Kill Your Darlings: The Art of Revision — 3. Narrative Voice

Third element in this series: Kill Your Darlings: The Art of Revision
(Please read the Introduction, if you haven’t already.)

NARRATIVE VOICE

Show, don’t tell—use active voice, not passive.

I know you hear this all the time, but it doesn’t seem to sink in. Or, maybe some writers don’t fully comprehend what that means.

Active voice “shows” the reader the story in a dramatic sense; it is particularly important when dealing with a character’s emotions.

Passive voice “tells” the reader something...