On a day-to-day basis, we are consumed with the here and now—what we have to write and publish today or this week.

Here, during the last week of the year, expand your horizons and think not just about this week, this month, or this year. Go beyond even the next five or ten years. Think a hundred years into the future.

How will people one hundred years from now be able to interact with your writing? No one can predict what the technology of the future will be like. That’s why I believe it’s important to create something physical that can be passed down to future generations.

One of my most treasured possessions is a tattered notebook that my grandmother Louise used to write her poetry. She died when I was three years old, but when I look through the notebook at her poems—many of which are quite good—it’s almost like she’s there with me.

That’s something you can’t get on a computer screen.

In terms of writing, I think every author should create a print book. Not only is it more prestigious than an ebook, it’s something you can pass down to your kids and grandkids, and all future generations.

As writers, we have a responsibility to think not just about the impact we leave in the world today, but how we will impact those in the future as well.

Question: How do you imagine your writing might impact someone a hundred years into the future?