THE PURPLE BOOK Harold Anton Kruger
A method to get you writing and lift your mood
The first paragraph claims that this is not the purple book. I wrote that book on my computer and it is not yet in cow. Most of my books, however deny themselves to start with. There is a healthy tradition of contradiction. This is the purple book, and by that I mean that here I use the purple book method just as I do in the magenta book. For the method to work I begin with no idea and just produce text. In this text I don't mean anything, I just warm up the engine of the writing vehicle. When I get some ideas I put it into gear and drive away. All my warm-up paragraphs are designated as highly boring, but it is better to write them than to do nothing; to lie there paralysed with writer's block unable to strike the keys of this newfangled machine.
Paragraph 2 is a classic example of a highly boring slab of utter text that means nothing and is produced just to rev the metaphorical engine in neutral. I have absolutely no idea what to write, thus I write this. Most of the original purple book and the magenta book is written in this style. The time is five to nine, and I am just waiting in cow to see if wolis turns up because I have a computer problem. I write this as a way of producing text, since actually I am not doing much else but produce text. This is why I classify the writing as highly boring.
Paragraph 3 starts with no idea. Do you get the picture by now? This is the purple book method in action. This is the kind of book I write when I have no inspiration at all. The trick is to lower all standards of writing for a while and aim to just produce another paragraph of text. This method improves a low mood. Then when the ideas start to flow and we say that the engine has been put into gear, mood improves even more. So what I call the purple book method is this approach that cures writer's block and lifts a low mood.
Paragraph 4 could be just another example of this mindless text I write about, or it could be actually driving away. In one sense it can be hard to tell which phase I am in. Out of habit I usually claim that I mean nothing at all and I just produce text, even when I happen to be in fifth gear. This means that I deny the method when it is working since I find it morbidly amusing.
Paragraph 5 is ambiguous since you don't know what I am writing in terms of the method, or which gear I am in. It could be just another example of the mindless text that I produce when I have no idea, or it could be what I write later when the ideas come. In one way I am now not sure what gear I am in, so to play safe I can insist that I don't mean any of this, it is probably all just mindless text of the highly boring kind. If I am wrong, so much the better. If I am right then I feel happy enough to be correct. I can assure you right now that there is no point reading the rest of this book. Now you know the method. The rest of this is just what I write when putting it into practice. Valid as examples go but not especially good reading. Many of the paragraphs will start with me having no idea, gazing blankly at the screen and so on. I certainly could not recommend anything that follows.
Paragraph 6 is the second attempt of itself. I could write some boring things. In the magenta book that uses the purple book method I spend much time telling the time and counting down from one coffee to the next. But the time is 9:13 and I have had my last coffee for the night. In other words paragraph 6 is not going to write about anything interesting.
Paragraph 7 is written later on in time. I only drink decaf. The month is october. This book is on the planet Jaragul, yet these planets only go to remind me of my madness. For these reasons it would be much better if I stopped writing paragraph 7 now.