43 Pounds of Life's Work

This morning I heard a story on NPR about a writer who left 43 pounds of unpublished manuscripts and writings to his friend when he died.

The writer had written several stories in the 1950s and 60s, sent them to various publishers but had been rejected time-and-again. He finally gave-up writing, thinking of himself as a failure.

This man had studied creative writing in college and was a good writer. However, for whatever reason, publishers didn't deem his stories marketable or publishable.

The story made me wonder if this would happen in the modern Internet era that we live in. Today, anybody can be a published writer.

Blogs such as this one and numerous other sites on the Internet give each and every one of us the necessary tools to express ourselves and tell our unique story to the rest of the world.

Now, there is no reason for a writer or creative artist of any kind to be unpublished, to be dependent on the whims of a gatekeeper who can accept or reject the work because it does not meet their criteria of what's acceptable.

The creative professional of this era need not leave 43 pounds of unpublished works when they pass on. He or she can be content in knowing that they have left their mark where it will be possibly seen, hear or read by millions of people around the world.