Podcast Summary: Coffee With Cole: The Digital Writing Podcast Episode 9: ChatGPT & Claude Writing Tips (To Get CRAZY GOOD Outputs) Release Date: June 16, 2025

Introduction In Episode 9 of Coffee With Cole: The Digital Writing Podcast, host Nicolas Cole delves into the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in digital writing. With a wealth of experience spanning millions in revenue, multiple publications, and co-founding prominent writing programs, Cole shares invaluable insights on leveraging AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to optimize writing processes.

1. Embracing AI in the Writing Workflow Cole begins by highlighting his extensive use of AI, which now automates over 50% of his writing tasks. From generating social content and newsletters to crafting ad and video scripts, AI has become an integral part of his productivity toolkit.

"I use AI to write social content, writing weekly newsletters to our different email lists. I use it to write ad scripts, video scripts. I use it for fiction writing." (00:00)

Cole emphasizes that effective AI utilization hinges on mastering prompt engineering. His journey of over 2000 hours in refining prompts underscores the necessity of precise instructions to extract high-quality outputs.

"If you aren't getting the outputs that you want, it's not because AI isn't capable, it's because you aren't prompting it correctly." (00:00)

2. The Three Types of AI Prompting Cole categorizes AI prompting into three distinct methods:

• Rabbit Hole Prompting: Ideal for self-education and exploratory queries, resembling deep dives into topics akin to navigating Wikipedia.

  "It's very conversational. You start with some question or some topic, you say, tell me about this thing or I want to learn, you know, why does this happen?" (03:15)

• Brainstorming Prompting: Functions as a collaborative thinking partner, aiding in idea generation and refinement for projects like book outlines or world-building in fiction.

  "Brainstorming prompting is where you're actively trying to think through something and you want a thinking partner." (08:45)

• Automation Prompting: The most advanced form, aimed at automating repetitive tasks by creating comprehensive prompts that can be reused indefinitely.

  "Automation prompting is where you spend a lot of time upfront creating a prompt that you can just copy, paste, and use over and over and over again." (15:30)

3. Mastering Prompt Engineering: Nine Essential Tips Cole outlines nine key strategies to enhance AI-generated writing:

1. Define Prompting Methods: Understand whether you're engaging in rabbit hole, brainstorming, or automation prompting.

   "Every time you sit down to write and write with AI, you want to first ask yourself what sort of prompting am I doing here?" (16:50)

2. Utilize Claude Projects: Leveraging projects to organize context and resources can significantly improve output quality.

   "Claude Projects really helps organize it. And for some reason, the outputs are way higher quality because these projects are engineered to keep all the thinking within a container." (22:10)

3. Differentiate Singular and Modular Prompts: Singular prompts focus on a single task, while modular prompts break tasks into smaller, manageable components for better precision.

   "Singular prompts are like atomic essays. Modular prompting breaks tasks down into smaller prompts for each component." (28:45)

4. Name Formats Clearly: Assign specific names to different formats to provide clarity and structure within prompts.

   "Naming formats makes it very easy for AI to follow along. It's a helpful forcing function for you and the technology." (35:20)

5. Use Objective Language: Avoid subjective terms that can lead to varied interpretations, ensuring instructions are clear and unambiguous.

   "Objective language requires no interpretation. The more objective you can be with your instructions, the more likely it is that AI is going to give you what you're looking for." (40:00)

6. Incorporate Positive Attributes: Reinforce instructions with specific qualities that enhance the desired output, such as literary devices or stylistic preferences.

   "You want to reinforce the instructions with positive attributes. This is where there's levels to how you can instruct AI to create what you want it to create." (45:10)

7. Provide Exact Examples: Supply concrete examples that mirror the instructions to guide AI in replicating desired patterns and structures.

   "Whatever thing you're instructing AI to do, you want your examples to mirror those instructions as much as possible." (50:05)

8. Specify Delivery Instructions: Clearly articulate how the output should be formatted and presented, both at the beginning and end of prompts.

   "Reinforce the delivery instructions at the beginning and at the end. Be very explicit about how you would like the information presented." (55:30)

9. Iterate and Refine Prompts: Continuously improve prompts by analyzing AI outputs, identifying errors, and adjusting instructions to enhance accuracy and effectiveness.

   "You can ask AI, 'Hey, I noticed some of these things. What could I change in the prompt to not have that happen in the future?'" (1:05:15)

4. Practical Applications and Examples Cole provides a live demonstration of creating a mega prompt for generating short-form social content. By meticulously defining formats, rules, and examples, he showcases how AI can produce content indistinguishable from human-written posts.

"If you take the time to assemble a prompt, now you just cut the amount of time that it takes you to do that task over and over and over again by 50% or 80% indefinitely." (12:25)

5. The Future of Writing with AI Concluding the episode, Cole shares his optimistic perspective on AI's impact on the writing industry. Far from rendering writers obsolete, he believes AI will exponentially increase the number of writers and enhance their effectiveness.

"I think that AI is going to create 100 times more writers and I think it's going to make AI-driven writers ten times more effective." (1:10:30)

Cole encourages writers to embrace AI, highlighting that those who leverage these tools will thrive, while those resistant to change may struggle.

Conclusion Episode 9 of Coffee With Cole offers a comprehensive guide to harnessing AI for superior writing outputs. Through detailed explanations and practical examples, Nicolas Cole equips listeners with the knowledge to transform their writing processes, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between human creativity and AI efficiency.

For more insights and advanced writing frameworks, listeners are invited to subscribe to Cole's newsletter, Write with AI, touted as the second most popular education newsletter on Substack.

Notable Quotes:

"If you aren't getting the outputs that you want, it's not because AI isn't capable, it's because you aren't prompting it correctly." (00:00)

"Brainstorming prompting is where you're actively trying to think through something and you want a thinking partner." (08:45)

"Automation prompting is where you spend a lot of time upfront creating a prompt that you can just copy, paste, and use over and over and over again." (15:30)

"Singular prompts are like atomic essays. Modular prompting breaks tasks down into smaller prompts for each component." (28:45)

"I think that AI is going to create 100 times more writers and I think it's going to make AI-driven writers ten times more effective." (1:10:30)

Resources Mentioned:

• Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth
• Premium Ghostwriting Academy
• Ship 3430

Further Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to subscribe to the Write with AI newsletter on Substack for weekly writing frameworks and prompts, and to suggest future topics for exploration.