Blogging from A to Z Challenge: Purple Prose

Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog. Every day this month I'm blogging a new word for all you Word Nerds during the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. Join me as we journey through the alphabet!!

~logophile~

a lover of words, Dictionary.com

Another name for a logophile is Word Nerd. Do you agree? This whole month  Focused on Story is for logophiles. In the beginning of this challenge, I explained my theme—I’ll share words that have caught my attention, words that fascinate me, words that roll off the tongue, words that make a sound (crackle), and words that have been in my vocabulary for one reason or another which I will explain. Many of the words are new-to-me. Hopefully, by including them in this survey of words, my vocabulary will expand and perhaps, yours will too.

 I came across logophile in an article by K.M. Weiland on her website, Helping Writers Become Authors. She called herself a logophile and addressed Fellow Logophiles. She cautioned against using purple prose in our writing. She defines purple prose as “an elaborate, gauche costume that, more often than not, simply covers up a lack of depth in the story itself.”

Because we love words, sometimes we are carried away with "elegant" words and forget to use words to match our voice. She calls a story “overblown” when trying to impress readers with our vocabulary.

“Stories do not exist to showcase words. Rather, words exist to tell stories.” K.M. Weiland

It is my hope, when you learn a new word this month on this blog, when you use it in your article or story, it will be appropriate and not sound pretentious.

Click here to read the entire article. I’m a subscriber to her blog because she is so clear with her tips on improving writing. 

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Are you a Word Nerd? If so, why? Please leave a comment below. I love meeting readers.

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of all participants who signed up

for the #AtoZchallenge 2018.