2 books to start with as a new writer

Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Art and Business of Online Writing by Nicolas Cole are two must-read books for anyone starting in writing or anyone looking to take their writing to the next level.

Starting out writing online can be a daunting task, yet at the same time incredibly exciting. At times it can be easy to overreach and try to do too much at once. These books will help develop your writing into a consistent habit, as well as learning some truly great insights from someone who has amounted to millions of views with their online content.

I can almost guarantee you will not only get value from these books but will end up being the foundation of what grows your online writing.

To start with, Atomic Habits by James Clear

There is a reason why this book has sold millions of copies around the world, it works. I have heard recommendation after recommendation around this book, and eventually, I took the leap and dove right in.

It certainly did not disappoint, and with the learnings from this book, I have been able to write consistently day after day, writing and publishing every day for the last 58 days.

To summarise, it covers how to make good habits stick and how to stop bad ones. As well as habit building a key takeaway I had from the book was the power of reviewing yourself.

At the end of each week, I spend about 10 minutes writing down areas I can improve. To help ensure that I continue to learn and grow on top of my newly formed good habits.

One of the keys when starting to write online is down to discipline and consistency, to get better at writing you need to write, this book will help you do just that.

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”

James Clear

Book number 2, The Art and Business of Online Writing by Nicolas Cole

If you want to better understand writing online, and in the future be in a position where you earn money, this book should be in your hands before the end of the week.

I almost came across this book by sheer chance. I was reading a few articles on Medium and came across “If You Only Read Two Books on Writing, Read These” by Eva Keiffenheim. I was looking for a few additional books to help with my writing and right away the title caught my attention.

If my opinions don’t persuade you I would recommend reading Eva’s article. In fact, just read it anyway, there is another element of gold dust in her article, which I will touch at a later point.

First and foremost, this is an excellent book to read, not just for the insights shared by someone who has done it, but the flow of the book makes the experience, all the more enjoyable. It is certainly not one of your standard University textbooks.

To summarise some of the key takeaways that I am in the process of implementing in my writing, are;

1. Understanding that writing online is a game. To be in with a better chance of winning the game, you need to be writing consistently every week. This also links very well with James Clear’s Atomic Habits
2. Understanding where you should be writing online. Now, this was a mistake I made right at the start. Spending days if not weeks making a professional-looking website, and starting to post content there. The problem? No one knows who I am. It is better to go where your audience is, instead of expecting them to come to you. At least in the beginning.
3. Creating content buckets, to understand who you are writing for. Cole breaks it down into three categories, a general, niche, and company industry audience.
4. Data, Data, Data. Yes data, just like within businesses, data is useful in helping make more informed decisions and should be the case in your writing. It can help understand which topics your audience gets the most value from, and over time can help refine your ‘content buckets’.
5. Re-sharing existing content across different platforms. Having a marketing background and SEO knowledge, at first, I thought this was a terrible idea, especially when taking an existing article, only to copy and paste onto another platform. I was wrong.

I could drone on all day and list a handful more great insights shared by Nicolas. My advice for anyone beginning their online writing journey, start with this book.

“One of the most common questions I get asked from writers is, “How do I get views on my articles? How do I get published?” There’s a sort of entitlement in their voice as they say it: “I deserve to be read. I deserve to be a published, financially successful author — so tell me, how does it happen? What they fail to realize, however, is that none of their actions, none of their habits, none of their efforts warrant the outcome they desire for themselves and their writing. They treat it as a hobby. They do it on the weekends. They don’t invest any time in learning how to market themselves as a writer, or the business of writing, and they don’t sit down, day after day after day, and just write.”

Nicolas Cole

Inspiration and sources

1. “If You Only Read Two Books on Writing, Read These” by Eva Keiffenheim
2. Atomic Habits by James Clear
3. The Art and Business of Online Writing by Nicolas Cole