by Hallee Bridgeman, @halleeb
I have three books due to my publisher on September first and two teenagers ready for summer – and the calendar is getting full! (And by the time this publishes, my daughter’s boyfriend will have asked her to marry him and we’ll be in the midst of that next phase of our life.)
I have the first draft of two books written and I’m in the process of writing the first draft of book three. And it’s June. It’s time to seriously buckle down and write. So, the question is, how can I manage all the summer things and still get the writing finished?
One main thing is to guard my writing time very carefully. The time of day people are most creative, are free to write, etc., is entirely different from person to person. But, for me, those hours from around 4:30 in the morning until about 8:00 are my solid writing times. Anything I can get in after are just gravy.
According to Merriam Webster, to guard is: to tend to carefully : preserve, protect
However, for the last year or so, I’ve found myself so distracted by everything in the world. I’ll get up to write, check my email, check my social media, and before I realize it, it’s 7:30 and my solid time only has about half an hour left. Then I’m trying to scratch a paragraph here and a paragraph there all day.
Here are ways to combat that kind of distraction and to totally focus on writing only during my set hours – to put into action the verb guard and tend to carefully: preserve, protect:
1. Stick with the hours. If I want to write from 4:30-8:00, then I need to get up at 4:15. For me, that’s easy. Some of you write from 10pm until you’re done. I’m a vegetable by 10pm. 4:30am is way more my jam. But, it doesn’t matter what the time is. I need to guard the hours of x-y and, and part of that is to always be ready to write those hours.
2. Pray. The reason I’m getting up at 4:15 instead of 4:30 is because I need to spend some time in prayer before I start writing. I need to focus on God and let the Holy Spirit fill me with the words I’m to write today, so that my story is His story and the story I put out to the world is the one He would have me to write. It also helps to ask for discipline and self-control when it comes to distractions.
3. Have my writing program open, waiting for me. This way, when I sit down at my computer, I don’t have to choose between email program, web browser, word processor. It’s already there, open, and the cursor is blinking and waiting for the next sentence, paragraph, scene.
4. Do not: open a browser, open email (because that would come with notification sounds), or my phone. I don’t even bring my phone into my office with me. If there was an emergency between the hours of 10pm and 4am, someone would have called – not texted nor messaged. There is nothing on my phone or email or browser that needs my attention before 8am.
5. Stand up and move around every half hour. Walk around the house, grab a glass of water, remove myself from my chair. That way, as I have to come to a natural pause in writing, I’m not thinking, “I’ll just take five minutes and hop over here…” The getting up is good for my body, moving away from my computer removes temptation, and the water hydrates and that is also good for my body.
Prior to global pandemics and stress and stay-at-home orders, I never had a discipline problem when it came to writing. For some reason, I’ve had to learn to discipline myself, and these are my ways to guard my writing time. If I write steadily during these hours, then the summer days we have family plans can be enjoyed without stressing about what writing I’m not getting done.
Just one little date can’t hurt anything, right?
Ever since the sixth grade, Daisy Ruiz loved Ken Dixon from afar and spent her entire youth pining for him. Ken, the youngest of identical triplet brothers, never even noticed her crush.
Today, Daisy lives her life serving her loved ones and her family’s ministry, Gálatas Seis, where she acts as Executive Director. As the daughter of a youth pastor, she understands the importance of ministry and teaches a women’s Bible study. The sudden discovery that she’s pregnant—and her baby’s lying married father wants nothing more to do with her or the baby—threatens her ministry and her entire reputation.
Solemn, sober, solitary, and silent, Ken grew up in a mission-minded family and consistently seeks ways to serve society in the name of the Savior. He goes to Gálatas Seis with an offer to aid a family in need and recognizes his former youth pastor’s daughter leading the organization. While shocked at the chance meeting, the instant attraction he feels surprises him even more.
When Ken asks her out on a date, Daisy realizes her childhood dreams have literally come true after all this time. Even though she just found out she is pregnant, Daisy tells herself that just one little date won’t hurt anything.
But when they go out again and again, she soon finds herself in a full-blown relationship with hearts on the line. She can’t keep her secret much longer. Does she tell Ken about the baby? Can Ken love her baby, too? Or will he abandon her like the baby’s father did? Daisy has a decision to make.
With nearly a million sales, Hallee Bridgeman is a best-selling Christian author who writes action-packed romantic suspense focusing on realistic characters who face real-world problems. Her work has been described as everything from refreshing to heart-stopping exciting and edgy. Hallee has served as the Director of the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference, President of the Faith-Hope-Love chapter of the Romance Writers of America, is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), the American Christian Writers (ACW), and Novelists, Inc. (NINC). An accomplished speaker, Hallee has taught and inspired writers around the globe, from Sydney, Australia, to Dallas, Texas, to Portland, Oregon, to Washington, D.C., and all places in between. Hallee loves coffee, campy action movies, and regular date nights with her husband. Above all else, she loves God with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength; has been redeemed by the blood of Christ; and relies on the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide her.