If your sentences feel flat, learning how to fix passive voice in writing can bring them back to life without making your prose sound forced. This guide shows you how to spot passive constructions in seconds, decide when passive voice is actually the better choice, swap weak verbs for strong ones, and cut the adverbs that prop up tired sentences. You will finish with a repeatable revision pass you can use on any chapter.
How to Fix Passive Voice in Writing Without Sounding Stiff
Passive voice is a sentence shape, not a moral failing. In an active sentence, the person or thing doing the action comes first and does something: Mara locked the gate. In a passive sentence, the thing receiving the action comes first, and the doer may vanish entirely: The gate was locked. Nothing is wrong with the second sentence as grammar, but it hides who acted, and hidden actors drain energy from a scene.
The goal of this revision is not to hunt down every passive sentence and destroy it. The goal is clarity and life. Readers should know who is acting, feel the action happen, and move through your pages without quietly working to decode each line. When you fix passive voice with that goal in mind, your prose stays natural. When you fix it by rule alone, it turns stiff and strange.
Weak verbs cause the same flat feeling, and they often travel with passive voice. Sentences built on was, were, is, and seemed lean on helpers and adverbs to do the real work. A strong verb carries action and image in a single word, so the sentence needs less support. Most of this guide is therefore about two linked skills: putting the actor back in charge of the sentence, and choosing verbs that earn their place.
Work on one chapter at a time, and keep your own voice as the standard. If a revised sentence sounds like a different writer wrote it, you have gone too far.
How to Spot a Passive Sentence in Seconds
Use a simple two part test. First, find the main verb and ask who or what is doing it. If the subject of the sentence is receiving the action instead of performing it, the sentence is probably passive. Second, look for a form of the verb to be, such as was, were, is, or has been, followed by a past form like locked, chosen, or written. That pattern is a strong clue, though not every such sentence is passive.
A playful check helps beginners: if you can add the words by zombies after the verb and the sentence still makes sense, it is likely passive. The gate was locked, by zombies, works, so the sentence is passive. Mara locked the gate, by zombies, does not work in the same way, because Mara is clearly the actor. The test is a shortcut, not a law, but it trains your eye quickly.
Watch for the vanished actor in professional and personal writing alike. Mistakes were made tells the reader nothing about who made them. The decision has been reached hides who decided. In fiction, this hiding weakens scenes at exactly the wrong moments: The door was opened, A shot was heard, Her hand was taken. Each time, the reader loses the person who should be carrying the action.
Common patterns to search for
In your document, search for was, were, is being, and has been, then read each sentence you find. Also search for vague openings like there was and it was, which often delay the real subject. Not every result needs changing. You are building a list of candidates, and your judgment, sentence by sentence, does the rest. Mark the ones where the actor matters and is missing, and start with those.
When Passive Voice Is Actually the Right Choice
Sometimes passive voice is the honest, clear choice, and forcing an active rewrite makes the sentence worse. Use passive when the actor is unknown: Her bike was stolen overnight. Use it when the actor does not matter: The bridge was completed in 1910. Use it when the receiver of the action is the real topic: The vaccine was approved after years of testing. In each case, the passive shape puts the important thing first.
Passive voice can also protect a deliberate effect. A narrator who does not know who acted may write, The letter was left on the step, because the mystery is the point. A character avoiding blame may say, The window was broken, and that evasion can reveal personality. In dialogue especially, people speak in passive constructions all the time, and cleaning every line makes characters sound like textbooks. Our guide on editing dialogue so every character sounds different shows how natural speech patterns, including the occasional passive dodge, help readers hear who is talking.
Tact is another fair reason. The payment was not received is softer than You did not pay, and in a business email that softness may be exactly what you want. Scientific and formal writing also uses passive voice to keep focus on method and results rather than on the researcher. The rule is simple: choose passive on purpose, for a reason you can name, and revise the passive sentences that crept in by habit.
A useful target is awareness, not zero. If a page has a passive sentence or two chosen deliberately, it reads fine. If every other sentence hides its actor, the page feels foggy and tired.
Weak Verbs and the Adverb Audit
Weak verbs are the quiet partners of passive voice. Verbs like was, seemed, felt, went, got, and made describe very little on their own. The sentence then needs help, so adverbs and extra phrases pile up. She was very angry quickly becomes a label instead of a picture. She slammed the drawer gives the reader the anger directly, through action, with no label required.
Try the adverb audit on a single page. Circle every word ending in ly, then ask whether a stronger verb could do its job. He walked slowly becomes He trudged, He shuffled, or He crept, depending on the reason for the slowness. She said quietly becomes She whispered or She murmured. Ran quickly becomes sprinted, bolted, or dashed. Each swap removes a word and adds an image at the same time.
