Writing.Com General Discussion

Most publishers prefer active voice, and it does engage the reader better.

Having said that, the passive voice can work when you are looking at things from a certain viewpoint (or character POV) or when active sounds clunky. e.g. "Smith punched Jones as hard as he could, but Jones barely acknowledged it and Smith was belted by Jones' elbow before he knew what was happening." The active voice version reads clunky.

Most genres work better with active, but in building a sense of dread or terror in a horror book, passive can be used effectively. Romance needs active, but if a 1st person POV is used, passive in the case of personal descriptors, even in actions, can work. High fantasy loves the passive voice; things written in a language that is designed to portray the narrating voice as overbearing or demeaning often needs the passive voice.

As you can tell, the passive voice has very few very specific "really should be" used scenarios.

Until you are really comfortable with your writing and have read a lot to see where and when it can be used effectively, stick with active voice as much as you can. Of course, sometimes passive voice sneaks in and might be the only way something can be written when looking at the POV used, but do try to avoid it.

For the record, you will be told by many and read a lot of things that say NEVER use passive voice. As far as I am concerned, these people are wrong. In writing, the only rules are - make sure you know how to spell, know your grammar and punctuation, and have an idea. Everything else is a guideline.