Some of the most common advice fledgling writers receive is: use active voice not passive voice. By using active voice, sentences become clearer, verbs become more powerful, and the overall writing style gains energy and forward momentum. It’s excellent advice, and something I constantly work on while writing. It is not, however, the advice I’m about to share in this post. Seriously, if your 5th grade creative writing teacher didn’t teach you about active vs. passive voice, then creative writing is not for you.
The best advice I’ve ever received regarding writing fiction is related to active versus passive voice. The scope of the advice is just a bit…broader. One very astute reviewer of one of my rough drafts noted, “You never let your protagonist make her own decisions.”
This probably sounds obvious to many people. But for me, it was not. Or rather, I didn’t realize that I was not letting my main character make her own decisions until I received this comment. I read back through my current manuscript, and then, dismayed, read some of my earlier manuscripts as well. Sure enough, my protagonists were not decision-makers.