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Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Aug 30, 2021 • 23 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X

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Today is The Art & Business of Online Writing 1 Year Anniversary

• Self-published
• Sold 4,000+ copies to date
• Still selling ~300 copies/mo
• 5 Stars on Amazon

Thank you to everyone who grabbed a copy!

Here are my favorite 20 quotes from the book, visualized:

👇📗

Give away 99% of your best writing for free. Monetize the last 1%.

In the game of Online Writing, volume wins.

The Golden Intersection of great writing is:

Answering The Reader’s Question

&

Telling Them An Entertaining Story

You are not the main character in your story. The reader is.

If the “sweet spot” of an online article is 800 to 1,200 words, then your job as a writer is to pack as much value into your Main Points as possible—without inflating the piece’s word count.

The size of your audience is a direct reflection of the size of the question you’re answering.

The Curiosity Gap in your headline tells the reader what this piece of writing is about, who it’s for, and what it’s promising—all without revealing the answer.

It’s only “clickbait” if you fail to keep your promise to the reader.

Anytime you fail to deliver on your promise to a reader, you’ve lost them.

Consistent output is the secret to every growth metric on the internet: views, comments, Likes, shares, etc.

Data doesn’t lie. But data is also a reflection of the external crowd, and not necessarily your internal compass.

If your goal is to be a successful writer, then social platforms are for publishing first, and consuming second.

When it comes to writing online, platforms will always change, but the rules will stay (pretty much) the same.

Categories are created at unlikely intersections, spotted by writers with an intimate understanding of one or multiple sub-categories.

What makes a badge of credibility valuable isn’t really the badge itself. It’s how the writer chooses to wear it.

The inverse rule of “Specificity Is The Secret,” is “The Broader You Are, The More Confusing You Are.”

When I was in college, one of my teachers used to say all the time, “If your story is reliant on the reader making it past the first few pages, then chances are, your story doesn’t need those pages.”

Categories are how we organize information in our minds. Define your category and you’ll know where readers “fit” you into their minds.

Successful writers play the game of Online Writing consciously. Unsuccessful writers play the game unconsciously—and then wonder why they aren’t succeeding.

There are 2 types of writers today: those who use data to inform and improve their writing, and those who fail.

If you haven't read The Art & Business of Online Writing yet, you can grab a copy here:

amzn.to/2Yf1tKR

@SACHIN_RAMJE

Special thanks to @SACHIN_RAMJE for doing an amazing job visualizing all these quotes from the book.

If you are looking for someone to help you visualize your own content, I can't recommend Sachin enough. Such a joy to collaborate with. Hit him up!

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More from @Nicolascole77

Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Feb 1

January is over.

So there's no better time than February 1st to start writing online.

Use these 25 prompts to write & publish every day for the next 25 days:🧵

1. What was your first job, and what's 1 lesson you learned you'll remember forever?

2. Who was your first mentor, and what's something they taught you that changed the way you saw the world (and yourself)?

3. What was the biggest mistake you made as a young adult, what did it teach you, and how has it shaped your life since?

4. What's 1 weird interest/hobby of yours that everyone around you misunderstands, but makes perfect sense to you—and what has it taught you?

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This man was Steve Jobs's secret weapon in creating Apple's iconic brand.

He turned 'Think Different' into $3 trillion, crafted the iMac story, and helped save Apple from bankruptcy.

Here's how ONE writer transformed Apple into the world's most valuable brand: 🧵

When Ken Segall joined Apple's ad agency in 1997, Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy.

Apple wasn't just failing financially—its brand message was a mess.

Jobs needed someone who could turn complex tech into simple stories.

Enter Ken Segall, the creative director who'd write the words to define Apple.

His first task? Create a campaign to tell the world Apple was back.

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Jan 17

J.R.R. Tolkien spent 60 years creating over 15 languages while writing The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Roverandom, etc.

Some called it madness. But now Pixar, Universal, and Marvel use his ideas.

Here's Tolkien's 4-part framework for world-building and storytelling: 🧵

At Oxford, Tolkien was obsessed with languages.

By day, he taught Old English and Norse mythology & literature.

By night, he created entire linguistic systems from scratch—and shared his ideas with friends, including C.S. Lewis, who encouraged his creativity.

Before writing The Hobbit, Tolkien had already created:

• Thousands of words
• Multiple writing scripts
• 15 different Elvish dialects
• Complete grammatical systems

This obsession would later become his secret weapon.

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This is Shonda Rhimes.

She's the legendary TV writer behind Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, & Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

From unemployed scriptwriter in Hollywood, she is now worth $240M. Her storytelling is why Netflix gave her a $450M deal.

Here's her philosophy:🧵

When Rhimes first pitched Grey's Anatomy, ABC executives said:

"No one would watch a show about a woman sleeping with a man the night before starting a new job."

16.25M viewers tuned in for the pilot.

This wasn’t luck—it was science.

Rhimes followed 10 storytelling rules:

1. "Start in the middle of the story."

Look at the Grey's pilot: We meet Meredith Grey waking up after a one-night stand, late for her first day as a surgeon.

No backstory. No setup. Just drama.

This hooks viewers instantly.

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Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Dec 31, 2024

I write 5,000 words every day.

How?

By treating writing like a mental sport.

9 simple habits I use to stay mentally fit as a pro writer:🧵

1/ Read 1-2 pages of a thesaurus

This takes me 15 minutes every morning.

It’s a great brain exercise and teaches you a lot about language.

Words are your tools, so keep adding to your toolbox.

Here's how I fit it into my routine:

2/ Journal daily

90% of being a writer is understanding your own journey.

Journaling helps you process life events, see your progress, & visualize your future.

With it, you write from the scar, not the wound.

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Nicolas Cole 🚢

@Nicolascole77

Dec 27, 2024

I can write a 60,000-word book in 30 days.

Here's how I write a 5,000-word chapter in 90 minutes (in 3 simple steps):

Before you start writing, you need to have two items in place:

1. Your title
2. Your outline

If you don't have these, you don't know what you're writing about.

Check the end of the thread—there are 2 extra resources to help you.

Before we dive in, let's do some quick math:

Here's how to break down your 60,000-word book:

• 10 chapters at 5,000 words each
• Each chapter has 5 to 7 sub-questions
• These sections are then only 700 to 1,000 words long

Each section is the length of a blog post or a newsletter.

And this is the biggest takeaway here: