The Write Way.

Passive voice. Never use it, right? Passive voice schlocks up your writing and kicks off all kinds of warnings in MS Word’s grammar police function. Doesn’t it? No. Passive voice is not taboo, and many excellent writers use it effectively. You have to know the rules and know what you want to say.

I completely enjoyed an online lesson at NewsUniversity’s www.newsu.org school, operated by the Poynter Institute in Florida – a premier resource for journalists.

The class, Writer’s Workbench, is excellently compiled by Roy Peter Clark http://www.swopnet.com/misc/writing/writing_tools.html. His illustrations are crystal and his examples smash the ball home. I reevaluated. It isn’t that I totally avoid passive. I don’t. But I’m always aware of echoes in my head. Echoes of English, grammar, and writing teachers carping about passive.

Here are a few of the points Clark succinctly and luxuriously made about passivity.

“Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, (says Clark) uses the distinction between active and passive verbs to challenge an educational system that places the power of teachers over the needs of students. An oppressive educational system, he argues, is one in which:

• the teacher teaches and the students are taught;
• the teacher thinks and the students are thought about;
• the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined.

In other words, an oppressive system is one in which the teacher is active and the students are passive.” (If they live passively, we should write about their passivity, to my mind. –mp)

Clark offers this from the Washington Post -

Cartons of food and water were stacked in an airplane hangar in the devastated Aceh region of northern Indonesia after military transports delivered tons of supplies to the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, which was mostly destroyed in the Sunday earthquake and tsunami that hit minutes later. (earthquakes and tsunamis, hurricanes, too, leave little room for us to be actively defensive.)

Claudia Suzanne, ghost writer/editor extraordinaire, tackles passive in her ghost writing course and book Secrets of a Ghost Writer. She says:

“Used correctly, passive voice can be powerful, invisible, simple declarative, or even artistic.

I was wrong. I’m sorry. (powerful)

Apparently, the human body is designed to forage for food. (invisible)

Used incorrectly, passive voice can be obscure, awkward, boring, or downright incomprehensible.

When we think about what has meaning in our lives it is our relationships. (awkward)”

Like any crafter’s tool, passive voice can be effective or can clutter your writing. It’s the old back-to-basics: Reread and edit your work until every word, every phrase moves your reader to satisfaction.

Think of other appropriate uses of passive voice and comment about them, won’t you? I’d love to see your take on all this.

More Grammar Police:

Matching verbs and nouns

Chip MacGregor is an intuitive and experienced book agent – literary agent. His web site, or blog, actually, is a font of specific and accurate information for writers and authors who want to sell their writing.

My advice, book mark MacGregor’s blog and visit it often. It seems to be a great spot to get the right information when you have general questions about the book business. He periodically fields questions from writers and answers them in a blog post. He writes dead-on tips for marketing your book, selling your fiction, and generally moving about the cabin of the huge bus that is the book industry.

I’ll also point you to a blog called the Guide to Literary Agents. The writer, Chuck Sambuchino, is another veteran and has solid information. One comment on his blog mechanics — you’ll find links to nowhere, broken links, and no links at all where you might expect to find them. Overlook that and learn from his blog.

One more resource, in brief. You’ll hear a lot from me in coming weeks about Claudia Suzanne – to my mind, the penultimate ghost writer – and her Secrets of a Ghost Writer course. I’m enrolled right now – and finding this to be the best distance learning class I have ever taken – and I have taken many. The level of information is post-grad quality. The intensity of the work is extreme – if you don’t learn a lot here, you just are not trying. She will teach you inside stuff that you plain can’t get elsewhere. Since ghosting is the fastest up and coming revenue stream for writers, you may seriously want to evaluate the idea of taking her course, becoming certified, and solidifying your ability to make a living with your pen. Or your keyboard, anyway.

