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Problem with passive verbs

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pathele:
Hey all,
I have always had an issue with writing passive verbs, especially when I write past tense.
So, does anyone else have this problem?
What are some techniques to overcome this?

thanks
-paul

LizW65:
Have you read Stephen King's On Writing?  It goes into depth on this very issue, as I recall (can't remember which chapter, but King points out that passive verbs are best used in things like non-fiction essays and technical manuals, where you want to retain a certain amount of emotional distance in the writing.)  An example of a passive verb is "The knife was taken from the kitchen table", whereas "He took the knife from the kitchen table" uses an active verb and is thus a stronger sentence.  Personally I don't have a problem with the occasional passive verb, but it's easy to go overboard with them, not unlike adverbs.  I suppose it's something best dealt with in your rewriting process.  Hope this helps - I'm recovering from a nasty bout of flu, and my brain is still pretty fuzzy. :)
-Liz

Maiafay:
I struggled with this for a long while, until I 'was' critiqued--until a friend critiqued me on that problem.

I also have Stephen King's "On Writing" which helped me tremendously. I will provide a link to a tutorial I did...it's nothing 100%, but it's what helped me.

Now...I have a problem with too much active voice, and need to chill a little on omitting all passive. Passive is good in some instances...and shouldn't be taken away completely. I've caught Mr. King using it more than he implies...

Linky:

Passive Voice

Just a note on the above link...it's a fanfiction site, and the examples I use are from fanfic...so, just a warning. 

Richelle Mead:
I'm guilty of using passive verbs, and most of mine get cleaned up when I do read-throughs and self-editing later on.  When I'm writing my first draft, I'm usually moving too fast to stop and think up really compelling alternatives.  ;)

pathele:
Thanks for the feedback.
I will take a look at the tuitorial.
I have read "On Writing" several times, but still struggle with using passive verbs. It had good advice, but other than saying "don't do that", I didn't feel like it offer much on techniques to help.
When you are going back and editing how do you go about choosing your active verb.
I don't have problem with things like "She was sleeping on the couch." I have problems with things like "I needed to hurry, time was running out." (I come up with things like: "I was running out of time.")
I don't think there is a silver bullet, but maybe some tricks or techniques that help most of the time.

-paul

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