"Is? Is? No, you wouldn't get very far in life not saying is..."

I hate when was/is is overused in fiction writing, because it makes the narrative sound so passive. 

I agree! I hate those words, because they don't really say anything! They just sit there. Just like their names, they simply are!

I'll join the club.

As for help, try to use other words that mean the same thing, but are more expressive. For example, I'll change the sentences you used in your post. Yours are in italics, and the corrected versions are bold.

 I can't stand it because it is hard to write without them.  Also,
it is  probably one of my biggest issues with writing.

I can't stand it because writing becomes harder without them. Also, it happens to be what I would probably consider one of my biggest issues with writing.

See the difference? Except that I deem the former rather awkward. It sounds as if the unwanted words have been taken away (becomes signifies change) instead of having never been there in the first place. So, if you don't mind, I'll correct my correction, although it involves changing your sentence even more. This will be in all caps in addition to the bold.

I CAN'T STAND IT BECAUSE THEIR LACK OF PRESENCE RENDERS IT HARD TO WRITE.

See? There are many ways to write the same thing. The English language contains many possibilities for words. And if you absolutely cannot think of 1, you can always use a thesaurus.

Also, the words are often there for no reason at all. For example, "It is distracting to me." This can easily be changed to, "It distracts me."

Challenge: Let's try as hard as we possibly can not to use those words on this thread anymore! And nor can we overuse other words. After all, you created this thread to show that most writing which contains too many of the same words is irksome and repetitive, and it becomes even more so when we decide to use the same words over and over. If we run out of things to say on this subject, other topics can be discussed, as long as the 2 forbidden words aren't said. I actually consider it rather fun to talk without saying them, actually—you get to say things like 'deem!' *grins* I should use that word more often, actually... I like it.

Seriously, I never thought about this argument, but after reading Ima's post, I'm totally joining.  Yes, I agree with all!  Was/is is (see???) so hard not to use, because they just are.  They exist.  The tell what's going on without doing anything, to Ima's point.  You can use a word so much more interesting and the story/narrative takes on so much more meaning.

I have an example of something similar, though it doesn't help with the was/is argument, and probably is totally useless anyway.  But when I was taking a writing course, I had to write a biography.  I mentioned my dad, and said that he was fun.  Fun.  Like that helps.  My instructor asked me to reconsider that word and make it more specific.  Is he funny?  Is he just easy to be around?  Is he silly?  This is exactly the same in the is/was case.  When you say, "The report is boring," you could make the sentence the opposite of the report mentioned in the sentence and replace is with a number of more compelling words.  "I find the report to be boring."  "The report seems boring."  "The report..."  Okay, that was a hard example, and not exactly what I wanted.  So that sentence wasn't the best, though I hope you get the point.

But there are other times when was/is is unavoidable.  "The report is boring," is an example that I failed at trying to make more interesting.  There are others as well, that can only be tweaked so much.  

Was/is is also a word to resort to.  If you don't have anything to put in its place, you use is/was.  It's even necessary some times.  Yet, no one wants to be restricted by is/was.  It is not a word to be overused, because that's when it starts to get dry.

Summing up my rant:

Is/was can be used in moderation, but the writer should be challenged to try and use them as infrequently as possible.

~Leaf