Wonderful post on why ‘was’ is not a crime.
I occasionally also froth at the mouth about this subject, and have crossed one publisher off my list of ‘people I will ever work with again’ because they tried to take my wases away. But I have been too lazy/ill informed to ever write a proper post about why using the verb ‘to be’ does not constitute passive voice, why you can’t just take it away without deforming the language – and why passive voice isn’t always such a terrible thing anyway.
Fortunately for my laziness, Patricia C Wrede has written her own post about it, and it is wonderful. Have a look at this:
Misunderstanding grammar
~
On other news, I am having a bad winter this year, despite the lightbox and the vitamin D. I just got the SAD sorted out when my hormones decided to pack it in. I’m still managing to do my 1000 words a day on The Pilgrims Tale, but I went to the doctor today to talk about HRT and this conversation sums up my current level of enthusiasm for life.
Dr: Are you enjoying anything in your life at the moment?
Me: No.
Dr: I see you’re a writer. Are you enjoying that?
Me: No.
(OTOneH, did he really have to ask the same question twice? The first answer clearly implies the second. OTOH, I may not be the easiest of patients to squeeze useful information from.)
Which is a way of saying that I may be blogging less frequently, or less lengthily for a while. If I’m going to make a point of carrying on doggedly with something I’m not enjoying, it’s going to be the writing rather than the talking. (Even if the talking is done via text.)
SAD is evil enough. Hormones – agh!
I agree with you completely about “was”. (I’m revising my novel right now and on the lookout for those creatures and often stare at them and say ‘but, but…was works’! Thanks for point to Patricia’s article. There was another by Marie Loughin at Wicked & Tricksy, http://www.wickedtricksy.com/?p=1676, that you & other readers of your blog might enjoy.
Hang in there!
Thank you! Suddenly I appear to have turned into the Hulk, without the super-strength and going green parts. In addition to being exhausted and having a constant headache, I am now a giant rage monster. Tokyo had better watch out!
The part I really liked about Patricia’s article was where she showed that many of the more obscure tenses absolutely require ‘was’ (and other forms of ‘to be’). So if you take it away, you can’t use the past progressive tense at all. Why, why would anyone want to cripple the language like that? I don’t understand it. But thanks for the link to another person fighting the good fight 😉