Harry Beckwith

How I work. I run...

How I work. I run 40 minutes a day on average, and during those runs, I often write the individual sections (about 250 words) in my head. As soon as I return to my home and before I shower, I transcribe those words onto paper, in hurriedly written notes that only I can read. After my shower, I head to my beloved IMac and transcribe the handwritten notes, then usually edit the sections once or twice before moving on to write the next sections.

Once this writing and initial editing is complete, I assemble these individual sections into logical categories—strategy and planning, sales, branding, presentations, written communications and client relationships are the broadest and most common. Once I am satisifed with this ordering and sequence, the real work begins: the real editing. What Clients Love, my most ruthlessly edited book, probably went through at least 30 edits, plus a review by several friends and colleagues; When asked why WCL is my favorite and I believe my best book, I answer "because I vacuumed under all the furniture on this one." Many of the 177-plus section headings, for example, probably went through a dozen edits.

Most of my editing, by the way, is done in coffee shops, in about three hour a day stretches. Anything more is too exhausting. I've run marathons, and editing is harder, but utterly necessary and ultimately gratifying. As Truman Capote once suggested, writing without editing is just typing.

People also ask where my ideas come from. Reading and observation: when I am not writing, working with clients or exercising, I read: the New York Times every day—the Science sections often provide insight, ideas or inspiration; the New Yorker, to me the best-written English language publication; books on history (David Kennedy, Barbara Tuchman and William Manchester are great favorites.)

Our culture, particularly its movies and music, reveal a great deal about people today—and people today basically are the subjects of my books; I make a particular point of buying music in genres I'm not even sure I will enjoy: I may be among only a handful of men born before 1950 to own a copy of Nevermind by Nirvana, Jimmy Eat World, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco.

Copyright © Harry Beckwith