This week: Endings & Beginnings Edited by: Jeff  
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"Do not over-intellectualize the production process.
Try to keep it simple: tell the darned story."
-- Tom Clancy
Trivia of the Week: This is my 76th official WDC For Authors Newsletter. It's my 224th official WDC newsletter across all topics, and my 336th newsletter written for WDC activities overall. I've been a regular editor of the For Authors Newsletter for almost six years, since March 2013, and have won and/or been nominated for multiple Quill Awards for newsletter editing.
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ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS
Dear Readers,
As was the case with last week's Mystery NL, this week marks my final week as a regular For Authors NL editor. I'd encourage you to check out that issue ("Mystery Newsletter (January 9, 2019)" ) for more information about my newsletter editing over the years. I won't rehash too much of it here, suffice to say that the reason I'm stepping down is to take a bit of a break for myself after spending many years editing many hundreds of newsletters, and to create some space so other, newer mods can lend their fresh perspectives and unique voices to the WDC official newsletters.
To dispel any rumors, I'm not leaving the site, and I'm probably not even going to leave newsletter editing for long. After a bit of a hiatus, I'm sure I'll be back to volunteer for guest editor spots as they become available. I'm also going to continue managing the official site writing contests every month and am even planning a few new activities to foist upon you all at some point in 2019... 
To be honest, I was really conflicted about the idea of leaving my position as a regular editor of the newsletters. For years, this has been a comfortable place for me to be. And if I'm being honest, I like legacies. I take pride in being able to tell people, "I've done this thing for X years" or "I've worked at a company for Y years." I can probably attribute much of that to my parents, who were content to work the same jobs for extended periods of time. And I compare that to my own work history, wherein my fifteen years of professional experience hasn't seen me at the same place for more than five years at a time. Oftentimes, the tenure is a whole lot shorter. Heck, now that I think about it, I've been a regular WDC newsletter longer than I've worked anywhere! And I've been a WDC member almost as long as my wife and I have been together! 
But I digress. 2018 was a strange year for me. Through some strange circumstances, I worked five different jobs for four different employers, and toward the end of the year had to make some difficult choices about what I was going to do professionally, moving forward. In the same period of time, my wife and I finally completed the nearly year-long process to become certified foster parents (with the intention of adopting), so the next few months will involve a lot of changes for my family! I figured I might as well take stock of other areas of my life, and decide if I wanted to make any changes on those fronts too. As it turns out, once you start changing a few things, it's easier to keep it going!
Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to focus on something new in 2019. I don't know what that is yet, but I'm excited to see what's on the horizon as I slightly change course. I don't know for sure what's in store, but I have some ideas and I'm excited to develop and share them all with you. Oh yeah, and you'll see me around these (newsletter) parts every once in a while too. So I'll end this editorial the way I have so many times before...
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"Blogocentric Formulations"
"New & Noteworthy Things"
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This month's official Writing.com writing contest is:
I also encourage you to check out the following items:
EXCERPT: Transformation is painful.
No matter what we go through in life, we are constantly transforming into becoming different people than we were a while ago.
EXCERPT: There are things in your past that are best left there because it is the healthier thing to do. It isn't always easy, and it took a lot of practice, but I built a chest in which I put the doubts and mistakes of my past life. I take the lessons that my mistakes have taught me, put the rest in the trunk and lock it. The baggage stays there, forgotten.
EXCERPT: When I was in school, especially high school, I had developed very low self-esteem due to my anxiety. Growing up with such low self-esteem, I had a nasty habit of comparing myself to others, which caused me to attack these people. I was extremely jealous and competitive, so I usually targeted other girls that I thought were pretty or classmates I was currently at odds with.
EXCERPT: I've been lucky. So far, everything in my life has happened in my favor, leaving almost only positive memories of my childhood and teenage years.
EXCERPT: It was just my luck that on this particular given day in February, the snow had been falling most of the morning, and it was a battleship of a day, its color a dull grey. All that beautiful scenery and those wonderful mountains were hidden behind a wall of falling snow.
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Feedback from "For Authors Newsletter (December 19, 2018)" about writing during the holidays:
Brooke  writes: "Timely editorial my friend. You seem to know when to prod me at just the right time. Great write. Keep it up!"
I do what I can.
glynisj writes: "Your newsletter echoed vibrations in my head. I have the habit, that's for sure. What I don't have is a quiet space to work in and am trying to work in the noise of my home. I don't have any other choice because of my circumstances. I am trying to find ways to make an invisible wall between my writing session and the noise around me. If anyone has any ideas for this here at Writing.Com, please let me know in some way."
If you're in a physical space that is noisy, I'd suggest noise-canceling headphones. They'll help drown out the distracting sounds around you. I know writers who write in crowded coffee shops and noisy restaurants and listen to a variety of things using this method, from music all the way to ambient white noise of your choosing (city noises, beach tides, rain sounds, etc.). If you have family or friends around all the time, you can even have a conversation with them so they know that when your headphones are on, it's writing time... DO NOT DISTURB! 
Jacqueline  writes: "Hi Jeff, your news letter has hit the nail on the head for me this year. I haven't written anything new or done any writing. i hold myself tomorrow i do do some writing, but no tomorrow has come. I am hoping next year will be more productive. Merry Christmas"
Belated Merry Christmas to you too, and best of luck with your writing goals in 2019!
Fivesixer  writes: "Cabbage Patch Dolls and Teddy Ruxpin...those were my first recollections of parents losing their minds over "the hottest Xmas toys"  . I got a knockoff version of the Atari one year...wasn't an actual Atari but it played the cartridges...good enough!"
Yeah, my parents were big on the knock-off gifts too. They never did get us a GameBoy or a Nintendo, but they did get us those little handheld arcade games like bowling and pinball instead. "They're basically the same thing!" 
Quick-Quill  writes: "Times stands still for no one! How true. Why is it that this time of year I have to cram so much in the few hours I have at home each evening and weekend then try to write. I think next year I'm taking a Christmas Sabbatical. No deadlines, no word count posts. If I write anything its because I feel like it not because I HAVE to. This month I've been pressed to get a weekly wordcount posted and a MS re-edited for publication. I just want to enjoy family, not sit at a computer for 12 hours. (8 at work and 4 at home)"
That's true... there's a counterpoint to every argument and my "holidays are the perfect time to stay on track" thoughts are easily countered with the "we all have to take a break sometime" logic. I suppose it depends on how productive you are the rest of the year. 
Jenstrying  writes: "I agree with you about keeping writing. When we went to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving I didn't bring my laptop because I knew I wouldn't have time to pull it out and use it. However I did have my blog on my phone (I actually starting blogging on my phone because I had nothing else) so I wrote my blog daily and was able to add pictures that I had taken that day. The only times I "missed" a day was because we had no wifi where we were at so the next time I did it was a double post day. I'm proud to say that I wrote everyday I was gone. And it did make a big difference."
I almost always bring my laptop with me, even if I'm just away for a single night. I'm always worried that the inspiration will strike when I don't have my stuff with me, so I take my stuff everywhere.
hbk16 writes: "Holidays could be the best occasion to acquire the habit of a regular writing.It is possible when motivation is daily synchronized with the writing."
Motivation is a big key to doing the work required to form habits, that's for sure!
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For Authors: January 16, 2019 Issue [#9333]
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