Taboo Words
By Lois Winston
No, this guest blog isn’t about what
Paula Dean said, nor does it have anything to do with George Carlin’s seven
words you can’t say on TV. I’m talking about the words writers can’t use—all
forms of the verb “to be.”
Say what? Since when?
Well, not really. But it
is a myth that is pervasive among many writing communities. When I first began
writing, I entered quite a few writing contests sponsored by local chapters of
a national genre organization. Very often the judges (both published and
unpublished writers) would circle every “was” in the entry and write in large
capital letters -- PASSIVE VOICE.
Somewhere at some time in this organization, someone had told many of
its members that “was” is a no-no.
Editors like action verbs. “Was,”
along with its brothers and sisters (is, am, are, been, were) is passive voice
and a surefire way to a rejection letter.
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
Passive voice is when an
action is acted upon the subject, rather than the subject acting. The car was driven by Anna is a passive
sentence. Anna drove the car is an active
sentence. However, Anna was happy to drive the car is
not a passive sentence. Anna is
expressing emotion. She is acting,
rather than being acted upon. Likewise, for
I am happy,
they are happy, he is happy,
Anna and Patrick
were happy, and she was happy. These are all active, not passive
sentences. Of course, there are more interesting ways to write these sentence,
but that’s a separate discussion.
One of the easiest ways to
tell whether your sentence is active or passive is to analyze the position of
the subject, verb, and direct object. In
active voice, the subject (the one performing the action) will come before the
verb (the action), and the verb will come before the direct object (that which
is being acted upon.)
There are instances,
though, when passive voice is necessary to the unfolding of a story or better
suited to the realism of the dialogue.
When we speak, we don’t first think whether our sentences are active or
passive before uttering them. We just
speak them. Manipulate a sentence to
avoid passive voice in conversation, and you often transform snappy dialogue
into stilted dialogue.
For example: Billy ran into the house and cried, “Mom! Come quick.
Snoopy was hit by a car!” This passage accurately illustrates the way a
child might respond to a car hitting his dog.
Snoopy was
hit by a car is a passive sentence because Snoopy is being acted
upon by the car, but the child mentions Snoopy first because the dog’s welfare
is uppermost in his mind. Also, by
placing the last sentence in passive voice, the author is actually ratcheting
up the tension. We don’t know until the
very end exactly what hit Snoopy. A
stray baseball? A nasty neighbor? A falling tree limb? Although A car hit Snoopy, is active voice, using it
actually lessens the impact of the sentence.
Still squeamish about the
use of “was” or its siblings? After you’ve
finished your manuscript, do a search of the words. Check each sentence to see if you can rewrite
it to avoid using a form of the “to be” verb.
If you can, and it doesn’t detract from the pace, dialogue, or meaning
of the passage, do so. If not, leave
it. Some “was” were meant to be.
More writing and
publishing advice can be found in my ebook Top
Ten Reasons Your Novel Is Rejected. Buy links can be found at: http://www.loiswinston.com/bookstop10.html
BIO: Lois Winston is both an agent with the
Ashley Grayson Literary Agency and the author of the critically acclaimed
Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. Assault
With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred
reviews from both Publishers Weekly
and Booklist. Other books in the
series include Death By Killer Mop Doll,
Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, and
the ebook novelette Crewel Intentions.
Lois is also published in
romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction, and non-fiction under her own name
and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Visit Lois at http://www.loiswinston.com, visit Emma at
http://www.emmacarlyle.com, and visit
Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com.
You can also follow Lois on Twitter @anasleuth.
