: Re: Fiction Novels & Active vs. Passive Voice Before I launch into this, I've perused these threads and they don't quite answer the specific question I have in mind: When to keep the passive voice

@Marchetta100

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Passive voice is not exactly incorrect. There is no rule against. But your readers will usually put down a book filled with passive voice. A passive voice sentence is usually extremely boring. Is that what you want?
The problem isn't so much passive voice. The problem is really "weak sentences." It just so happens that 90+% of the time that you find a passive voice sentence it is also a weak sentence.
Weak sentences are only bad at release time, though. Weak sentences are great for writing time! Just finishing a novel is a lot of work and if you need to use weak sentences to get your story out, do it. Now that your story is out, fix the weak sentences in a revision.
Here is an example where I discuss that a sentence can be weak even after changing it from passive to active voice. jabrambarneck.com/2012/09/17/painting-away-passive-voice/
I was tired and sleepy.

Just changing the sentence to be active doesn't make it a good sentence:

I felt tired and sleepy.
Feeling tired, sleepiness overwhelmed me.

Both these have active verbs but they are both still weak sentences. After some analysis of the characters and setting, you should formulate a strong sentence that grabs the reader in a way that puts them in the story:

My heavy eyelids dropped involuntarily until I forced them back open.
My lower back complained as I asked it to ache for a few minutes
longer.

Every reader has one time or another had to fight to keep their eyes open; has had to ask their tired and aching body to stay awake longer than it should. So these sentences allow the reader to better identify with the story and the character.
If your story is filled with weak sentences, you will get rejection after rejection.

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