WHAT IS PASSIVE VOICE AND HOW DO I KILL IT?
Do you frequently get told your writing contains too much passive voice? I know mine does (lawyers preface everything with 'maybe' or 'that depends.') The problem with passive voice is it's ... well ... passive.
"Look ... a pretty, placid pond. I think maybe I'll swim."
[goes for a swim]
"Ahhh! Something's got my leg. Help!"
[editor rejects your manuscript ... writes 'passive voice' on it]
Okay ... so how do you find something so passive lurking beneath the surface of your beautiful manuscript? Well, you can take lots and lots of grammar classes and then go through your entire 250,000 word fantasy novel with a yellow highlighter marking all the 'passive voice' words such as:
BE
AM
IS
ARE
WAS
WERE
BE
BEING
BEEN
...and then rewrite it....
[Zzzzzzz ... boring!]
It may be boring, but here's a website that teaches you what to look for:
http://tx.english-ch.com/teacher/jocelyn/others/active-and-passive-voice/
www.editminion.com
Now not every single use of a passive voice word is bad. Sometimes you WANT to use the passive voice. That's why Editminion is so helpful. It has a Star Trek style color-coded alert system. Red means 'this sucker is so passive you should use it as a door mat instead of a book.' Yellow means 'hey buddy, do you think maybe your story is stammering a bit?' Green means your good ... the overall percentage of passive to active voice is acceptable. Not only is it helpful for fiction work, but I used it to pare down the worse of the legal-snoozers in my non-fiction book.
Editminion can only handle around 5,000 words (an average chapter) at a time before it cuts off editing. But that's okay ... it's FREE ... and all you can probably handle de-passifying one stretch at a time before poking out your eyeballs with your pen is one chapter anyways. Why not give it a try and make YOUR manuscript more active today?
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