Passive voice: Passive voice is a biggie. Passive voice should be replaced with active voice whenever possible. I see passive voice way too much in almost every manuscript I edit, and I have to admit, I have trouble with it in my own stories, too. It is probably the hardest bad writing habit to break, in my opinion, because it's so sneaky.
An example of passive voice is, "Jenny had been gossiping to anyone who would listen to her all day."
The active voice is always preferred, "Jenny gossiped to anyone who would listen to her all day."
Anytime you see any form of "had been" or "to be" followed by a verb (or past participle), you should almost always try and think of a way to make it active.
In other news, I edited almost 14 hours yesterday, trying to keep deadlines for my publisher, who was thrown into a bit of a pickle. I finished editing one story, sent it to the author for corrections, then edited 80 pages of the story with the tight deadline. Only 220 more pages to go. Lol.
Name: Mindy Home: Albuquerque, NM, United States About Me: I am Senior Editor for an imprint of Champagne Books. I am married to an Air Force Officer, who is currently serving his country in Afghanistan. I have three bright and beautiful children. See my complete profile
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