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This week: Birthday Overload Edited by: Jeff  
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"Some writers enjoy writing, I am told. Not me. I enjoy having written.
-- George R.R. Martin
Trivia of the Week: Barbara Cartland was a British romance novelist who has held the Guinness World Record for the most novels written in a single year since 1983 when she wrote 23 novels. That's like completing NaNoWriMo twice a month, every month, for a whole year!  Let you think she was a one-hit wonder (or one-year wonder as the case may be), she actually authored a whopping 723 novels over the course of her career, and the sales figures on those novels range between 500 million and 1 billion copies, depending on the source. Either way, that makes her the third bestselling fiction writer in history, behind only William Shakespeare and Agatha Christie.
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BIRTHDAY OVERLOAD
This week is Writing.Com's annual birthday week (if it wasn't totally obvious by the big "Party Central" logo in the left column  ), and as usual, the staff and members of the site have outdone themselves with amazing activities and opportunities to get involved. I've been through a few of these over the years - both as someone running an activity and someone participating in them - and I know how overwhelming a lot of this stuff can be. There's a lot of creativity and care that goes into these birthday events every year, and it's tempting to want to get involved in everything. In past years, though, I've sometimes found myself so overwhelmed that I don't know where to start... or I spend so much time doing so many different things that I get overloaded and exhaust myself to the point where I need to take a long break afterward.
In the interests of avoiding having either of those things happen to you, here are some recommendations for how to approach this jam-packed birthday week of activities:
Accept that you can't do it all. Trust me on this... I've tried.  Even if you have no life outside Writing.Com and spend your every waking hour on the site, there still won't be enough time to meet every deadline for every challenge. I know it may seem silly, but realizing there will be activities you won't be able to get to is one of the most important steps to a successful birthday week.
Take a realistic look at your schedule. Before you commit to anything, get an idea of what your schedule this week looks like. Do you have to work? Are there family obligations you have to meet? Do you truly have a whole load of free time that you don't know what to do with? It's important to get a clear idea of just how much free time you have this week before you sign up for a bunch of activities. The last thing you want to do is sign up for a dozen activities then realize you're so busy this week that you're missing deadline after deadline for half of them.
Browse through all the offerings without committing yet. Take your time in going through the activities and deciding which ones are interesting and feasible for you to complete. Try not to commit to anything until you've looked through it all; you never know what exciting activity or contest might be listed halfway down the page! Browse through everything first and start getting together a list of activities that you might like to participate in.
Sign up for the handful of activities that work with your schedule and appeal to you. Yes, there will be activities that you really want to do but don't have time to complete. That's okay. But you need to look at the list of activities you're interested in and match them up against your other obligations so that you've got a weekly schedule that's realistic and fun.
Participate! Once you've signed up for the activities you want to join, then it's time to jump in! 
The birthday weeks where I've found the most success are the ones where I've followed this process and carefully considered where I want to spend what time I have. When I've just jumped in and joined everything in site, I've gotten overloaded, fallen short, and probably disappointed activity organizers who were left thinking, "Hey, didn't he say he'd get an entry in for my contest?"  Similarly, when I've not really given much through to anything and just started joining in without looking at everything, I've often found there's an activity somewhere that I wished I would have joined if I had just known about it earlier.
The best part is that this process isn't just for birthday week; you can use it year-round at Writing.Com! There are a ton of great activities running all the time, and the same risks pop up during the rest of the year too. In order to make sure you're always using your time in the wisest way possible without overextending yourself, consider following the steps outlined above and planning your Writing.Com involvement out before you jump in. Whether on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, a little advanced planning is a great way to ensure that you keep yourself busy, take advantage of the amazing opportunities on this site, and don't end up burning out or overloading.
Most importantly, though... have fun during birthday week! It is a party after all!
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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I encourage you to check out the following Writing.Com items:
Once it started getting dark I went back to my apartment and started watching tv. Just as I was starting to fall asleep I heard heavy foot steps above me walking around. Great, i should have seen this coming. I probably forgot to mention my apartment was on the first floor which is a good thing cause hauling things up and down the stairs is just plain annoying. But it can also be annoying when you have someone living above you for obvious reasons. I guess that's the price you pay for living in cheap apartments.
"Hi everyone! I am Mr. Evans, but you can all call me Harry." The new English teacher smiled encouragingly as the students looked sideways at each other. If a teacher let you call them by their first name, they were either really nice or complete idiots. The look on the kids faces said it all.
