Dump passive words from your writing. It is almost always possible to revise a sentence to get rid of words like had or was. For example, ‘He was fighting’ while it describes an action, sounds very passive. Changing was fighting to fought as in ‘He fought hard’ is more active. Writing, ‘He fought like the third gorilla on Noah’s Ark’, is much more active and descriptive. Which sentence did you prefer to read?
