writing -- passive voice
Sep. 27th, 2014 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sgatazmyLast night I went online to find ways to improve my writing. I read more on how to avoid passive voice and how to better engage readers in a scene. I then looked at my Disneyland story and did a bunch of rewrites. I really feel I have so much to learn about writing. I should probably take a class.
One of the arguments I read said the passive voice is discouraged because it's a way to to avoid giving more details. In other words, it's the lazy way out of thinking through the story. I don't think anyone ever told me why passive was bad before except that it wasn't as engaging (and the subject/actor were often in the wrong parts of the sentence.) Thinking about passive as lazy makes more sense to me in terms of learning how to revise. I noticed in my story that when I fought the passive voice I usually hadn't painted the scene or the reasoning well enough.
I used to think some people were gifted in writing and others could only do so much to improve. I always saw myself in the latter category. While I still believe some people are just gifted, I wonder if non-gifted writers can be just as successful. I wonder if maybe a mediocre writer just needs to learn how to revise and better picture the scene?
What about you? How do you go about revising your drafts? What do you look for?
One of the arguments I read said the passive voice is discouraged because it's a way to to avoid giving more details. In other words, it's the lazy way out of thinking through the story. I don't think anyone ever told me why passive was bad before except that it wasn't as engaging (and the subject/actor were often in the wrong parts of the sentence.) Thinking about passive as lazy makes more sense to me in terms of learning how to revise. I noticed in my story that when I fought the passive voice I usually hadn't painted the scene or the reasoning well enough.
I used to think some people were gifted in writing and others could only do so much to improve. I always saw myself in the latter category. While I still believe some people are just gifted, I wonder if non-gifted writers can be just as successful. I wonder if maybe a mediocre writer just needs to learn how to revise and better picture the scene?
What about you? How do you go about revising your drafts? What do you look for?
