The Long Goodbye

It’s that time of year again. The end of it. The time of year we look back over the triumphs and failures and say goodbye to what 2010 held for us. Maybe it was a great year, maybe it was a terrible year. Either way it’s time to say “Goodbye” to 2010 and “Hello” to 2011.

There’s a lot to be said about looking ahead, planning and setting resolutions during this time of year, but I’m not going to talk about that. I’m going to focus on the Goodbyes and teach you a technique I use when I write.

I hope it’s helpful to you, but if it isn’t, oh well. By the time we meet again it’ll be 2011. : )

The Long Goodbye

When you write, consider it a never-ending goodbye to your readers. That may seem morbid or terrible, but stick with me a moment longer and I’ll explain.

You can’t know everything that’s happening in your audience’s life, so you never know which post you write might be the last one someone reads from you. Every time you sit down to write, consider that it might be the last time you get to speak to your audience and put the amount of passion, power, wisdom and wit into it you would if you knew tomorrow was the last day it would be read.

Your blogging should be an endless stream of “Well, this is the best I’ve got” posts. An endless stream of last posts. Make sure your last impression is a memorable one.

Beyond Death

By now, a lot of you are probably thinking I live my life in a morbid haze of thoughts of death. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There are plenty of reasons why your next post might be your last, here are just a few:

• Library Purge – I’ve done it and you probably have too. Every once and a while I go through and purge my Google Reader of things I don’t get any use out of anymore. What if you phone in the past few posts right before someone decides on a New Year’s RSS purge? Which babies are getting thrown out with the bath water? Your babies, that’s which ones.
• Vacation – Have you ever gone away on vacation and when you get back just forgotten to pick back up where you left off on certain things? You’re not the only one who has done that. Make sure you’re writing posts that people want to read on their vacations, not the ones they forget when they get back.
• Work – Certain times of the year work can get really, really hectic. In times like that, most people cut out anything that’s not vital to what they do and who they are. If you’re publishing stinky stinkeroos, you’re getting threshed with the rest of the life chaff.
• You – Unless you’re Madame Trelawney you probably don’t know what tomorrow holds for you. You might get sick, you might get transferred to the North Pole or you might just lose Internet connection or hosting for a week or two. The point is, there might be reason why you can’t get to your blog and write. Do you really want the last post you wrote to be that grocery list and picture of your goldfish you emailed to your blog from your blackberry? I didn’t think so.

There can be a multitude of other reason that keep people from reading that awesome post you have lying around waiting for “the right time” and you never will be able to anticipate them.

The time to “Wow” me is now. The right time for that great post is right now.

Don’t wait. You might not get another chance.

But don’t take my word for it, what do you think?