple) prose can actually detract from your story telling. If you aren't familiar with the term, basically it means that you use showy words, complex vocabulary, and a plethora of adjectives and adverbs to describe scenes in excessive detail.

Sure, there are genres where flowery prose works brilliantly.

I don't write those genres.

Throughout the process of writing my debut novel, self-editing, getting feedback from beta readers, and then going through the editing process with my publisher, I learned it doesn't work for the type of story I'm trying to tell.

I write predominately in the YA (Young Adult) space. Whilst I am trying to expand their literary horizons, they're a group to very quickly lose interest. Throwing in a bunch of unfamiliar, descriptive vocabulary is a fast track to a DNF (Did Not Finish). The last thing a teenager wants while reading is to consult a thesaurus every other paragraph just to understand what is going on in the story.

That's not to say you shouldn't use any descriptive language. It's a very fine line to walk. You want to give your readers enough to begin to form a picture, but not so much that it begins to bog the story down.

That's what I'm learning now. Instinctively, I still write with a very flowery voice. It's in those editing passes that I can see where I've gone overboard, and where I've got it just right (and nine times out of ten, I've gone way overboard). I'm still learning how to balance my prose so it reads just right. The Goldilocks Zone, as it were.

If you're a writer, I'm curious if you lean toward flowery writing too, and how you tackle it? And if you're a reader, I'd love to know if you prefer those overly descriptive passages, or if you like your stories a bit more on the easy-reading side.

Let me know your thoughts on flowery prose.