MORE:

Ebook – How to Make Real Money as a Freelance Writer

Ebook- Writing for Content Mills

This essential list is all the efficient freelance writer or editor might ever need to put together the best articles on the web or in print. These are sites used by professional writers for many years. See the links that are are long-time success makers. Whether you need a synonym, a definition, an interview source, an expert, or a new topic to write on – you’ll find them here. Browse government statistics. Learn about independent publishing. Get tips on writing for children. Bookmark this list in your favorites and never feel lost again.

www.writersmarket.com                 You can’t work without this 

http://www.writejobs.com/          Interesting site that sometimes produces real job leads 

www.asja.org                                        The association to aspire to 

http://www.gf.org/                          Possible funding for serious writers 

http://www.underdown.org/      If you write for children 

http://www.indiebound.org/      About independent publishing 

http://www.dailywriting.net/     Get a serving of inspiration for any day-one of my faves  (search for Heather Blakey and read about her) 

http://tinyurl.com/64dvc           Collection of resources, but not always up-to-date 

http://www.factmonster.com/      Dictionary, encyclopedia, fact finder 

http://tinyurl.com/5sa34              Thesaurus search from University of Chicago 

www.dictionary.com                         Quick and easy

http://www.fedstats.gov/               Federal statistics 

http://www.phrases.org.uk/          Phrases and their origins 

www.infoplease                            All the knowledge you need 

www.about.com                                  Experts compile mini-Webs here on any topic 

http://www.helpareporter.com/   Help a reporter out — be a source or find a source

Writers and freelancers, if you aren’t meeting your marketing goals with your blog, book, or website, here are tips for you. Rethink traditional ways to sell yourself and sell your writing. This information is reprinted with permission – it seems so right that sharing it with other writers is a natural. Read it, save it, re-read it, and create a forward moving plan to get yourself out there and exploit the “M”-word. Marketing. We all have to do it. It’s time to sell your writing.

Reprinted with permission from the Book Marketing Expert:

1) Write and issue news releases often, but make them newsworthy. While press releases to the media may get ignored, they have a bigger chance of getting noticed by your customer. Writing direct-to-consumer press releases is a way of “speaking” to your customer through a series of announcements, advice, or trends. When you do this, hone in on keywords that make a difference to them. Don’t toss out high-brow, technical terms that are meant to impress unless your market actually speaks that language. Send a release out via the Internet through sites like PRnewswire.com once a month and then, keep them archived in the newsroom of your website.

2) Forget high-profile media targets, go after plugged-in bloggers, high traffic, relevant content-rich websites: while it would be great to have Oprah call, the likelihood of that happening is pretty slim. Focus instead on where you can make a difference and make the sale. Focus on your customer. Where do they go when they’re online and who do they listen to? Those are the people you should be targeting with your story. When you find these folks, offer them tips, helpful advice, story excerpts, whatever is most appropriate for your market/topic.

3) Comment on blog stories the media writes: this is a fantastic way to network with media people. Have you visited a media blog lately? You haven’t? Well, start adding them to your list. Just like I recommend commenting on industry blogs (see bullet #4) you’ll also want to keep an eye out for media who writes on your topic and also has a presence on the Internet. Did you know that the media will notice someone who’s an active commenter on their blog before they notice a news release?

4) Comment on industry blogs: same ideas as #3 but now you’re focused on blogs that matter to your reader/consumer. Go after them and start commenting on what they’re blogging about. This is a great way to network and introduce yourself to folks who may be part of the “big mouth” market in your industry. (The term “big mouth” is reserved for bloggers who have a lot of clout within a particular arena). Also, while you’re at it, get your own blog. If you’re going to network with bloggers, become one of them.

5) Content drives action: getting a content-rich website is a must. There’s no two ways about it. I don’t care what you’ve written or what market you’ve written to. It’s all about content, content, content. Have a resource section on your site, put a blog up there. Be helpful till it hurts. Put up lots of useful, relevant content and the world will beat a path to your door.

6) Never sell your book to your consumer: the biggest mistake authors make both on and offline is that they sell their book. No one cares that you wrote a book, they only care about what the book can do for them. Sell the benefits, sell what your book can do for your reader but never, ever, ever sell your book.

7) It’s not about you: remember as you’re developing your direct-to-consumer campaign that it’s not about you, it’s about your market, and it’s about your reader. Knowing what matters to them will help you circumvent a lot of marketing snafus and directions that take you nowhere. Keep in mind the things that matter to your reader and what their hot buttons are. If you can become a channel to direct their issues, challenges, or questions to you and your website, the media will stand up and take notice.

Many goals lead to confusion: what’s the goal for your website? I mean, seriously, what’s the one goal you have for If you don’t you should. Having one singular focus will help sharpen your message to your reader. Pick one thing you want your home page to accomplish and build on that. Too many messages will only confuse your reader and send them off to your competitor’s website.

Selling a book, product, or business has become less about getting into your favorite newspaper, magazine, or TV show and more about making yourself so irresistible that the media comes to you. Build credibility in your market and consumers will buzz, when consumers buzz the media will surely follow.

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.