Sabrina Sumsion

Ahhhh . . . you are finally done writing that manuscript!  Now you just kick back and wait for the royalty checks to come rolling in, right? 

Oh.  You have to edit it, too.  Well shoot. Time to pull out the red pen and hack your way through your menagerie of words and thoughts.  I suggest looking for one thing at a time.  If you try to spot too many things all at once, your neural circuits will overheat and your head will pop. 

Ok, maybe not really, but honestly, do a find (hold down Ctrl and hit F) for this word:

Were

If you're like a normal human being, you put a bazillion of these in your manuscript as well.

Why shouldn't you use it?  It's called a passive verb just like in Word Search #1.  I'll post a lot of these nasty little passives for you to look for.  Try to get rid of most of these.  If it's dialogue -what people say -then you can consider leaving it in.  If it's not, figure out a different way of stating the sentence. 

Why shouldn't you use passives?  I explained it in detail in Word Search #1 for a refresher.  The bottom line is were is the plural form of was.  (I/he/she/it was, they were)

Alright, you know why, now when you find your sentences with were as your verb, figure out who is being acted on or what state of being you described and find a better way of explaining things.

Go on then.  Pip, pip.

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