Nicolas Cole πŸš’πŸ‘» Profile picture
Sep 24, 2021 β€’ 27 tweets β€’ 7 min read β€’ Read on X
Attention Writing Twitter πŸ“’

Only 7 days left to join the LAST Ship 30 for 30 cohort of the year.

...and it's looking to be our BIGGEST cohort yet.

In celebration, let's play a game.

1 RT = 1 digital writing tip we share inside the course.

Ready, go.
You can join the last Ship 30 for 30 cohort of the year here πŸ‘‡

ship30for30.com
Digital Writing Tip #1: It's your content. You can do anything you want with it.

Atomic Essays can become:

β€’ Newsletters
β€’ Landing page copy
β€’ eBooks
β€’ Digital Products
β€’ Course material
β€’ Scripts for podcast episodes
β€’ Etc.
Digital Writing Tip #2: You make your headlines more compelling by increasing the voltage ⚑️⚑️⚑️

You can do this to your:

β€’ WHAT?
β€’ WHO?
β€’ FEELING
β€’ PROMISE

More description in any one of these parts of your headline = ⚑️⚑️⚑️⚑️⚑️ Image
Digital Writing Tip #3: You are not the main character. Your reader is.

This means, even if you're telling "your story" or sharing "your insights," you have to find a way for it to relate to the reader's wants, needs, questions, and desires.

They should see themselves in you.
Digital Writing Tip #4: All content can be reverse-engineered in 4 buckets.

β€’ Actionable
β€’ Analytical
β€’ Aspirational
β€’ Anthropological

We call this The 4A Framework.

Start here, and your writing will have 10x more clarity. Image
Digital Writing Tip #5: DO NOT START A BLOG.

A huge reason we started #Ship30for30 was to help writers avoid making the BIGGEST mistake when writing online.

Your blog has zero distribution.

Instead, we help writers start their own Social Blog.

typeshare.co
Digital Writing Tip #6: Write for the version of yourself 6+ months ago.

So many people want to write, but aren't sure what to write ABOUT.

Here's an easy framework:

Write for the version of you who didn't know what you know today.

Help that person.
Digital Writing Tip #7: Not sure how to structure your writing? Use a proven approach.

"Lists" have a bad reputation, but they're a terrific way to organize ideas.

You can organize just about anything into a list. Image
Digital Writing Tip #8: It's only clickbait if you fail to keep your promise to the reader.

If you write an amazing headline but the content is sub-par, you "tricked" the reader.

They call that clickbait.

But if DELIVER on the promise, guess what?

*Bookmarked*
Digital Writing Tip #9: Credibility can come in many forms.

Don't feel like you're "the expert" on anything?

Go out and curate what experts have to say about X.

Congrats!

You're now "the expert of curating experts on X." Image
Digital Writing Tip #10: Volume wins.

What makes a successful writer in 2021+ is not one single piece.

It's their body of work.

Their LIBRARY.

Don't obsess over the performance of any one piece.

Focus on building a library of assets.

πŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆ
Digital Writing Tip #11: Don't compete in someone else's category. Create your own.

The book, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" was the first self-help book with a "IDGAF" voice.

And it has sold millions of copies.

What happened next?

Lots of sub-par copycats. Image
Digital Writing Tip #12: The cost of reading your writing is TIME off someone's life.

Think about that.

When you write something, you're asking someone to *pay* with 30 seconds or 3 minutes of their LIFE.

Keep that urgency in mind when writing.

Make every word matter.
Digital Writing Tip #13: The easiest way to stand out? Use languaging.

Languaging = the strategic use of language to change thinking.

It's not a book. It's an e-book.

It's not art. It's digital art.

The word you pick to MODIFY the existing word changes how people *see* it.
Digital Writing Tip #14: The more you write, the more you write.

You'll only have so many ideas before you begin the journey of writing online.

But once you start, your flywheel will spin.

Everything you write gives you data on what ELSE you can write.

And so on, and so on.
Digital Writing Tip #15: When you find something that works, repeat it.

For example, I've written dozens of "101" threads.

Why? Because they get 10x more engagement than anything else I write.

Find patterns & repeat them.

Digital Writing Tip #16: Feel like you've run out of ideas? Use our Endless Idea Generator

β€’ What topic do you want to write about?
β€’ Choose a proven approach
β€’ Tell the reader why they should trust you

This is how you turn 1 topic into 100 different variations. Image
Digital Writing Tip #17: You can't know what your niche is until you start publishing.

Every writer begins their journey with assumptions.

"I assume readers want X."

It's not until they hit PUBLISH that they realize what they thought readers wanted, readers didn't want.
Digital Writing Tip #18: The most important thing you will ever write on Twitter is your Lead-In tweet.

This is what *hooks* readers.

And if your Lead-In tweet doesn't share a Story, Framework, or hint at the Actionable Advice to come, nobody is going to click and read. Image
Digital Writing Tip #19: Don't delete past work.

All writers have this fear:

"What if someone sees my early work and thinks it's bad!"

But guess what?

Your old work gets more valuable as time goes on.

It becomes your origin story.
Digital Writing Tip #20: Everything you write that performs well gives you the OPTION to explore new territory.

This is the best part about being a data-driven writer.

