I Didn't Realize I Was Using "Was" So Much...

I received a bit of advice from a fellow writer who I greatly admire. She read through my latest WIP  and offered advice.

Really good advice.

This advice I'd heard before. It's one of the basic tenants of good writing writing.

Avoid passive voice.

She pointed out all the times I used passive verbs in the first half of my script, specifically was, and were. I decided to go through the second half and replace as many was verbs as possible. By doing this, I learned I use was a lot--way too much. By searching was through the entire document, so many yellow was words popped up. It looked like a type of literary pox disease hit my story.

I must say, however, that doing this exercise helped in so many ways. I modified the verbs, replaced passive with active time and time again. I left some of the was verbs in, to give it some character, but most exist no more. Many more pages and chapters need the edits--not a quick process, but I know it will help the story. Hopefully, one day, you can experience the results yourself, but until then, the edits continue!