I am a bit different than the others who’ve been asked to contribute their observations of daily life to the time capsule. I am a writer and I naturally want to give the citizens of the future a taste of what life was like for a writer.
Do I talk about my upcoming debut novel being released in hardcover? Certainly hardcover books will be relics in 76 years. Readers will likely use some sort of reading device far more advanced than our e-book readers and they won’t understand what a huge deal it is for authors to see their words in print. Will they think I’m crazy if I say I spent 20 years learning the craft of writing so that a publisher will buy and publish my book and pay me a fraction of what the book earns? I’m sure future writers will simply self-publish when their works are complete. Do I talk about blogging and how I toiled to drive traffic to my website and pursued comments to my blog posts since that helps writers become ‘discoverable’? Would they ‘get it’ if I explain that writers strive to be at the top of the rankings when someone ‘Google’s’ their name? Will Google be around in 2087? What about the other social media tools we writers of today spin our wheels engaging in—hoping to gain followers, friends, fans, and of course readers? If I describe how writers eagerly anticipated booksignings in bookstores, could they visualize it? Surely these will all be foreign concepts in 76 years.
Even if the readers don’t understand what a book, blog, website, or Google is, I think they should know how we writers sought to connect with people, not just audiences for our book, but people in general. We made every effort to share our ideas, stories, and experiences. We didn’t want our words to languish on a shelf. I guess ultimately we just want our words to have relevance. All the above activities were not the end goal. The goal was to touch readers and make a difference in their lives. I imagine that writers will always seek to do the same regardless of the year. Whether informing, inspiring, or entertaining, we want our writings to have mattered.
Okay, now I think I know what I’ll say.
If you were given the opportunity to make history with your words—what would you write?
