What is pretentious writing?

BethS said:

I think pretentiousness is a special subset of that. Pretentious writing and people are full of themselves. They have an inflated sense of their own importance but sometimes lack the skill to make others believe it too.

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I don't know if that's always the case. When I was first starting out, I think most people would have said my writing was pretentious, but I wasn't full of myself. I just wasn't skilled yet as a writer, and - without realizing it - I was compensating for that by using bigger words and being overly descriptive. That wasn't my intent, but that's just what came out as I struggled to find a way to express what I wanted to say. So the writing wasn't authentic, but that's only because I didn't know how to be authentic and yet still write above an elementary level.

Not sure I'm much better today

Toto Too said:

When I was first starting out, I think most people would have said my writing was pretentious, but I wasn't full of myself. I just wasn't skilled yet as a writer, and - without realizing it - I was compensating for that by using bigger words and being overly descriptive.

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A quick web search produced this definition at the top of the list, which is about the clearest I've found:

attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.
"a pretentious literary device"

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Unless you were attempting to impress people because you thought you possessed superior ability or knowledge, then you weren't being pretentious.

I tend to think pretentious writing occurs when a writer creates work to serve their ego and not the story.

BethS said:

A quick web search produced this definition at the top of the list, which is about the clearest I've found:

Unless you were attempting to impress people because you thought you possessed superior ability or knowledge, then you weren't being pretentious.

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Actually yes that fits, although I still think my writing came off as pretentious even if I wasn't. But that definition still fits because I was trying to do something greater than the talent I actually possessed. Just out of necessity and ignorance rather than ego.

talktidy said:

I tend to think pretentious writing occurs when a writer creates work to serve their ego and not the story.

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It can be a variety of things.

I actually just had an example occur to me - let's say you opened up a comic book you bought this afternoon, and found a sci-fi story about an astronaut, his face hidden by his helmet, who goes to visit of world of intelligent robots and judge if they are worthy of joining the galactic republic. And he sees that the robots' society , with some colored orange and some colored blue, was ridiculously segregated and racist based on the color of their exterior. The astronaut judges them not yet ready to join galactic society, and as he rockets away from the planet, he ponders on how humanity has left such divisions long in the past, taking off his helmet to reveal a black man!

I imagine that it would be very hard to tell a story like that today without sounding immensely preachy and pretentious. I don't find it too presumptuous to say most people would've figured out the twist in the end well before we got there, even if the author was thinking, "I have this oh so clever metaphor about racism, oh it's so clever you wouldn't believe it!"

On the other hand, that was the exact story told by the EC Comic's story 'Judgement Day' back in 1953, to a very different reaction.

I would say it is an attempt to be elevated/sophisticated that is in some way inept or inappropriate. But sometimes that is in the eye of the beholder.

veinglory said:

I would say it is an attempt to be elevated/sophisticated that is in some way inept or inappropriate.

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Good definition. It's also sometimes called "vainglorious".

caw

To the OP: did just one person describe your writing as "pretentious," or is a criticism several have made? If it's just one, I'd suggest it might just be that person's take on things. Not everyone agrees about the nature of everyday language or vocabulary, and not everyone gets (or likes) work with a lot of voice or work that reflects a character's viewpoint instead of the narrator's.

Pretentious? Moi? Surely, you jest. Of an infrangible certitude, you engage in frivolous jocularity.

Ari Meermans said:

Just a note: Don't confuse pretentious writing with lyrical or literary prose which uses evocative language that is still direct. Pretentious writing is indirect and circuitous.

BethS nailed pretentious writing:

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Just like to highlight this again. For too many times I've seen reviews on Amazon people calling books or films pretentious. Okay, its not your kind of book/film, but that doesn't make it pretentious. Some people enjoy reading for a well-turned phrase as well as story.

gothicangel said:

Just like to highlight this again. For too many times I've seen reviews on Amazon people calling books or films pretentious. Okay, its not your kind of book/film, but that doesn't make it pretentious. Some people enjoy reading for a well-turned phrase as well as story.

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And some of them like to throw big words like "pretentious" into reviews to make them sound more clever than they really are...

neandermagnon said:

And some of them like to throw big words like "pretentious" into reviews to make them sound more clever than they really are...

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Which in and of itself is... (fill in the blank)

Toto Too said:

Which in and of itself is... (fill in the blank)

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exactly