by Hallee Bridgeman, @halleeb 
As I type this, I’m doing a thorough self-edit to the three books I have due to my publisher on September 1
st. One thing I do in my self-editing, which is so tedious, is a search for all of the passive verbs.
For instance, in book 1, I searched for the word “was” and found 510 uses of it.
Now, I leave passive verbs alone inside the dialogue. In English, we speak very passively, so leaving those alone keeps the dialogue sounding realistic.
With the rest, I analyze every sentence.
Here’s an example:
She was looking at him with a thoughtful expression
There is nothing wrong with that sentence. She was looking at him – that was her state of being. However, by searching for each passive verb and analyzing every sentence, I’m able to take that sentence and just make it better, more descriptive, more thoroughly telling the story:
Rick glanced at Doctor Meyers. She stared at him with a thoughtful expression on her face. He would love to read her mind and know what she thought right at this moment.
It’s tedious to do this, but in the end, I find that I’ll find a weak sentence inside a paragraph and end up restructuring the entire paragraph to make it all stronger. I see holes where descriptions can go, where I can replace words to give more action and impact, where I’ve gotten lazy and just threw something in there to get to the next sentence.
Sometimes, I leave the sentence alone.
She was about one years old
.
I could reword that, but it’s not necessary and it would take something super simple and make it clunky.
I’ve tried doing this as I’m writing the first time through, but I found that it completely stumps my creativity. If I’m about to write a sentence using a passive verb and pause to try to restructure that sentence and make it stronger, more active, etc., then suddenly, I’ve lost the momentum of my story. As I write, I picture the scene in my head as if I was immersed inside a movie. I see, hear, feel, taste, smell the action going on around me. Focusing on the structure of the sentence causes that scene to fizzle away and I have to actually work to grab it back.
So, I just write, without paying attention to anything but getting that action and dialogue onto the page. It makes that first draft rather skimpy and the sentences needing a lot of work, but that story is out and now my mind is free to delve into the nuances of sentence structure and verb usage.
I have friends who have to make every paragraph perfect or they can’t move on. Others need to make sure each scene or each chapter is written to perfection. I really admire the ability to do that and still create – unfortunately, I think differently and just kind of have to get it all on the page first, giving myself permission for it to be imperfect, then go back later and make it all amazing and brilliant.
How do you write?
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.