Precisely. I've gone much of my writing career with that definition, and that leads one to think the disdain for purple prose is merely a matter of taste. That leads to unhelpful mindsets that, at least in my case, elevates one's amateur writing to the status of great writers. While participating in one local writing group, I even remember thinking "these people would tell Faulkner to bastardize his writing." In all likelihood, the difference was, as you suggest, an issue of substance. Now I have an additional editing tool. I'll be mercilessly extricating phrases that convey the same meaning in future revisions.
Defining purple prose as "empty style" is a helpful measure to weigh one's writing against.
It's certainly better than wondering if anything "pretty" is purple. Thank you.
Precisely. I've gone much of my writing career with that definition, and that leads one to think the disdain for purple prose is merely a matter of taste. That leads to unhelpful mindsets that, at least in my case, elevates one's amateur writing to the status of great writers. While participating in one local writing group, I even remember thinking "these people would tell Faulkner to bastardize his writing." In all likelihood, the difference was, as you suggest, an issue of substance. Now I have an additional editing tool. I'll be mercilessly extricating phrases that convey the same meaning in future revisions.