Seek verbs that allow you to weed out adjectives and adverbs. Keep your story in the present tense as much as possible. While nothing is wrong with passive voice, it's easy to misuse passive. Passive is ideal for putting emphasis on the object of the action, or the action itself, instead of the actor. In Washington today it was decided to kill Social Security.
Nobody wants to be identified with the decision.
We don't care who did it or why. The focus is on the result. This is no surprise. Think of just about any activity and you'll find that people can perform at one level, but prefer a slightly lower level. So, it's a good idea to write just slightly below your target audience's ability.