So, I’ve been talking to a lot of my writers about passive voice lately and I thought I’d share it here on the blog.
So is you are a writer, one thing you might want to touch up as you go through your revisions is the passive voice. That’s when the subject of your sentence is the recipient of the action of the verb, right?
Whenever I write that, I think it sounds like gobbley-gook.
What I mean is this:
Active voice is when the subject makes the action.
Carrie loves manatees.
The writing coach worried about making money.
Passive voice is where the verb acts on the subject.
So that would be:
Manatees are loved by Carrie Jones.
The money was worried about by the writing coach.
Do you see how the doer comes after the thing that they’ve done?
Do you see the difference? It’s wordier and the verb is dominating the subject somehow.
How Do You Find Passive Voice In Your Story?
Look at a sentence and look at what’s getting done.
If nobody is doing that thing? Probably passive voice.
Manatees are loved.
If the doer comes after the doing? Probably Passive voice.
Manatees are loved by Carrie.
Random Things About the Passive Voice
It’s okay to have it sometimes. Sometimes it’s even necessary. It’s like a colonoscopy. You know you have to occasionally do it, but you don’t want to be doing it every day.
News stories use passive voice a lot because sometimes the reporter doesn’t know who did the action. If you don’t know or don’t care who did the action? It’s okay to use passive voice.
A person was shot.
A fire was set.
A manatee was stolen.
Sometimes when you say something it doesn’t matter who said it. It’s just truth.
Laws were created about manatees.
Sometimes what is being acted on is more important that the person doing the act.
The manatees were loved by the random women from Maine.
Final Hint: Grammar Checkers That Are Automated Don’t Always Find That Passive Voice
They aren’t perfect. I know! Gasp!
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.
We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.
Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?
And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass.
And Carrie has new books out! Yay!
You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.
And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!
