--- title: "Markdown newsletter template: one recurring prose issue" slug: markdown-newsletter-template excerpt: "Draft a small recurring newsletter with an opening editorial, a short feature, a recurring department and a closing note in headed prose." quickAnswer: "Keep one newsletter issue in a .md file. Put its title and issue placeholder above four prose sections: an opening editorial, a short feature, a recurring department and a closing note." keyTakeaways: - "Give each issue its own title and issue placeholder." - "Write an opening editorial that speaks to the newsletter's readers." - "Let the short feature stand as a complete contribution." - "Keep a recurring department heading while changing the prose beneath it." - "Finish the issue with a closing editorial note." publishedDate: 2026-10-24 dateModified: 2026-10-24 author: Bobby Huang cluster: A role: post status: published faq: - q: "How does the recurring department return?" a: "Under Keeping a department across issues, a familiar heading holds a fresh prose contribution for each issue. The fictional example uses Small objects for a brief meditation." - q: "Is the Doe publication real?" a: "Under A fictional editor's issue, the Doe publication, its newsletter, Jane Doe and every contribution exist only within this fictional example." - q: "Where does the issue placeholder go?" a: "In A fictional editor's issue, the title shares its opening line with the issue placeholder." related: - markdown-prose-poem-template - markdown-fictional-letter-template --- ## One issue for recurring readers A Markdown newsletter template gives a small recurring publication a repeatable shape. Each issue contains an opening editorial, a short feature, a familiar creative department and a closing editorial note. Readers get the contributions themselves beneath plain headings, with full paragraphs from beginning to end. The opening editorial establishes a subject for the issue and speaks to its readers. The feature then gives a subject room of its own. A recurring department brings back a familiar kind of contribution, while the final note lets the editor close the issue in a personal way. Use a .md filename ending for the plain text issue. The [description of .md files](what-is-a-md-file.md) explains how ordinary text sits beside Markdown punctuation. ## A fictional editor's issue Jane Doe edits the fictional Doe publication and its invented literary newsletter, Doe Alcove. Every person, place and contribution here is fictional. The example supplies a complete issue's prose while leaving the newsletter title and issue identifier as placeholders. Jane Doe would put Doe Alcove where the newsletter title placeholder sits. ```text # [Newsletter title] / Issue [Issue identifier] ## Opening editorial Welcome back to our little alcove of imagined places. I am Jane Doe, editor of the fictional Doe publication, and I have been thinking about the space a room leaves around its objects. This issue lingers beside a doorway, a cup and a patch of evening light. I like the way a familiar room can remain itself while our attention settles somewhere new. ## Short feature: A doorway at dusk The doorway in Doe House is narrower than the passage beyond it. At dusk, its pale wood takes on the color of the wall, and only the brass latch holds the last of the light. Beyond it stands an empty chair. Nothing waits in that chair; the room simply has a place where someone might sit. The doorway gives that empty place a quiet boundary, much as a pause gives a sentence room to end. ## Small objects Our recurring department returns to an ordinary object: a blue cup with a handle large enough for two fingers. Its rim has a pale crescent where the glaze thins. Beside the cup, a wet circle darkens the cloth. The cup seems heavier when it is empty, perhaps because its hollow is then so plainly visible. I turn the handle toward the wall and leave the crescent facing the room. ## Closing editorial note I will leave the cup there as we close this issue. Thank you for spending these paragraphs with the fictional Doe publication. Another issue will return to Small objects with something else to hold in view. For now, the room has its chair, its doorway and the small blue hollow of the cup. ``` For another issue, substitute its newsletter title and individual identifier for the bracketed wording. The identifier distinguishes that issue from its neighbors; the title names the recurring newsletter. Keep both together above the opening editorial. The four headings belong to the issue itself. Each is followed by a finished contribution, so a reader can read straight through the file. Jane Doe has an editorial presence at both ends of the issue, around the feature and recurring department. ## Keeping a department across issues Small objects is the recurring creative department in this invented newsletter. Its heading can stay the same in the next issue while the cup gives way to a different ordinary object. That return gives the newsletter continuity without repeating the contribution word for word. The short feature has a different purpose. A doorway at dusk is a complete prose miniature about one imagined place; it ends with its own final thought. Another issue can use a different feature title and subject. Keep the feature whole beneath its heading rather than describing a contribution that would have to appear elsewhere. For a fresh issue, replace all four prose passages. Let the opening editorial introduce the new issue's concerns, write the feature in full, give the recurring department fresh material and finish with a new editorial note. Preserve the headed prose shape as you change the writing. ## The fence around the example The surrounding fence separates the example from the article explaining it. Inside that fence, the single hash starts the newsletter title and the paired hashes start its departments. Separate a department heading from its paragraph by leaving a blank line. When making your issue file, keep the text within the fence. The article's outer fence is not part of Jane Doe's newsletter. Read [Markdown code blocks](markdown-code-blocks.md) for the fence form used to display the example here. ## A filename for each issue Use `doe-alcove-issue-[identifier].md` as a filename pattern for this fictional newsletter, replacing the bracketed identifier for each issue. Keeping the newsletter name in the filename pairs each issue with the recurring publication; the issue identifier distinguishes the individual file. Keep the title and full prose together in that file. For separators and suffixes, consult [Markdown file naming](markdown-file-naming.md). ## Where Sashmark fits Still unfinished, Sashmark is in development. Planned desktop use covers reading Markdown plus edits, aimed at people with agent-written .md files.