Passive voice is saying something where the subject of the sentence is having an action performed upon them. Aim for active sentences, this is where the subject performs the action. For instance, I write a letter. "I" is the subject and "write" is the action.
Technical and scientific writers may prefer passive voice as it has an objective feel. However, when writing for most genres, passive voice distances the reader rather than drawing them in as part of the novel.
Passive voice can be used intentionally to call focus to an object, for example - Seventy men were needed to construct the pavilion.
Do not use passive voice throughout your novel, especially in large chunks. Write about 10 percent of your novel in the passive voice. Any more, and it begins to feel watered down.
An easy way to tell if you are writing passive is to see if your sentence makes sense if you add "by zombies" after the verb. If your sentence does make sense than you are writing passively. For instance, the store is overrun (by zombies). Here the sentence still makes sense so is passive.
For it to be active you could write he runs (by zombies) the store. This sentence does not make sense when 'by zombies' is added after the verb, thus is active.
Avoid using too many passive verbs. For example " I write novels in the evening at 8pm" is an active verb. Whilst "the novels were written at 8pm in the evening" is passive.
Active verbs give power to the verb. Whilst passive verbs give power to "to be" which is found in many different forms such as: am, is, are, were, was, which all mean to be.
YOU ARE READING
Write Like A Pro
Non-FictionThe ultimate guide on writing success, how to get more reads and follows, how to develop plots, characters, themes and sub-plots, and much more.
