What Will They Remember You For?

You spend a lot of time creating your content. It takes days, hours, weeks, and in some cases years of thinking, creating, and editing to make something worth other people's time. It may take only a few hours to write a poem or a short story. It can take years to finish a novel, or polish a screenplay to become a 'go' project. Which of your projects will people remember? You may be surprised at what resonates with the audience. Shakespeare spent a great deal of time and money preparing his sonnets for publication. He didn't bother to do that with his plays. After his death, the actors in his company published the quartos and first folio. If Shakespeare didn't know for which writing he would be most remembered, don't assume you know. I own a 580 page book of Robert Frost's complete poems. How many can you name? "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," and "The Road Not Taken" are still studied in grade school, but those are two out of hundreds of poems. Mathew Arnold was a famous critic during the 1800s who wrote many critical essays and poems. We remember him, if at all, for one poem, "Dover Beach." It's sobering to realize that even if our work is popular now, its popularity may not last. The point is that we don't know which of our works people will remember. If we're lucky, we'll have enough fans so that we can support ourselves through our work. There are no guarantees that our work will find an audience. I can guarantee that no one will remember the work you don't create. And since you don't know which of your pieces will outlast you, it's important to do your best on every one. Keep creating, and your legacy will take care of itself.