All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
Basically, I believe the easiest way to avoid this issue is simply by not using 'is' or 'are' before the verb. Bottom line is, verbs ending in 'ing' are not automatically passive.
Yeah, for me, it's simple and obvious. Stay away from passive writing, which I call passive verbiage. Just no reason to do it, as it's usually so easy to write the line the way it should be written in the first place.
If you have a compound sentence and you use a passive 2nd or 3rd verb? No big deal. Who cares.
But, most importantly, you CANNOT write poorly out of the gate. You just can't. Many readers will immediately pick up the mistakes and before they even realize it, that's all they're focusing on.
So important. Seriously.
If nothing else, think of it this way...
You want to get as much good visual info on each page, right? when you write passively, you're always going to use more letters, more spaces, and more of the page.
Don't do it...and when you see someone else doing it, note to self and see if you don't start understanding how it works and why it works.
Basically, I believe the easiest way to avoid this issue is simply by not using 'is' or 'are' before the verb. Bottom line is, verbs ending in 'ing' are not automatically passive.
Hi Butters. Your John August post is fine, but you need to ditch the 'writewow' blog link. The examples given are incorrect, and this is pointed out by a poster at the end of the post, and is acknowledged by the writer.
If people check the link briefly it's only going to lead to more confusion.
I get that this ‘ing’ thing is an issue and that many other things could be wrong with a script, but I wish I could read more posts on here where people focused on the story at hand instead of the grammatical errors, formatting, and other issues. I see it a lot where someone brings up formatting and this and that, but hardly anything about the actual story in a script. I can understand maybe posting a link or two for advice, but maybe comment on the story as well.
If a script isn't well written, or is downright poorly written, that's what jumps out.
The actual story/plot/whatever you want to call it, is rarely a highlight, even when a script is very well written. But, no one's ever gong to know that because they're never going to read all the way, when there are rookie mistakes littering every page.
Passive writing is only 1 small issue with poor writing. But, it's also 1 issue that's so simple to fix...or better yet, never do in the first place.
And you get that a script isn't attached to his thread? This is in the screenwriting class section? That's what this section is for.
If you want something in this section that focusses on a story aspect of script-writing, then just post one up.
Jeez, I didn’t mean for anyone to get so snappy.
I was still on topic, I still mentioned passive writing in my post.
I’m not going to start a whole new thread on any of this stuff, it’s not that big of an issue for me.
Quoted from Dreamscale
Reap, listen, man...it's like this...
If a script isn't well written, or is downright poorly written, that's what jumps out.
The actual story/plot/whatever you want to call it, is rarely a highlight, even when a script is very well written. But, no one's ever gong to know that because they're never going to read all the way, when there are rookie mistakes littering every page.
Passive writing is only 1 small issue with poor writing. But, it's also 1 issue that's so simple to fix...or better yet, never do in the first place.
I get where you’re coming from.
I tend to open up a script and try to push through it no matter what.
I can ignore some things - but if a script’s story/characters suck - I’ll x it out.
I’ll just drop out now, I don’t want anyone getting worked up over what I said.