Not every adverb must die. Sometimes whispered softly is wrong because whispering is already soft, but spoke softly can be the clearest choice when no single verb fits. Keep adverbs that add real information and cut the ones that repeat the verb, prop up a weak verb, or hedge your meaning, like very, really, just, and actually. Those small words often signal that the main verb is not carrying its weight.
Also watch for verb phrases that wander around the action. He made a decision becomes He decided. She gave a smile becomes She smiled. They conducted an investigation becomes They investigated. Shorter is not always better, but a direct verb almost always reads with more life than a noun wearing a weak verb as a costume.
Before and After: Strong Verb Swaps That Keep Your Meaning
Examples teach faster than rules, so study the pattern in these revisions. The window was broken by the falling branch becomes The falling branch shattered the window. The actor returns, the verb gains force, and the sentence shortens. The cake was eaten by the children becomes The children devoured the cake, and devoured adds appetite and pleasure that eaten never carried.
Notice that a good swap does two jobs at once. The letter was written by Ana in a hurry becomes Ana scribbled the letter. Scribbled replaces both written and in a hurry, so the sentence loses words and gains a picture. He was walking through the market in a slow way becomes He wandered through the market. Wandering tells us the pace and the mood together.
Weak verbs improve the same way even without passive voice. The soup was hot and good becomes The soup steamed, rich with garlic. She is a fast runner becomes She outruns everyone at the club. The room was filled with people becomes People crowded into the room. In each revision, a concrete verb replaces a flat statement, and the reader sees the scene instead of being told about it.
Be careful not to overshoot. Strong does not mean fancy. Replacing said with exclaimed, declared, and opined across a whole chapter exhausts readers and calls attention to the writing instead of the story. Choose the simplest verb that carries the action precisely. Precision is what makes prose feel alive, not a thesaurus on every line. When in doubt, keep the plain verb and fix the sentence around it.
After your swap pass, give the chapter one final, separate check for typos, repeated words, and punctuation before you call it done. Keeping revision and cleanup as different passes protects both, and a final pass proofreading checklist for your own book can guide that last check so small errors do not slip through while you focus on style.
How Folio Authors Helps You Strengthen Your Prose
Self revision catches a great deal, but every writer goes blind to their own habits after a few passes. That is where Folio Authors can help, and your first assessment is free. It includes a 500 word editing sample, and no card is needed, so you can watch an editor revise your own sentences for passive constructions and weak verbs, then apply the same patterns across your whole manuscript.
If you want deeper help, a dedicated editor is $3 per page, and the Standard plan is $150 one time and unlocks all Folio tools, with assessment, editing, formatting, cover design, and publishing in one dashboard. You keep 100 percent of your rights and royalties, and the sample first approach means you see the quality of the editing before you commit to more.
Use the sample as a lesson, not just a service. Study which sentences the editor changed and which ones they left alone, including any passive sentences that were working on purpose.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is passive voice always wrong?
No. Passive voice is a normal English construction and is sometimes the clearest choice, especially when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or less important than the receiver. The problem is habit, not existence. Revise passive sentences that hide an actor the reader needs, and keep the ones you chose on purpose.
How can I find passive sentences quickly?
Search your document for was, were, is, and has been, then test each sentence by asking who is doing the action. If the subject receives the action, or the actor is missing entirely, the sentence is probably passive. The playful by zombies check can confirm your suspicion in seconds.
What is the difference between passive voice and weak verbs?
Passive voice is a sentence structure where the receiver of the action becomes the subject. Weak verbs are verbs like was, went, got, and seemed that carry little meaning on their own. They often appear together, but you can have a weak verb in an active sentence, and fixing both gives prose its energy back.
Should I remove every adverb?
No. Remove adverbs that repeat the verb, hedge your meaning, or prop up a weak verb that a stronger verb could replace. Keep adverbs that add information nothing else in the sentence provides. The audit is about choice, not total removal, and reading the page aloud will tell you which adverbs earn their place.
Will grammar checkers fix passive voice for me?
Checkers can flag some passive constructions, but they cannot judge whether the passive is deliberate, tactful, or clearer than the active alternative. They also suggest stiff rewrites that flatten your voice. Use them as a first sweep if you like, then make the final decision yourself, sentence by sentence.
The Bottom Line
Fixing passive voice is really about putting actors back in charge of their sentences and choosing verbs that carry action and image on their own. Spot the pattern with a quick search, keep the passive sentences you chose on purpose, swap weak verbs for precise ones, and audit your adverbs with a firm but fair hand. Do that chapter by chapter, and your prose will feel alive while still sounding unmistakably like you.
Folio Authors: Publishing Software to Replace all Vanity Press. Save time. Save money. Keep every right.