Turning Passive Writing into Active Writing w/ Janice Seagraves

Turning Passive Writing into Active Writing

By Janice Seagraves

Since I've been seeing a lot of passive writing in the critiques I've been doing here lately, I thought I'd do an article on turning passive writing into active writing.

What do I mean by passive writing?

Writing that tells but doesn't show.

Passive example: Rose was mad.

What's wrong with the above sentence? Not much really. It does what it’s supposed to do, tell us Rose is mad. But it doesn't show us that Rose is mad.

Active writing example: Rose slammed the door closed then stomped through the room. “That jerk!” Picking up a flower filled vase, she hurled it against the wall.

Not a real great example but you get the idea. Notice I used the words: Stomped and Hurled. These are active verbs. I wanted to show action and anger even in my word choice.

Passive writing is that, passive. It doesn’t show the reader anything.

Have you noticed while watching a movie that when an actor portraying a character that is mad, he doesn’t just frown. He stomps, shouts and will nearly always breaks something. He’s showing us he’s mad. And in writing we need to show it too.

~*~

When not writing, Janice can be found gardening, taking photos, or working on a pen and ink sketch. Her current book, Windswept Shores, is a contemporary erotic romance published through Pink Petal books. Available at Amazon for the Kindle and at Pink Petal Books.

Windswept Shores Blurb:
The sole survivor of a plane crash, Megan is alone on a deserted island in the Bahamas until she finds a nearly-drowned man washed up on shore. Another survivor, this time from a boat wreck. With only meager survival skills between them, will they survive and can they find love?

Janice Seagraves’s website: http://janiceseagraves.org/

Janice Seagraves’s blog: http://ladyjanice.blogspot.com/

Windswept Shores at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Windswept-Shores-ebook/dp/B003URROMW

Windswept Shores at Pink Petal Books: http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Windswept-Shores-Janice-Seagraves.html

Windswept Shores book teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XUAMBhl76k&feature=player_embedded