As things perform well, you now have a choice:

β€’ "Do I want to write more of this?"
β€’ "Or don't I?"
Digital Writing Tip #21: Write where people already are.

Our favorite platforms are:

β€’ Twitter
β€’ Quora
β€’ Medium
β€’ Reddit
β€’ (sometimes) LinkedIn
β€’ Anywhere with an EXISTING userbase
Digital Writing Tip #22: Don't worry about editing.

In your first year of writing online, there's 0 point in editing your work beyond checking for spelling errors.

Because you don't know what to edit FOR yet.

Instead, ship as many ideas as you can.

Learn what readers want.
Digital Writing Tip #23: The size of the question dictates the size of the audience.

Most writers think, "I want to write about X," and THEN, "How do I get X in front of millions of people?"

Instead, start in reverse.

"What question do millions of people have?"

Answer that. Image
Digital Writing Tip #24: You can't steer a stationary ship.

There is very little to be gained strategizing about hypotheticals.

The truth is, you don't know what is going to resonate.

You don't know what readers are going to grab onto.

So, just start.

And pivot as you go.
Digital Writing Tip #25: When writing for niche audiences, GET SPECIFIC.

The more specific you are about WHO the piece is for and what outcome they can unlock, the more readers will see themselves in your writing.

If you're not specific, they won't know it's for them. Image

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More from @Nicolascole77

Mar 13
How Game of Thrones was created is wild: Multiple plots. No single hero. No clear villains.

But it won 59 Emmys and held the World Record for "Most pirated TV show" for years.

I studied its storytelling and psychology tricks.

Here's the philosophy I found: 🧡 Image
George R.R. Martin didn’t just write multiple plotsβ€”he made four unstoppable forces clash:

β€’ Power struggle over the Iron Throne
β€’ The Stark-Lannister war
β€’ The White Walker threat
β€’ Rise of Daenerys

Each story crashed into the others, reshaping TV forever. Image
The brilliance was in how these plots connected.

While most writers struggle with 1-2 storylines, GOT made its complexity an advantage.

Every major moment in one plot created ripple effects in all others.

The secret? It's not what you'd expect: Image
Read 18 tweets
Mar 7
With 300+ million books sold, James Patterson holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 NYT bestsellers in history.

But many refuse to call him a "real" writer, and Stephen King called his work "terrible."

Here's the controversial writing method behind his $800M empire🧡 Image
Born in Newburgh, NY, in 1947, James was a good student but confessed that he did not enjoy reading until after high school.

He attended Manhattan College before studying at Vanderbilt University.

In 1971, he worked as a copywriter at J. Walter Thompson. Image
While working his way up at J. Walter Thompson, Patterson wrote his first novel on the side.

After 31 rejections, "The Thomas Berryman Number" won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1977.

But his big break came in 1993 with "Along Came a Spider."

That's when everything changed: Image
Image
Read 20 tweets
Mar 4
5 dead-simple steps to write a 60,000-word book in 30 daysβ€”even if you've never written a book before:🧡 Image
For context:

It took me 4 years to write my 1st book and it took me 4 months to write my 2nd book.

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

Here's the framework: Image
1. Your book's Main Title/Subtitle is 80% of the work.

β€’ What question (of the reader's) are you answering?
β€’ What problem are you solving?
β€’ What solution are you unlocking?
β€’ How are you going to get there?

Don't start writing till you can answer these 4 questions.
Read 9 tweets
Feb 28
The Rick and Morty approach to storytelling is fascinating:

β€’ 1 circle
β€’ 8 plot points
β€’ Repeated over 71 episodes

Dan Harmon adapted The Hero's Journey framework to create one of the most successful TV shows ever.

Here's how it works (and how to master it):🧡 Image
Before Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon was struggling as a writer.

He kept starting scripts but could never finish them. Until he discovered something that would revolutionize television:
He wanted to use Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, but there was a problem:

It was too complex for TV writing. So Harmon did something nobody expected.

He stripped it down to its core and created the Story Circle.

Here's how it works: Image
Read 16 tweets
Feb 21
I'm a TV addict.

Over the last 10 years, I thought I had seen it all, but when I found Seinfeld 'a show about nothing,' it blew my mind.

Everyone should understand the psychology that created one of the most successful TV sitcoms in history.

Here's how it works: 🧡 Image
Larry David had two simple rules for every episode:

"No hugs and no learning."

While other sitcoms taught life lessons and showed character growth, Seinfeld did the opposite: Image
Most sitcoms follow 4 key themes:

β€’ Work
β€’ Hobbies
β€’ Romance
β€’ Friends/Family

What Seinfeld did with these themes would change television forever: Image
Read 18 tweets
Feb 16
This guy has published 83 novels and more than 200 short stories.

He is a towering figure in the world of writing.

All writers should memorize these 14 epic tips from Stephen King's book "On Writing":🧡 Image
Image
Tip #1: Above all others: read and write a lot.

Your fingers have to learn the feel of the keys and your mind must acquire the habit of story-making.

Combine the two and copy a short story by hand to absorb the style.
Tip #2: Stories consist of three parts.

β€’ What happens: Narrative moves the story forward.
β€’ How it happens: Description creates a vivid reality for the reader.
β€’ Who said what: Dialogue brings characters to life with speech.

Leave one out, and the reader will feel cheated.
Read 16 tweets

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