>the girls were laughing because of OP's pervasive slip

People with creative writing and/or English degrees always tell you that passive voice is bad, but then you see the same people write sentences like '"this is some dialogue" said someone'. Now there's still a subject, ok, but isn't it still close to passive voice shitty to not front load the subject? English goes subject-verb-object, so why do "good" writers write like that? wrote a guy on the internet.

The passive/active distinction is total bullshit, and I'm speaking as someone who is constantly sperging out about semi-colons and past/future tenses.
Active voice wont make you shit writing exciting, and it does not make amazing writing dull. It does not pull you out of the tone or flow of a work and its not in poor form like repeating words constantly in poor analogies in a poor display of poor grammar.

He posted quite autistically, indeed.

Why is female laughter so devastating to a man's ego?

>>7570656
You're not a homo I take it?

A whole generation seems to have learnt this is wrong from a paperclip. Microsoft word highlights the passive voice and tells you to change it. Everyone obeys the stupid unfounded rule. Bitterly explained I.

>>7570574
This active/passive issue really bothers me. I've got about a two dozen short stories, and I want to get someone to look at it. I have a co-worker (civil service here) that reads a lot of paperbacks and has read a good sprinkling of classic sci-fi and in our discussion of books, I blurted out that I wrote some sci-fi short stories. She demanded to read my best one (she is my boss).

I chickened out because I'm afraid of the truth: I suck at fiction. In my mind, I'm a undiscovered author, in reality I'm an anon that stamps documents for a living.

Are there any examples of good books that use some passive voice?

>>7570675
BUT YOU MIGHT APPEAR LESS AMBITIOUS; THAT'S WHY I ONLY TYPE IN CAPS: I'M DISPLAYING TOTAL CONVICTION!

>>7570662
It's 2015+1 sir.

>>7570675
So true.
>It seems you are writing a letter.
(fuck off)
>are you sure?
(fuck off asshole)


In truth though the Elements of Style, and other creative writing resources all mention this.

>>7570710
>Elements of Style
but Strunk and White were total fucking plebs who got btfo

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>>7570574
Passive voice? How feminine

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>>7570717
I just started looking at the thread about Strunk and White. I'm looking at the recommendations for alternatives.

(Omniscient Voice)
Maybe, the thread poster though that there is still hope for him yet. Little did he know that the alternative recommendations will set him off onto a new journey of love, hunger, and unbridled enthusiasm for story telling. OP's writing renaissance will usher in a new era of successful submissions to the New Yorker.

>>7570777
if ur a good writer u don't need a fucking style guide to tell u whats good, just like fags don't have to read gq to be told out what kind of loafers to buy, they can just naturally sense what's fabolous

>>7570574

>We were detained outside of Ellicott.

Go ahead, fix that sentence faggot, you are dared by me.

>>7570796
subject, auxillary verb, verb, prepositional phrase.

not sure what's supposed to be edgy about that sentence?

I personally never had any issues with the passive voice, especially since I studied latin and it is relatively commonplace in scientific writing. However, after I had proofread my roommate's friend's essay for him, I completely understood why teachers/professors/style guides always say it the passive voice is horrible. This guy had 75% of his history essay written in the passive voice, and a majority of the time it made things convoluted and needlessly wordy. I'd consider that guy pretty average as far as college students go with writing ability having proofread the papers of other people from my floor.

tl;dr: normies can't into passive voice properly, just be smart about it.

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>he uses adjectives

>>7570879
"don't use adjectives, use strong verbs" said some shitty guy who wrote like a journalist with a tight word limit

>>7570871
exactly, "style guides" are for pleb fuckwits who don't know shit, if u gud u can do wut u want

tl;dr style guides a spewk

>>7570796

I'm feeling like getting my shit kicked in. So here is my attempt.


Ellicott Manor was within shouting distance, but The Wall that was built was too high. The wall was 30 feet high, and festooned with gold leaf trim. Gargoyles and Greek god busts adorned the wall every 100 feet. Its base did not seem to terminate, but instead entered a dark moat occupied by large man-eating lizards and snakes. Worse still, the border guards with their "assault type clothing", and their hyper vigilant interview and detainment method. The guards made there way towards us. Those that failed the interview were sent back. Everyone failed. There must be a way. We can not be detained, since we have a message of great importance for the President.

>>7570717
>Strunk and White were total fucking plebs who got btfo

whom by?

Your first order of business as a writer should be to allow the eye to slip cleanly from the top left corner of the page to the bottom right. Anything else is just gravy.

>the girls giggled like hyenas when they took a gander at my "short story".

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I'm definitely guilty of doing this. How are some ways I can learn to improve this bad habit? Moreover, it's probably important to add that I need to relearn basic sentence structuring because I don't think I've quite mastered it yet.

>>7570656
It isn't unless are you're underage.

>>7570656
Wow, I got to say that you have a strange world view if you get offended at women laughing at you. Really now, women, who you stick your penis into and dominate in other respects, are somehow threatening to you? It's time to graduate high school friend.