I found a website to teach me English.
I know how to write it. I know how to speak it. I’m an American native and this is my first language, and arguably only one. But I didn’t know the names for stuff, and the verb section is quite interesting… especially the tenses.
And “was” isn’t always bad.
Author Matt Bowes and the Dog's Breakfast 
I got the first 55 pages of my copy edit back yesterday for BLOOD TOY. I got such a chuckle at the half dozen instances my editor added the ‘was’ back in my MS lol.
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LOL! That *is* funny. I put your name in the post on the first edit, so it said “‘Was’ is not always bad, Brandy.” Then I figured, nah, it’s too in-joke, so I took it out.
The deal is, I think, that “was” is a reliable indicator of the passive most of the time, but the true indicator is when the object is the subject.
He ate the sandwich.
The sandwich was eaten by him.
Who or what is doing the action?
So, “He was in the kitchen” is legit. “He was eating in the kitchen” is also legit, not passive.
I’ll figure this out someday. I found that seeking out the passive voice did firm up a lot of my writing. It’s not all perfect, but I reread some of it and think “that sounds pretty nice and solid.” I like solid.
How’s the rest of the copy edit? Pretty bloody?
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Actually not bad at all. I self-edited the crap out of it, so mostly just punctuation fixes. There are a few larger issues that make me really, really glad I hired an editor, like “ouch, that’s cold, did you mean to make your protagonist sound heartless here?” um, no, crap. And “can’t he read her mind; wouldn’t he know she’s going to pull the gun?” um, double crap.
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Stop the logic! Darn you editors. Sounds like some re-writing in your near future.
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