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Rant 1- Passive Voice and Tenses |
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Alright, so this is the first in a series of rants I plan to make on writing- though its focused for the rpers out there. It saves me from making the rant to everyone individually.
Passive Voice
One of the biggest things that piss me off with some rpers is the use of passive voice. So many people over-use it. Let's start with defining the passive voice, for those of you who aren't familiar with the term.
Take this sentence.
"Johnny chased the dog."
That's called active voice. Why? Because the subject is actually doing the action. Johnny is chasing the dog, right? Makes sense. Well, look at this sentence.
"Johnny is being chased by the dog."
Johnny isn't doing the action anymore, is he? The dog is chasing Johnny. That's called passive voice. When the subject isn't doing the action. Now, it doesn't seem too bad in that sentence, but when you get something complex, and suddenly the subject isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, you have a problem.
Is passive voice grammatically correct? Sure. Do you sound good when you do it? No.
The thing with passive voice is that the writing sounds uncertain when you use it. With the subject receiving the action instead of doing it, you don't necessarily even have to say who IS doing the action- and if you do that, you loose the reader entirely. Active voice makes a piece much more powerful. I think some people like using passive voice because it makes a piece sound more intelligent, more formal, but that's not how you should be rping. You want to make it enjoyable. And to make it enjoyable, it has to be captivating, powerful. You don't do that with passive voice. Hell, just look at the name.
There, I hope I just convinced you not to use that.
Tenses
Alright. First off. Why, why, do people feel the urge to use future tense? It clashes so badly with the third, which is what most people use. I know some of you want to be unique, but please don't use the future tense to do it! It's so awkward to read. Absolutely awful. Most books are written in past tense for a reason, people.
I think that's really all I have to say about it. Besides the notion that it makes things weak, just like passive tense. Things aren't nearly as powerful.
So yeah. Just don't do it. Present tense is another notion entirely- because simply it can be used as a device in writing. I wouldn't suggest writing in present tense all the time, though. That'd just get annoying. But using past tense, then switching to present tense for a particularly powerful section- that works. Say a character goes through a mental breakdown, or comes to a point where they're acting without thinking. Using passive tense during that particular section makes it stand out more, and makes it incredibly powerful. Don't use it if you aren't comfortable with experimenting, though, because it takes a while to get the hang of. Not to mention you don't get much practice, since characters rarely do that.
Aaand...I'll end the rant there for now. More'll come, don't worry.
 Markition Necrovius · Thu Sep 27, 2007 @ 09:48pm · 2 Comments |
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