At the beginning of the week, they predicted that Hurricane Irene was going to blow right through here. Yikes! At the time, I thought about running to the store to get some supplies — canned goods, batteries, candles, water, etc. But, I didn’t get around to it.

Luckily they now say that the hurricane will be about 200 miles off the coast, so we’ll be spared the worst of it. Yesterday, I did finally go to the store and gather up the items on my modified shopping list. I’ll get by.

I’m surprised by my attitude toward hurricane preparation. When I’m writing, I’m all about preparation. Oh, once in a while,  I just plow on through without doing the proper preparation.  However, the quality of my writing invariably goes up when I prepare.

So, that’s what Before You Write is all about. I decided that it might be helpful to others—particularly beginning writers, but also those needing a little reminder—to show some of the ways that preparation can enhance your writing and your success. In general, Before You Write covers many topics, such as book proposals, outlines, character sketches, research, back story, geography, notes, what I ate for lunch, etc., to give tidbits that will help writers jump-start their writing.

This post is just a reminder that it’s best to plan out any writing that you do. For me, it ensures that I don’t end up with the flying debris of crazy, disjointed thoughts warring for space on the page.