What is purple prose? It is when you have read 20 or 30 pages and the character has not yet finished brushing their teeth. Well, I agree with you that never happens in a novel. I exaggerated. But you get my point. It’s when you let your plot stagnate -- for longer than required. People used to sew purple patches to clothing to show pretentiousness in wealth, since purple dye was an expensive rarity. And, Roman poet Horace compared writing such prose (wordy) to sewing purple patches to clothing. Should every word in your novel drive the plot? Not necessarily. And I agree, you must describe the environment so that the story doesn't take place in a white background in the reader's mind. But don't make your work wordy. How to determine whether your work is wordy? According to Majesta Maxwell, author of Trials, “It is hard to actually put your finger on what purple prose looks like because everyone has such different views on what constitutes as ‘too much’ detail...
Where the journey of a writer begins...