I'm still new to writing, and know I have heaps to learn, but I'm suffering from wavy green line syndrome in word.
How much notice do you all take of the wavy green lines telling you your sentence is passive with every use of the word 'was' or 'were'.
I'm reluctant to hit the 'ignore once' solution so re-writing sentences to eliminate the offending blighters, but when is it ok for a sentence to be passive?
'Was' and 'were' etc aren't always passive - it often depends on context.
'He was going to...' When I started I wrote loads of sentences like that. It's natural, almost, when you're inventing stuff as you go along, and it takes a lot of practice to get to 'He went to...' automatically. But the more you write the easier it becomes to to tighten prose up in the first draft, I've found. Passivity isn't really desirable mainly because it slows pace, but there are degrees - 'He had been going to...' is worse, but might be exactly what you want to say in a given situation (with 'had' italicised for emphasis, maybe?)
Personally, I'd leave all the green lines in until you edit, and whether you do that as you go along or leave it until after The End is a personal thing (I'm mostly the latter). Those wavy things are useful reminders of where there might be a problem, and IMO it's better to be able to say ' no - actually that's fine' than miss a glaring error.
It gets easier, though it might not seem like it right now. Honest :)