Compelling Voice

I've been writing about how to turn any piece into something more literary.  This week, I will explore how to make any writing more compelling, so that your meaningful prose can find its readers.  This may seem basic and obvious to a lot of writers, but I teach beginning writing.  I know a lot of people write with a passive, static voice instinctively.  Good writing is intentional, each word chosen for its meaning and power.  In order to keep a reader interested enough to get to your brilliant allusions, foreshadowing, etc., they have to read on.  If you put readers to sleep on page one, this cannot happen.

Mistake 1. Passive Voice: A passive voice shows the object as the main noun in a sentence.  "This sentence was written by me."  I'm doing the writing, yet I get sort of lost in a dull, passive sentence.  Such sentences get old quickly.
Correction:  In order to write in active tense, make sure the sentence starts with the active noun, as in, "I wrote the sentence."

Mistake 2. Static Sentences: I may have all the interesting nouns in my story taking charge of their own sentences, but action verbs need to do the heavy lifting.  Otherwise, my fiction can still get dry.  You can dry out your writing with heavy use of "to be" verbs (is, are, were, was, have been, will be).  These words express a state of being but don't show anything actually happening.  Even great works of literature can sound fairly static to the modern ear.  I love Jane Austen's works, but she came from a time in which one commonly used "to be" verbs as a matter of course:  "A lady's imagination is very rapid;"  "There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends;" and "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"  If you tried to write with so many "to be" verbs now, your reader would get bored in a hurry.  
Correction:  Seek out strong action verbs (except with dialogue tags; an editor's podcast I heard explained about the need to stick to said, asked,shouted, and whispered in order to write like a professional.)  I will rewrite Austen's sentences above to make them more active.  "Her imagination explored this new suggestion and turned it into a full-blown plan."  "I devoted myself to serving my friends."  "My joy soared with the intricacy of the words."  Note:  If a writer focuses on making "to be" verbs a rare occurrence, each one maintains its potency.   The state of being becomes important and draws attention to itself in a positive way. 

Mistake 3. Making up for dull verbs with adverbs and adjectives:  Stephen King took J.K. Rowling to task for a plethora of adverbs that appear throughout the first four or so books.  The first time I read those books through, I didn't notice so much.  By the second time around, those words jumped off the page like a 3D image.  They drove me nuts.  I'm reading a book series right now that is charming except that they use adverbs as dull, wordy crutches.  The occasional adverb is okay, but most of them can be cut for crisper, more potent writing.  Adjectives can be powerful but only when used sparingly.  
Correction: Cut adverbs and trim adjectives to no more than one per noun.  Later in the Harry Potter series, Rowling seemed to have caught the message.  Her writing got so much more subtle and professional when she focused more on powerful nouns and verbs.  

Mistake 4: Monotony:  It's easy to write with the same sentence structure again and again, with the same noun-subject combination and roughly the same length of sentences.       If you catch yourself writing the same sentence structure again and again,, it's time to switch it up.  

Go through your manuscript right now and make sure your sentences are varied and contain an active verb without a lot of adjectives and adverbs.  Your prose will come alive.