In doing my regular reading in an attempt to stay on top of all that is evolving in the writing world, I ran across several articles that carried the same trend. They talked about how they started . . . a decade or more ago.

When you give someone a podium, they are going to speak about themselves. They have been hired, invited, or selected to speak/write based upon their experience. Same goes for article writing, particularly about writing what you know. For instance, how I started freelancing. Or how I published my first books.

Do you know the parts I am going to skip? The parts that do not apply to today.

Your audience does not want to learn about anything that happened to you that they cannot learn from and apply to their own circumstances. If you had this incredible journey overcoming monstrous obstacles, maybe, and they best be tremendous once-in-a-lifetime moments. If you went from homeless to New York Times bestselling author, for instance, sure, but even then, if the audience consists of writers, they want to know how to apply what you overcame to their own pursuits.

Don’t monopolize a microphone (or article) with info that doesn’t help the audience. The subject matter needs to be evergreen. Unless writing about current events with time constraints, most of your writing ought to have as much evergreen material in it as possible . . . to make you evergreen. To help you remain relevant.

The minute you talk or write about yourself and it sounds dated, you’ve chipped away at your own relevancy. Don’t say what you did to get started in 2016. Just say what you did that was successful and how the audience can use that information for their own success.