If you want to be a better writer, you must avoid passive voice. Not that you can’t use it; it should be exercised in some instances. In most cases, though, you should opt for active.
The choice demands a lot from you; it’s easy to fall into passivity with both the words and the attention given them. The passive voice soothes and lulls, like a siren. You finish the narrative only to realize page after page is filled with helping verbs and “there were” phrases.
When you encounter the situation, three choices remain: leave the text as-is, scrap it, or embrace the grueling work of improving it. The first ensures no one will enjoy the work, and any editor who touches it will trail red. The second allows you to move onto the next writing project, one in which you consciously choose concrete, active verbs.
The third…the third will exhaust you. It takes time to transform passive voice and phrasing to active. It demands patience, perseverance, and an iron will. The third choice is for the strong of heart, the writer willing to criticize their own work and to accept the feedback of others.
If you choose the third, or even the second, route, know this: you will have to kill your darlings.
Eviscerate them.
Evict.
Ban.
Prohibit.
Excise (or, in some instances, exorcise).
Abolish.
Immolate.
Slaughter.
Don’t give passive voice an inch for, if you do, it will draw your writing ever closer to the rocks and smash it to bits. Be the better writer. Go active, avoid the siren, and sail straight for port.
Image: David Prasad (Creative Commons)