Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors

#139 Nicolas Cole, Co-Founder of Category Pirates and Ship 30 for 30 | Favorite Books and Writing Tools, Enduring Boring Things, and Why Great Writing Changes the Reader

Oct 11, 2022

Nicolas Cole, a prolific writer and co-founder of Ship 30 for 30, dives into the art of writing and its impact on readers. He emphasizes the importance of enduring boring tasks to master the craft. Cole discusses how templates can streamline creativity and efficiency in writing, and shares his favorite writing tools. He believes that great writing is ultimately about changing the reader, not the writer, and reflects on how sharing work publicly transformed his life. Insightful tips and favorite books round out this engaging conversation.

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INSIGHT

Templates for Writing

Every piece of writing can be reverse-engineered into a template.
Understanding these templates helps writers produce quality content faster.

ADVICE

Overcome Writer's Block

Use templates to overcome writer's block and accelerate your writing process.
Templates provide a structure, allowing you to focus on ideas instead of structure.

ANECDOTE

Reverse-Engineering a Novel

Nicolas Cole reverse-engineered a James Patterson novel into a template in an hour.
This demonstrates how understanding structure can speed up the writing process.

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Portnoy's Complaint

Philip Roth

Published in 1969, 'Portnoy's Complaint' is a novel by Philip Roth that follows Alex Portnoy, a 33-year-old Assistant Commissioner of Human Opportunity for the City of New York, as he recounts his life, including his childhood, family relationships, and sexual experiences, to his therapist Dr. Spielvogel. The book is known for its explicit and comedic depiction of sex, which caused controversy upon its release. It delves into themes of Jewish identity, the impact of family upbringing on personal neuroses, and the struggle between sexual desire and societal expectations. The novel is structured as a non-linear monologue, jumping between various memories and experiences that highlight Alex's conflicted feelings about his Jewish heritage and his sexual obsessions[2][3][5].

Snow Leopard

How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

Category Pirates

Snow Leopard is the first writing advice book written through a Category Design lens. It guides writers on how to frame their ideas, stories, and insights to resonate with the most people possible. The book, written by the Category Pirates (Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole), focuses on creating a category of one, mastering Obvious and Non-Obvious content, and monetizing writing in new ways. It includes frameworks such as the 5 levels of content creation (Consumption, Curation, Obvious Connection, Non-Obvious Connection, and Category Creation) and how to apply these to achieve independence, creative freedom, and exponential financial upside[1][3][5].

Gary Halbert's Letters

Direct Response Copywriting

Gary C. Halbert

Gary Halbert's sales letters, collected in a three-ring binder, represent a masterclass in persuasive writing. His minimalist style, reminiscent of Hemingway, focuses on direct, impactful language to drive sales. The letters showcase his deep understanding of human psychology and the art of crafting compelling narratives. Studying his work provides invaluable insights into effective marketing and copywriting techniques. His legacy continues to inspire generations of copywriters.

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. 💌 FREE NEWSLETTER https://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter 🎙 LISTEN ON iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775 Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices