Perhaps the most common criticism of my writing. The passive voice is one I naturally use - not usually as awkwardly as that, but not usually on purpose, either. In fact, the criticism comes up so often, that I can't help but use my affinity for the passive voice as a piece of amateur self-psychoanalysis.
I took fencing classes when I was younger, and my coaches commented most often on my hard work, my ability to learn technique and respond to coaching... and my lack of aggression. My usual sparring partner, a boy of comparable age, beat me all the time solely based, according to the analysis of knowledgeable observers, on the fact that he would lunge when I would wait. I was a cautious fencer as I am cautious in other things, writing, apparently, among them.
Leaving only the follow-up to such a conclusion: what am I afraid of?
And how am I supposed to answer that?
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