Why Your Content Problem Is Not a Writing Problem

Why does so much content fall flat even when it is perfectly well written?

Because the problem is rarely the writing. As record-breaking writer Nicolas Cole puts it, 85% of writing is not the writing itself, it is thinking, and then organising that thinking. Polished sentences cannot rescue a weak idea. Find the right thing to say first, and the actual writing becomes the easy last step.

The counterintuitive truth from a record-breaking writer

Nicolas Cole is one of the most-read writers on the internet. He became the fastest-growing user on Quora and its most-read writer across an entire year, so he knows a thing or two about producing content people actually consume.

His view is worth pinning above your desk: "85% of writing a book is not really the writing itself. It's thinking. And then organizing the thinking. The writing is the last mile of stylistic edits. But no amount of stylistic edits can take the place of writing with poor thinking."

Why this matters for jokes and content

Exactly the same thing is true of writing jokes, and of writing anything meant to grab attention.

You can polish a weak idea forever and it stays weak. A clever turn of phrase cannot save a post that has nothing to say. The laugh, the click and the share all live in the idea, not in the wording. Which means the work that actually decides your results happens before you type a single sentence.

The thinking that actually matters: Relatable Truths

So what should the thinking be about? Relatable Truths.

A Relatable Truth is a statement, an idea or a moment that makes your audience stop and go, "that is so true." It is the recognition that turns a passive scroller into someone paying real attention. Finding that truth is the thinking. Wrapping it in a joke is the writing, and it is the smaller half of the job.

How to do the thinking first

Before you open a blank document, do the harder work. Ask what your audience quietly knows to be true but rarely hears said out loud. What do they find frustrating, funny or unfair about their day that a brand has never bothered to name?

Nail that, and the post almost writes itself. Skip it, and no amount of wordsmithing will make the thing land.

Meet Brian

Surfacing those deeper truths about your audience, the ones they might not even say out loud, is exactly the thinking Brian, our AI Comedy Marketing Machine, is built to do.

Give Brian your offer and who you are trying to reach, and it digs out the relatable pains and quirks worth writing about, then folds them into proven joke frameworks, so your content starts from a strong idea rather than a clever-sounding sentence.

Take Brian for a spin and fix the thinking before you touch the writing.