Thank you for having me on your blog, Connie!
A while back, you shared a post about finding passive voice by adding "by zombies" after the verb. If it makes sense, then it is passive voice. I love that tip, especially when it came to This World Bites.
I started creating passive sentences, just to see zombies interacting with my characters.
Cera and her gang were attacked...by zombies.
I giggled because that actually happened in my book, but not in a passive fashion. The zombies attacked Cera and her gang. I played with sentences and traded extreme cases with my friends. And then one Sunday morning, I was sitting in church, singing along with the worship songs when my writer's brain kicked into high.
The stone was rolled away...by zombies. His perfect love could not be overcome...by zombies.
The zombie apocalypse was happening right there in church! I really should've been focused on praise, but instead I was analyzing lyrics, wondering how they could make the writing stronger, and after doing so, would it make praise more effective? Effective, maybe, as in I wouldn't have been distracted by the writing. That happens with all writing. I'm still working on finding all the unintentional zombies in my stories.
For those of you who want a quick tip on finding passive voice, check out Connie's post. If you want a story with intentional zombies, try out This World Bites and it might make you laugh. Do you have any other tips for finding passive voice? Have you come across any unintentional humorous lines that work well with zombies?
Thanks, Loni!! And be sure to check out the links to Loni's website and the link to her novel on Amazon.
Thank you for hosting me!
ReplyDeleteHaha, that's too funny. Now I'm thinking I should set some zombies loose on my story to find those passive voice moments...
ReplyDeleteIt is a fun way to find them. :)
DeleteFunny. I think I might try that technique when next editing. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a fun exercise.
DeleteA not-so-fun exercise: running from zombies.
Haven't really thought about passive voice much, but I have thought about zombies while I was in church.
ReplyDeleteArlee
Tossing It Out
It's the best time to think of zombies, isn't it?
DeleteSo much awesome here. Sitting in church plotting zombie attacks. Also, writing in your head (because I do that ALL the time). I am really interested in the passive voice tips here and will pop over to that post.
ReplyDeleteI hope you find it useful!
DeleteI'm thrilled to be hosting Loni today and glad to see how much everyone is enjoying this post.
ReplyDeleteI've not heard of the "Zombie test", but it seems like perhaps the less convoluted one to try. I'll have to unleash them on my stories some time.
ReplyDeleteLOL! What a fun way to find out if a sentence is in passive voice. And "by zombies" does make even passive voice more interesting. ;)
ReplyDeleteHaha1 That's funny! I'll need to try that "by zombies" thing and see what I can come up with. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try that one since everyone says active is better than passive voice but I can never tell them apart.
ReplyDeleteI have no trouble finding the passive voice according to my editor who tells me often to do away with it! :) Great post.
ReplyDeleteHa, ha. Now I'm going to be finding zombies everywhere. That's funny and creepy at the same time.
ReplyDeleteEveryone - If you find any fun examples in your work, you'll have to share with me!
ReplyDeleteI love to read some funny examples too!
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine you sitting in church with all these zombie thoughts going through your head. Too funny!
ReplyDelete