I was in my travel era for most of 2023. I traveled for eight months to fifteen countries and my only goal was to experience as much as I could. We did so much that even with writing almost every day, I still have over 70 blog posts to complete and publish!
I had grand intentions to work on those blog posts when we returned to the states in December, but life got so busy. We had to get ready for the holidays, visit with all the family we missed while we were gone, and fix everything that broke around our house (which was a shocking amount).
Then 2024 started and I knew I needed to focus on growing my business. I have a company called Nurse Career Consulting and I help healthcare professionals with their resumes, cover letters, interview skills, LinkedIn profiles, and other areas of career growth. I’ve had guides on my website since 2021, but I wanted to add simple templates on Etsy. I worked on them for most of January and launched them at the beginning of February. Now healthcare professionals can download modern and classic resume templates and cover letters with examples, as well as an interview template.
With that settled, it was time to shift my focus back to my second novel, Letting You Go. My editor sent back edits in September, but I didn’t feel I could give it my full concentration while traveling. Plus, it was hard to see some of the grammatical edits on my laptop screen. With my large monitor and comfortable desk, I flew through the grammatical edits and moved on to killing my darlings.
This is my least favorite part of the writing process. I love to write but I hate every phase of editing. I critique every word, every sentence, until my eyes start to cross and I think my head might explode. When I get to that point, I need to walk away and shift my creative focus to something else.
So, here I am! When I need a break from editing but the creative juices are still flowing, I’ll be chiseling away at my long list of draft blog posts. I still have London, Brussels, Bruges, Regensburg, Prague, Salzburg, Vienna, Halstatt, Venice, Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Basel, Strasbourg, and Cologne to write. PHEW! If there’s a city you want to hear about first, let me know in the comments and I’ll move it to the top of the list!