Nicolas Cole shares the lessons he’s learned as one of the internet’s most-read writers, including why he’s fascinated with reverse engineering written work—from James Patterson novels to Twitter threads—into templates writers can use, why all great writing changes the reader, why his superpower is his ability to endure boring things for longer than others, and so much more.
“It takes you a really long time to realize that great writing has very little to do with you. It will change you in the process. It can be about you, yourself, your heart, and your story. Everything can be in it, but has to ultimately be about the reader.” — Nicolas Cole
EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)
https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/nicolas-cole-playbook
FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT
https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/nicolas-cole-playbook-transcript
CHAPTERS
(00:00:00) - Introduction
(00:01:25) - Using Templates to Write Exponentially Faster
(00:06:54) - Nicolas Cole’s Favorite Books: Gary Halbert’s Writing and Portnoy’s Complaint
(00:11:20) - Nicolas’s Daily Routine and Not Disrupting Flow States
(00:15:05) - The Power of Enduring Boring Things
(00:16:24) - Nicolas’s Writing Process and Focusing on the Right Thing
(00:19:25) - Nicolas Cole’s Favorite Writing Tools (Reedsy’s Book Editor)
(00:21:43) - Why All Great Writing Changes the Reader
(00:24:33) - How Sharing Work Publicly Changed Nicolas’ Life
(00:27:27) - The Advice Nicolas Would Give His Younger Self
ABOUT THE GUEST
Nicolas Cole is one of the most-read writers on the Internet. Over the past decade, he’s written over 5,000 articles online and ghostwritten for over 300 Founders, C-level executives, NYT best-selling authors, and Grammy-winning musicians. He’s also the Co-Founder of Ship 30 for 30, which is one of the largest cohort-based writing courses online, as well as Typeshare and Category Pirates.
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ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY
Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past Nicolas Coles include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.
Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy
ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER
Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.
Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner
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