Self-Assessment

Writing is a passion of mine. I have wanted to publish a book for as long as I can remember. However, this doesn’t mean that I am perfect when it comes to my writing style. You see, I struggle with something that has plagued would-be-good writers for decades. Sentences become inactive. Meaning is lost in a mass of mediocre. Mistakes are made. Yes, I have been diagnosed with the passive writing virus. For years I have written what seemed to be masterpiece after masterpiece. Tragically though, the masterpieces were actually master-blunders, touched with the contagious hands of passivity. It strikes me as ironic that passive voice can be so active in my writing. I mean, if it were really as passive as its name claims to be, then why does it find my prose – with the speed and stealth of swine flu – and turn it into a sea of flaccidity? In my opinion, passive voice should be lazy and lethargic. It shouldn’t have the initiative or work ethic to wreak havoc in my writing.

Another aspect of grammar, that I have been known to struggle with, is comma usage. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know how to use commas. When tested, I have proven that I generally know where, and when to use them. Sadly though, when I am writing, I simply write, and use a lot of commas. I don’t notice I have put too many in, until I’ve proofread, what I’ve written. Get the point?

When I think about my tendency to use too many commas while writing a first draft, I think of playing video games. Specifically, I think of Duck Hunt. Remember that game? In it, you have a pretend gun in your hand and you use it to shoot at digital ducks the fly across the television screen. It is all fairly high tech. This particular game reminds me of my comma usage, because when I first started playing it, I went hog-wild with the trigger and shot far more shots than were needed to kill the ducks on the screen. I should have paused a bit between each shot and used my bullets wisely. When I write a first draft, I use commas like I used bullets in Duck Hunt. I load up my comma gun and shoot the little things rapid-fire at the sentences I write. I know that I should pause a bit between each comma and perhaps make use of the period, but I want to make sure that the ducks are dead and my sentences are full. I would like to learn how to be disciplined enough to use my commas wisely the first time I play the game.

Perhaps, the swine flu can come and kill all the ducks, forcing me to shoot my Duck Hunt bullets at the passive voice that speaks through my prose. With the passive voice dead, a new regime of strictly active prose would rise up to conquer my first drafts. In this regime, there would be richer sentences with perhaps fewer words in them, helping me to use commas correctly the first time. Or, I could just work on writing in an active voice and being conscientious about my comma usage. No need for ducks, guns, or the swine flu. Let’s not get dramatic.