What is passive voice in fiction writing?

Passive voice is when the subject of a sentence receives the action rather than performing it: 'The door was opened by her' instead of 'She opened the door.' Passive voice is not always wrong — it can strategically suppress agency or emphasize the recipient — but overuse makes prose feel flat and distant.

How much passive voice is too much in fiction?

Most writing guides suggest keeping passive voice below 5-10% of sentences. Above that threshold, the cumulative effect is prose that feels distant, low-energy, and without clear agency.

When is passive voice acceptable in fiction?

When the agent is unknown or unimportant: 'The body was found.' When you want to suppress agency for effect: 'Mistakes were made.' When the recipient is more important than the actor. Outside these cases, active voice almost always produces stronger prose.

Passive Voice Extractor for Writers, Free Tool | Writers' CLC

Free Writing Tool

Passive Voice Extractor

Find every sentence where your prose loses its energy.

Paste your fiction or memoir and get every passive construction highlighted. See your passive rate per 500 words and get specific guidance on which constructions to prioritize.

Every passive flaggedPer 500 word rateConstruction typeRevision guidanceAnnotated text

Passive voice is not always wrong. But when it concentrates in action scenes, key character moments, or emotional beats, it drains energy from exactly the sentences that need it most.

This tool finds every passive construction in your prose, highlights it in an annotated view, and gives you a per-500-word rate. It distinguishes simple passive from perfect passive — the had been constructions that tend to do the most damage. More useful than a percentage: you see the actual sentences to fix. Free, instant, no AI, your writing stays in your browser.

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Passive Sentences

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Perfect Passive

had been constructions

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Annotated Prose

Passive constructions are highlighted. Hover or tap for the construction type.

Flagged Constructions

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How This Tool Works

Your Writing Stays Yours

Everything runs in your browser. When you paste your work, it never leaves your device. We do not store, log, transmit, or read your writing. You own it completely, before and after you use this tool.

No AI. Ever.

This tool uses rule-based pattern matching and established craft criteria, not a language model. That means the feedback is transparent, consistent, and based on principles you can look up and verify. If it flags something, you can see exactly why.

Built on Craft Principles

The criteria behind this tool draw from the foundational texts of the craft: John Gardner's The Art of Fiction, Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction, Robert McKee's Story, and the practical workshop traditions these works inform. The Writers' CLC instructors contributed to the criteria development.

Diagnostic, Not Prescriptive

These tools identify patterns. They do not make creative decisions. A flag is a prompt to look at a sentence more carefully, not a mandate to change it. The best use of any diagnostic tool is to notice patterns, then apply your own judgment about what serves the work.