The Power of Preparation

Here are today’s Wonderful Words:

Every passage and page has a prologue titled preparation.

All Success is a Lagging Indicator, Ryan Holiday

Background

This sentence comes from an article on the biggest key to any success: putting in the work. Success doesn’t happen overnight. And when it does happen, it’s the product of the work you’ve put in over hours, days, weeks, months, and years.

What makes it wonderful?

I loved this sentence because it rang true to my life and my writing.

Whenever I sit down to write, I’ve already done a ton of work. I’ve spent days reading and listening to podcasts. I’ve spent hours taking notes and organizing thoughts. I’ve spent miles walking through the park, thinking about what I want to say.

Then I sit down at the keyboard. And usually, the words pour out like water from a fountain.

Every passage and page I write has a prologue title preparation.

Every Wonderful Words email is backed by hours of reading distilled to a single notecard. Every article I publish on my website gets the same level of care.

And I’m not the only one.

I recently watched a documentary about the famous biographer, Robert Caro. He’s spent 50 years working on the most iconic biography of Lyndon Johnson ever written, and he’s currently writing the fifth and final volume.

Each book Caro writes takes about 10 years. The writing is the smallest part of the process.

Caro and his wife spend countless hours in the Johnson presidential library, poring over box upon box of the 45 million documents filed away on LBJ.

They moved from New York City to the Texas Hill Country and lived there for three years so Caro could get a feel for the place where Johnson grew up.

And before writing about a 1948 Congressional election, Caro tracked down the man responsible for stealing it—a man everyone else thought to be dead. A man no other LBJ biographer had ever laid eyes upon. A man who shared an untold story and transformed Caro’s book from an average biography to an American treasure.

Talk about preparation.

Holiday’s sentence is so good because it’s so true. The writer doesn’t do his work at the computer or the typewriter. He does it long before sitting down in front of the blank page.

Let's get technical

The other thing Holiday did here was use alliteration to illuminate his point. Alliteration is a succession of words beginning with the same letter or sound. They’re pleasing to the ear and make the sentence ring like poetry.

You can use this technique to emphasize your point. You can use it to help the reader remember. You can use it to write words that sound like songs.

It’s a simple, yet powerful, tool to add to your belt.

The next time you sit down to write an article, a chapter, a Tweet, or anything else, ask yourself one question: have I prepared for this?

If the answer is no, stand up, walk away, and go put in the work. Do the reading. Take the notes. Have the conversations. Track down the sources.

Then come back when you’re ready to write.

Happy writing,

Joe

P.S. Looking to take your writing to the next level? Respond to this email and ask about my consulting services. I’d love to help you write some wonderful words!