Thread: When is it best to use passive tense

I've never held a problem on passive voice, (except maybe informal writing.) and I'm actually wondering when it's a good idea to use passive voice rather than active in writing. I know that active is a %99 rule and should be used more, but I keep hearing there are exceptions on when to use passive voice. Anyone have any ideas on it?

There's no such thing as a rule in writing, and certainly not one which removes from an author a large majority of available options. Here's my advice: Don't get caught up worrying about passive writing, showing, telling, or any other of the myriad 'rules' given on writing forums. The truth is, publishers don't care. They want a story that will sell. No publisher looks at a manuscript, sees a passive sentence, and tosses the story in the bin. So why worry about it?

I must have been away that day. The only tenses I ever learned were past, present and future.

You can use passive to put the emphasis on a different subject, i.e.,

I love her, vs. She is loved by me.

Or to hide the subject, i.e.,

Shots were fired.

For those of us confused...could you have meant passive voice? Over active? Tense is in relation to when thing happen, past, present, and future.

^ Most likely. Its a small miss, so I, speaking for myself, could let it go.

Now to the OP: I've been told of many things with regards to writing, including to write in active voice and, to a more general context, to write actively, i.e. to "show", not "tell". One particular guy in another forum dropped the F bomb on me for writing in passive voice; that I need to work on my description, that I need to actively write. In that same forum, I won the best adventure story (its a novella). He was a mere spectator.

True, writing completely in passive voice may be a discouraged practice, but in writing, there are no rigid rules (apart from spelling and basic grammar, of course). Writing is an art form, and if it will not reflect your style of art, your expression of art; if you will instead be reflecting the style of others, then why write? You should let other do the writing for you should that be the case.

Originally Posted by Lord Darkstorm

For those of us confused...could you have meant passive voice? Over active? Tense is in relation to when thing happen, past, present, and future.

Our teacher keeps calling it Passive Tense for two weeks straight. It's gotten so ingrained in my mind that I'm using it by accident.

I am a firm believer in correcting teachers when they are speaking incorrectly. Otherwise they will keep getting it wrong, and then more people get it wrong.

As to your question, I have been told to use active voice time and time again. It isn't always easy when you are used to using passive voice, but it is worth trying to learn. It reads better, and action sequences really suffer without it. If you are having problems, just try and keep it in mind when you edit.