Action verbs elevate your composition by giving up on passive verbs. Passive verbs are death for most songs. Learning about active and passive verbs is important for writing songs.
When writing songs, you want to get your characters into action and be exciting and interesting. Use verbs to create action, emotion, and interest in your song.
The voice of a verb is determined by whether the subject of the sentence directly receives the action that creates the verb.
In these statements the focus of thought is the actions (hit, swallowed and sold) and the characters who acted.
Jim closed the door.
The old man swallowed his medicine.
Jennifer sold her house.
Here are the examples indicated in the passive voice.
The door was closed by Jim.
The medicine was swallowed by the old man.
Jennifer’s house was sold by Jennifer
Notice how in the passive voice people and their actions play second fiddle to the object of the action. The door, the medicine and the house become more important than actions or people.
When writing songs, avoid the passive voice like the plague because it will kill your song. Use active voice and make your characters more dynamic, exciting and interesting. It makes the listener much more involved in your song.
Passive verbs that you should try to avoid using in your song are: be, is, are, am, was, being, been, and were. Reinforce your lyrics with active verbs that create more action. Your listeners will probably appreciate it and you will.
Think about developing your verbs and how to use them. Get in the habit of doing an action check on all your verbs, and rewrite as needed.