What Actually Makes Great Non-Fiction Writing?

What actually makes good writing? And it's funny because it's such a simple question, and yet it's the most complicated question, which is, okay, yeah, will you get better at writing if you write more? Yes, volume wins. Great. But ultimately, what is the definition of good writing? And this is something that took me a really long time to learn, and it wasn't until I started writing on Quora not that you have to write on Quora. It was just a great forcing function for me at the time, where writing on Quora taught me that great writing does one very simple thing. It answers your question. If your writing does not answer the reader's question, then it is not good writing. If your writing answers the reader's question in a way that they already know, then it's not good writing. Good writing does one of two things. It answers the reader's question and it answers it in a way they haven't heard before. Okay, the first one is the easiest. It's just like, did I actually answer their question? So I'll give you a simple example. Someone's like, hey Cole, how do I optimize my LinkedIn profile? And I go, my answer is you should start writing on X. You should start a YouTube channel. Did I answer their question? Yes or no? No, I did not answer their question. Right. Cole, how do I optimize my LinkedIn profile? Hey, no problem. So here's how you start a YouTube channel. I did not answer the question. Right. Hey, Cole, how do I, how do I build a more effective morning routine? All good. Have you seen this new show on Netflix? It's really great. These are the shows I would recommend this summer. I'm not answering the question right now. I'm using extreme examples, but like, you have to start from a place of simplicity like that. Am I literally answering the reader's question? From there it becomes, okay, so what is the level of value that I can provide in answering a question? So to go inside here, this is the way I like thinking about it, is like you have V1, which is I answered it. So, Cole, how do I build an effective morning routine? Well, you have to wake up early, right? Is that— is that new for anyone here? Is that the first time you've ever heard that answer before in your life? How do I have a more effective morning routine? You have to wake up early. I think we, we have all heard that, you know. So, okay, what about, what about how do I have an effective morning routine? Well, you should wake up early and you should stretch and drink a big glass of water. Is that, is that the first time anyone here has ever heard that? Is that novel? So none of those things, like, yes, I'm answering the question. But I'm not actually answering it in a— I'm not giving anything new, right? Okay. So V2 is I go, how do you have an effective morning routine? First thing you should do, what always works for me, you roll over, you take a shot of tequila. Maybe you've never heard that before, right? So now I'm saying I am answering. With something new. Okay, great. No one's ever told me first thing in the morning I should roll over, pour myself a little shot of tequila, and kick the day off. Whether or not that's right, it's like I'm just illustrating the point, right? And then V3 is I am answering with something new packaged or presented in a way that the reader hasn't heard of before, right? So a really easy example is, has anyone read the book The Tipping Point? Drop in the chat, by Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, great book. Okay, so I'll summarize it for everyone. The Tipping Point is the name, is the language that Malcolm Gladwell gave to a very simple idea that has been around forever. Which is once you cross a certain point, word of mouth takes over. Once you cross a certain point, the results compound on themselves. Is that a, is that a new idea? Not really. Like, we, we all kind of have understood that idea for hundreds of years, right? But he packaged it in a different way. He was like, oh, that thing that happens, we call that the tipping point. And so this is like where great writing becomes advanced, which is you're taking ideas and yeah, maybe they're new, maybe they're updated versions of old ideas, but really what's happening is you're just packaging it in a new and different way. These three levels are how you should think about like, what value am I actually providing as a writer? You are either answering a question, which is the lowest, you know, the lowest common denominator. You are answering the question with something new. Hey, I haven't heard very many people talk about this. I haven't heard very many people share this specific answer. And then version 3 is I'm answering your question and I'm sharing something new, and I'm packaging it in a new way. I'm giving it a new name. I'm presenting it in a new and unique way. And so, you know, it's like that is what makes writing both so simple and so complicated at the same time is this, this is actually very easy to understand. I think everyone here probably follows what I'm saying, but then it becomes a game of practice. This is why I'm such a big believer in writing Reading is not what makes you a better writer. Writing is what makes you a better writer. Reading makes you a more proficient reader. So for everyone here, to use a metaphor, everyone here, you are being readers. I am explaining something. You are quote unquote reading it and you are becoming more proficient in your ability to read and to understand, but to actually execute this and actually replicate it, you have to go practice writing. And practicing writing means isolating skills and then doing that thing over and over and over again. And, and in a nutshell, this is essentially what I spent 4 years doing on Quora. Quora would go, here's a question, and when I first started out, I was just answering it. And then over time I realized, wait, my answers actually weren't that good. I was kind of just saying the same thing as everybody else. Wait, now I have to learn how to answer with something new. And then as I got more proficient at that, then unlocks the third level, which is I'm answering the question and I'm answering with something new and I can package it in a new and different way. I can, maybe I can name it.

