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In a world of equality and opportunity, we usually talk about power as if it’s a bad thing. But power is like time, money, or any other resource. It can be used for good or for bad.

Writers don’t think about what we do in terms of power. We use words like creativity, craft, platform, audience, and entrepreneurship. But power? It’s a concept that seems a little old-fashioned, if not outright outdated these days.

Power is just influence.

When you have power as a writer, you can change people’s minds. You can tell a story that has impact. You can write books, sermons, articles, or other content and know that it can influence other people.

If power as a writer is a good thing, how do you get it? There are many ways, and those ways can include having the right connections or sometimes even just getting lucky. But those are external situations that you can’t predict or control.

There is only one surefire way to accumulate power as a writer. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, said it best: “A word after a word after a word is power.” (By the way, this was the title of a 2019 documentary where she discusses her life and work.”)

The meaning of the phrase is pretty obvious: when you put down one word after another, eventually you wind up with something you can share. And when you accumulate those words, and they become books, screenplays, speeches, or other types of shareable content, they can have more power than you can possibly imagine.

As Tears for Fears sang in their 1985 hit song, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” However, not everybody can write, or even wants to write. That’s too bad because they are missing out on an incredible opportunity to use their writing power to influence other people.

But we know better. We know our words have power.

So let’s get out there today and put down not just one word, but a word after a word after a word.