: Re: How do you avoid purple prose? I try to watch out for bland, overused adjectives and I keep adverbs to a minimum but -- I hear this phrase a lot and I'm not even sure what it means?

@Candy753

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I think you're off to a good start by killing the adjectives and adverbs. Overuse of modifiers are the #1 reason I reject a piece of fiction writing.

Some thoughts:

a specific, active verb is worth a
dozen adjectives
adverbs more often
shore up weak verbs (ie "he ran
quickly across the room" ... how
about "he bolted across the room" or
something like that
I see a lot of beginning writers use adjectives that just aren't very descriptive (cold vs. frigid or red v. burgundy). I also see a lot of beginning writers try to use exotic adjectives just to sound exotic.

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