The empty road lay before me. I stand quietly and the silence consumes me. Only few have traveled this far. None have been known to return. The road itself was plain with a thick forest lining either side. Should I pursue my curiosity? Not thinking much more about it, I began to walk. Earlier that day I had an interesting conversation which led me to this decision. It was with one of my close friends.
Running in the house, past his mother, Chris went into the back of the house. Panicking he dropped all the packages he had in his pocket, throughout small spots within the room while trashing it to camoflouge what he had done. He then pulled the steps down from the ceiling and climbed them quickly being sure to close the door behind him. He lay in a dark corner behind dusty boxes of family momentos, but close to the venilation so that he could hear the door.
The accident didn't happen on a day like today. It was rainy and unseasonably cold. An overall depressing day. It was my fault he was out. I had wanted ice cream. I had a bad day at home, at work, during the commute to and from. I just wanted ice cream.
It was a normal day in Eliza’s house. The family was gathered in the kitchen, sitting around a table and enjoying their lunch. The room was filled with chatter as the five family members discussed various topics. Eliza’s parents and her older sister talked about some strange grown-up thing that Eliza wasn’t all that interested in. She and her younger brother were playing this strange variation of tag in which they pretended to be interested in the grown-up talk, but every few minutes, one would poke the other. Each poke generally caused the person being poked to squirm around to avoid being tagged while still staying on the seat. It never really worked and, when poked, a fit of giggles would erupt from both participants, much to the annoyance of the rest of the family.
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Feedback on my last newsletter about addressing the note behind the note:
shaara writes, "Now there's a great title: The Note Behind the Note. Great article. Thanks."
You're very welcome!
Joto-Kai  writes, "I've developed a tolerance for criticism (Read: I'm addicted to it; it protects me from the blank page) so your "Note behind the note" opens up entire worlds of new highs to explore! But seriously, this kind of analysis does open up a lot of material to consider; kudos. "
Thank you! I love criticism too. Especially when it's from people that I respect and admire. Some people feel insecure about having weaknesses pointed out, but if a good writer comes along and says, "That doesn't really work. Have you considered this instead?" it makes me excited to change and improve my work. 
Joto-Kai writes, "Your Taxonomy of Suggestions, (Technical/creative, correction/suggestion) is something I plan to use in future reviews. Case in point: I almost told a romance writer to quit describing the heartbeat! Usually, it's better to describe the situation, than the POV's physical reaction, but this Creative Suggestion would have ignored the essence of the scene (where the heart, developing ideas of it's own, becomes part of the situation.) Your taxonomy will help me clarify myself, and avoid errors like this! Very useful."
Thanks for writing in! I'm glad you found the classifications helpful; they've definitely helped me avoid making too many "here's how I would have written it" suggestions over the years.
brom21  writes, "Thanks for the note behind the note concept. It gave me a new viewpoint towards those who review my work. I'll try to look past the hurt or dejection I may feel with their remarks and glean from what is important. Likewise I will try to find a viable middle-ground for conflicting comments. Thanks again!"
One of the best ways I've found to get past the defensiveness that comes with criticism is to leave the note alone and come back to it after a few hours or a couple days. Once that initial sting has worn off, it's easier to look at a note and decide if it's a good suggestion or not. In that initial moment, it hurts and we can feel really defensive. But if we let it sit for a little while and come back to it when that hurt isn't so fresh, it's easier to consider and respond professionally.
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  writes, "Write what you want, not what someone else wants."
Unless that someone else is paying you to write it. 
Elfin Dragon-finally published writes, "I like your comment on the "note behind the note", especially when talking about the pick-up. I think as writers we sometimes forget that even the reviews we get here are helpful in some way. We need to look at them carefully before dismissing them off-hand. I also believe firmly in trying to reply to each one to either let them know we appreciate their input or why we've written a scene (or poem) in a particular manner. But we also need to be prepared to realize what we've written might need change. Always remember, we can always write better. "
I totally agree. Sometimes writers - especially when they're sensitive about the material they've written - can default to getting defensive and trying to prove a criticism wrong... but the writers who can look at each criticism and be as objective as possible about what suggestions will improve their work are the ones that will find their writing ability improving dramatically.
kevinopheim writes, "I am new to WDC and just posted my first response to the writers cramp. I also read a few comments posted by other writers. It is encouraging to see how others feel the same way and face similar obstacles during their writing. I have made my own goal of at least one day a week of writing, WDC, and reading others comments. This website is a great forum!"
That's a great goal to start with; enough time to consistently write and get familiar with the site, but not so much that you're overwhelmed with everything. Don't worry, though... I'm sure you'll be a daily addict to the site in no time!
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For Authors: September 03, 2014 Issue [#6531]
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