The differences between active voice vs passive voice and when to use them in your writing

Ah, yes, you hear this often: use the active voice in your writing. But what does that truly mean? And when is it okay to use the passive voice in your writing? There are definite differences between active voice and passive voice. Why should you care? Why can’t you just write? These answers and more become clear in today’s Grammar Rules.

Do you want to catch an agent’s eye? Do you want to grow your readership? Do you want people to talk about your writing? Do you want people to remember your writing? Do you want to engage your readers from the first page to the last page? Do you want to create a novel that comes alive from page one? You’re answer to any one of these questions determines why you should care about using an active or passive voice in your writing.

Consider this: If you want your readers hooked from page one, choose active verbs. Passive verbs convey no action and can bore your readers. The verb be (be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been) is often overused in writing because it is the easiest. You see them throughout this blog, but did you take note of their usage?

Reasons to Use the Passive Voice

1. When you want to emphasize an experiment or a process, not a person/character.
2. When you want to link a subject to a noun that renames it or to an adjective that describes it.

 EX1: In the summer, grapes vines are stripped of their leaves to create more air circulation. 

 EX2: Chawton Cottage was the home of Jane Austen. Or, The harvest will be bountiful after the summer rains.

Here, you’re emphasizing grape vines, Chawton, and harvest. So, the passive voice could be used readily enough is descriptions/details of places/things in your novel.

Another reason to use the passive voice might be in a children’s book. You’re writing the tale of Felix the Cat, and your story starts out: One day, Felix was chased by the dog. You would not write: The dog chased Felix, because the dog is not the focus of your writing, Felix is.

Be verbs are helping verbs. You place them before a present participle (is dancing, are working) to express ongoing action.

            Tony was battling the fire when his wife went into labor.

Here, you have two separate things occurring at the same time, so while the wife is in labor Tony continues to battle the fire. But think, at some point the ongoing action must stop, and that’s when a writer can get into trouble because they forget to stop the ongoing action before writing something else.

Caution: Writers are also readers, so think like a reader (especially when you’re revising—ongoing action—your work). Don’t you cringe every time you see a paragraph starting with “The sun was shining.” Wouldn’t it read better if . . . The sun shone . . . and then you added in some layer of detail that readers could picture?

Was shining pairs two verbs together. Ask yourself: Why do you need two verbs when one will do nicely?

Your Writing Situation Determines Active or Passive Voice

In the active voice, the character does the action; while in the passive voice, the character receives the action. Think about it this way: Do you want your main character doing the action or receiving the action?

   active:  Stella kicked the ball.

   passive:  The ball was kicked by Stella.

In this example, in the passive voice it is the ball who is the main character, and who cares about the ball? And Stella disappears, because the stressed/important part of the sentence is that the ball was kicked.

Reasons to Use the Active Voice

1. When you want your character to drive the story.
2. It is clear and direct and makes your writing more effective.
3. It makes your writing stronger because it conveys more meaning.
4. It allows for more economy of words.

Please enjoy this 2.33-minute break for “A Simple [HILARIOUS] Lesson”

Now, really think about this: I was walking to the store…what does that truly say? It needs some form of qualifier.

I walked to the store. Hmm, okay better, but how about I crawled to the store . . . this immediately makes you think, what happened? I ran to the store . . . this gives you (the reader) a sense of urgency. I skipped to the store…okay, you know the doer is obviously happy. Do you see how these active verbs impart more to the reader than just the action?

So then, carefully selected verbs can energize your writing. Take this sentence:

            The goalie crouched low, reached out with his stick, and sent the rebound away from the mouth of the net.

Now let’s energize it with select verbs:

            The goalie crouched low, swept out with his stick, and hooked the rebound away from the mouth of the net.

Do you see how the second sentence comes alive? Every verb/action has a chance to become something greater, something stronger.

Your Choice of Active or Passive Voice is influenced by three things:

• Your purpose: to entertain or to instruct
• Your audience: professor in college or a teenage reader
• Your genre: fiction or non-fiction

Active voice tends to get an agent’s attention, even your query letter takes the active voice—you cannot write in the present tense using a passive voice. Agents are readers, too, and when a writer litters their first few pages with “was,” they tend to put the manuscript/book down, because it shows that the writer did not care enough about their readers to take the time to look for a more appropriate/active verb, one that made the scene come alive.

So, the next time you write a sentence, think about what you want to emphasize in that sentence: the actor or the receiver. It’s your choice.

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