But when it comes to, uh, content searching, ghostwriting, So there's no question out there, so how are we supposed to— the value out there?

You, you're the one who decides the question. When you go to the— when you work with a client, when, when we talk about idea generation, idea generation isn't really generating ideas. Idea generation is generating questions that the client's customer has or the client's reader has. Right? So if I'm ghostwriting for someone who is in real estate, for example, let's say that my business is I teach people how to buy their first Airbnb property. Drop in the chat, everyone. My business is I teach you how to buy your first Airbnb property. What questions do you have? How much is an Airbnb property? How long until I make— I start making money? Where are my risks? How do I pick the right location? How do I even find one for sale? Do I need to put all the money up front? What if I can't get a loan? What if I can't get a mortgage? How do I vet my customers? So you aren't actually generating ideas for the client, you're generating questions that the customer of the client has, and all of your content is just answering those questions, right? So, so let's, let's walk through the, the example. Someone said, someone said the question is, how do I pick the right location for an Airbnb property? Okay. So let's go through our little exercise. V1 is, am I answering the question? All right, so if my answer is, the way you pick the right property is you gotta try really hard. Am I answering the question? No, I am not, right? So let's try this again. V1, the way you pick the right property. I like starting with a simple Zillow search of areas with homes in the $1 to $3 million range. Here's a quick walkthrough on how to do this kind of search. Am I answering the question? Yes, I'm answering the question. Great.

Yes.

Okay, now V2. Maybe in this industry, maybe this is what everybody does. There's nothing wrong with that, right? But maybe this is conventional wisdom. This is what everybody does. So maybe V2 is I say, you know how everyone searches on Zillow? I actually found this really great Chrome plugin that uses AI to do all the scraping for you. Let me walk you through. How it works and how you can use it to find properties in the million-dollar range inside, you know, whatever, Chicagoland area. Okay, I'm answering the question, and maybe I'm sharing something that not that many people talk about. That's even more valuable, right? And then V3, the this is where you ultimately want to get to as a writer. You go, whenever I'm looking for locations for Airbnb rentals, I like using the— and I'm just gonna make something up— the JAMA acronym, which stands for, you know, what does the J stand for? Something. A stands for something, M stands for something, and A stands for something. These are the 4 steps I like walking through to find highly profitable locations. So what did we just do? We took an idea and we found a new way to package it. We gave it a name. We gave it an acronym. And so then if I talk about that name or that idea over and over and over again, are people gonna associate me and my business with that idea? Yes. So does everyone see? We just walked through the exercise here. You can do this for every idea, but instead of starting from a place of like, what's a good idea, you want to start from a place of what are all the questions that my target that, that my client's target customer is asking. Let's just go create content that answers those questions. Does that make sense?

So the takeaways that you have for this particular thing that I can improve— you suggested a book and you suggested a lot of writing. And we have to basically, like, whenever we are writing, we are supposed to check what is the value we are providing to the audience. And if that is a question, then are we answering the question?

Yes. And just to make it very clear, it's always a question. Like, I think, I think one of the hardest phrases for people to understand is provide value. Provide value is an extremely vague term. I think, I think it is so much easier to start from a place of what question am I answering? And if you don't know the question that you're answering, then the client won't have direction or be able to help you. Right. But if you, if you show up and work with a client and you go, hey, I went out, I did some research. I think that your customers probably have at least these 10 questions. Let's start by creating content that answers those 10 questions and let's isolate one. Here's the first question. And client, what do you think about that question? How would you answer that question? And sometimes clients give you really smart answers, and sometimes clients don't give you very smart answers. And so then you have to figure out, okay, how much can I get out of the client versus how much do I need to write and put together myself? But you are— it is writing anything nonfiction is always a game of answering questions. Real quick, if you want to write online but aren't sure where to start, click the link in the description of this video and check out startwritingonline.com. This is a free masterclass I put together sharing all of our most helpful frameworks for beginners, like proven hooks to capture your target reader's attention, where to write online to get the most distribution on your work, and little growth hacking tips to build your social audience and email list faster. Over 100,000 writers have gone through this free masterclass, and many even send us emails afterwards thanking us for sharing such valuable information for free. So click the link below this video to check it out and make this year the year you start seeing success from your writing online.