I wrote this piece on the day I was celebrating (if that’s the right word) my 60th birthday. (I had been joking about getting my bus pass, until I discovered I wouldn’t get one for another three years…)
So how did it feel to be 60?
Actually, much the same as it felt to be my current age. Or 20. Or 40. And not much different from how it felt to be 18. (With the possible addition of a little maturity, tolerance, common sense, and refusal to drink enough to put me under the table…)
As my father put it, in his 96th year, ‘there just aren’t enough hours in the day for all the things I still want to do’.
There’s a pile of films I’m waiting to look at. Huge amounts of music I could play or sing – and haven’t yet tried. Books I could write (I like the idea of reviving my fiction career. Especially at a time when e-books are bringing a new kind of life to what used to be ‘small publishers’). Games I could play (yes, sorry, the 18-year-old in me still loves computer games). And places I could go. Being half-Danish and half-English, and commuting between cultures at an early age, has given me wanderlust in a big way.
So – how does this relate to putting together the words for your next newsletter?
Well – like this.
The first and most important question you need to ask when you’re drafting your copy is this. ‘Who am I writing for – who are my audience?’
So how do you imagine people in their 60s?
Like me? Or like a stereotype left over from the last century? (When people my age were regarded as either past it or pretty close to past it.)
We’re all living longer. We all have more energy and zest for life than (some of) our parents and grandparents. (Not including my own father, who never lost it). And we all have a heck of a lot to offer.
Just bear it in mind… 🙂