The Frustrating Struggle to Stop Writing in Passive Voice

How I’m learning to change the way I write.

After years of hearing every author on the planet say how important it is to read Stephen King’s On Writing, I finally sat down this week and read it. I must admit, it surprised me that the book is more a memoir than writing advice, but it’s an enjoyable read, and I laughed a lot.

One topic that King hits hard is writing with a passive voice. He refers to it as “weak” writing that’s “safe” for “timid writers.”

The words may hurt, but he’s right. With all the books to his credit (83 novels per Wikipedia), he must have some idea what he’s doing.

Why is it so hard to stop writing with a passive voice? How can you get your online editor to stop highlighting half of every story with this infraction? Let’s see.

Active vs. Passive

When I started writing online, I was unclear what it meant to write with an Active or Passive Voice and why it mattered. High school English was decades ago, and grammar and language rules didn’t hold my interest.

It turns out you do use some things learned in high school in later life.

Writing a sentence in Active Voice requires a subject (noun) to perform an action (verb) on an object. Passive Voice has a subject (noun) that is acted upon (verb) by an object.

It’s easier to understand with examples.

Example 1

Active: Jack climbed the beanstalk.

Passive: The beanstalk was climbed by Jack.

In Active, Jack is the subject (noun) who climbed (verb) the beanstalk (object). In Passive, the beanstalk becomes the subject (noun) and is acted upon (climbed/verb) by Jack (object).

Let’s try another one.

Example 2

Active: Grandma loves the grandchildren.

Passive: The grandchildren are loved by Grandma.

Again, in this example, Active Voice shows Grandma (noun) doing something (loves/verb) to an object (grandchildren). In Passive, the grandchildren become the subject (noun) that are acted upon (loved/verb) by the object (Grandma).

One thing to look for in determining voice is helping verbs. When you have helping verbs, such as “are,” “is,” “was,” or “were,” combined with a past-tense verb (climbed or loved above), you have a sentence in Passive Voice.

Choosing to write with Active or Passive Voice depends on your content and audience. Fiction, blogs, and personal essays are better served by Active Voice because it gets the reader involved. Passive Voice is a good fit for manuals, instructions, and legal documents.

Yep, it’s still not exciting, but it’s important to understand as a writer.

It seems easy enough, but it’s one of the more difficult things to master. Without realizing it, I had been writing with a passive voice for years.

Forget the past

For me, part of my struggle comes from my work history. In the past 30 years, all of my jobs involved working in a professional office. As I enjoy writing, producing emails, brochures, and newsletters often fell to me.

It wasn’t exciting writing. I spent most of those years in the insurance industry. How much life can you breathe into, “Why Increase Your Med Pay Limit”?

When writing similar content for a business, a passive voice is usually the way to go. Unless it’s ad copy, most professionals prefer this path.

I’m not saying it’s right. Maybe that’s why most business writing is so God-awful boring, mine included. Still, it’s the way they have done it for decades, and likely the way it will continue.

Legal speak is especially prone to being passive. Just take a moment to read any of the thousands of privacy policies thrust in your face every day. Or maybe you should save that for tonight when you need help to fall asleep.

Writing in that environment for so long pre-programmed my mind to stay passive. For decades, almost all the writing I produced was in that style.

When it was finally time to write creative content, that voice stayed with me. It’s a habit I’m working hard to improve. Here’s how.

Get help

It’s necessary to recognize that we are the worst editors for our content. Even if you’re a professional editor, you’re still unlikely to see many of the mistakes in your writing.

The reason why is that your brain can confuse what you know you want to say with what’s on the page. How many times have you looked at a story you’ve published only to see that you wrote “you” instead of “your” or “are” instead of “and”? How many times have there been words missing completely?

We all do it, so don’t beat yourself up. As we edit our own pieces, we know the material so well that we don’t slow down enough to read every word and catch all those little mistakes. Our eyes skip over the words we think should be there.

It’s important to get help. Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid are online editors that will point out many of these infractions.

One word of caution, don’t rely entirely on either software. While both products can help improve your writing, they will sometimes give you bad advice. At other times, they’ll miss glaring mistakes or recommend changes that will change the tone of your story.

If you’re like me, you need all the help you can get. Both Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid are helpful tools for combating this passive-voice addiction.

Take a break

In On Writing, King recommends taking an extended break after finishing a manuscript. His suggestion is at least six weeks.

During that time, resist the urge to pull out that manuscript and flip through it. Lock it in a drawer if you have to.

Taking a break will give you fresh eyes the next time you sit down to edit. Life can change a lot in six weeks. When you pull that manuscript back out, you’re a different person reading it.

Suddenly, plot holes, grammar, and tense mistakes jump off the page. Those passive phrases will also be easier to spot and correct.

If you’re writing short-form content, a six-week break is likely too long. Still, it doesn’t hurt to at least sleep on a piece before you do your final edit and publish.

Keep writing

If you’re a passive-voice addict, welcome to recovery. Changing your writing habits won’t happen overnight. I’ve been writing online for two years, and I can just now see a noticeable improvement.

There will be times you’ll stare at the screen agonizing over a phrase highlighted with the dreaded passive-voice error. Try as you may, your brain will fail to think of a better rewrite.

That’s okay.

Spending hours trying to remove every bit of passive voice from your writing takes up precious time you could use to write new content. If one line continues to stump you, leave it alone and move on.

The world won’t end if you leave a few passive phrases in your story.

Mr. King may not like it, but what are the chances he’s reading your story, anyway? Even if he does, I’m sure he’ll forgive the transgression. He’s been there and knows the struggle all too well.

Keep writing every day, and it will get easier to push the passive voice from your articles.

Until next time, keep fighting (and writing.)

Sign up for my FREE Sunday All Things Bipolar Newsletter (off-site link) and I’ll send you a few downloadable gifts to improve your life.