From Flipping Burgers to 1.7 Million Followers
15 Lessons from His Writing Process on X.
Sheehan Quirke, also known as The Cultural Tutor, built a writing empire on X with 1.7 million followers, leaving his job at McDonald’s.
I recently listened to the podcast — Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal, featuring an interview with the Cultural Tutor.
I found it insightful and took notes. Here, I’m sharing a thread with 15 of the best ideas that might be useful to you.
Here you go 👇🏽
1. Credibility Test:
Am I qualified? Do I have the expertise?
These questions trigger imposter syndrome. Write what you want, No one cares except you.
Publishing online benefits you either way.
Good - Insight about what works.
Bad - Insight about improvement.
The ultimate test of credibility is how people respond to it. Like, you know if you worry that you don’t have the authority to write about what you want to write. Write about it, let other people be the judge of that because if they don’t like it they’ll tell you. — Sheehan Quirke
2. Be curious:
Focus on what excites you.
Dive into topics or historical figures that spark your interest. This makes process enjoyable.
I’m writing them for myself because I’m really curious to know about them because I’d like to I know a few of the facts about the life of comus but I’d like to try and write something about him properly. When I’m writing these things it it’s it’s for me because I want to know about them because I’m curious. — Sheehan Quirke
3. Be Real:
Annoyed by a bulb, Sheehan took a picture and shared his feelings.
The thread went viral with 500K likes and 100K new followers.
Why? It was genuine.
Write about real things and feelings.
I just took a photo of a light switch in my house. This light switch I really hated, it’s similar to to the one over there actually this sort of just this white pointy plastic light switch and it was really annoying me that day. So I took a photo of it and then wrote this thread about um the problem with modern architecture not being quite what you think it is. And that got 15,000 likes and my follow account shot up after that to like 12 or 13,000. — Sheehan Quirke
4. Handling Rejections:
Your writing reflects your thoughts. Stand by your views.
If you’re happy with what you’ve written, that’s great.
If you feel good about it and stand by it, nothing can stop you.
Focus on whether you are happy with it because if you’re happy with it, if you can put something online and say I stand by this then you’ll be fine. And nothing can bother you. No problem can stand in your way online. Whether you go big or you fall, you’ll be okay. — Sheehan Quirke
5. Reading older books:
Sheehan reads books over 50 years old to stand out in his writing, as everyone else reads current bestsellers.
May be, because he writes about culture and history.
A better approach might be diversifying reading genres.
I don’t read anything published in the last 50 years for a couple of reasons. One off course is that if you read the same books as everyone else not only will you write the same way but you’ll think the same way. So instead of reading you know whatever is on the on the New York Times bestseller list I’m reading something published 700 years ago. Whatever I end up writing will inevitably be different. — Sheehan Quirke
6. Raise the stakes:
You take Social Media lightly, and nothing wrong with that.
But for serious writing, you must trick the brain that it’s important.
When the stakes are high, you put more effort, which reflects in the outcome.
Who cares about social media or what people are saying online but if you trick yourself into thinking this is all that matters then suddenly the stakes are raised. When the stakes are higher we all perform better. — Sheehan Quirke
7. Getting ideas:
Understanding is more important than information.
When you understand something, your brain connects the dots and merges it with other ideas.
You might not agree with some popular opinions, which will stem in your understanding. You may write a contrarian article for the topic.
Understanding is more important than just having facts. When you start to understand something, you begin to make connections that you didn’t see before. This helps you see things in a new way, allowing you to compare different ideas and write about them better. — Sheehan Quirke
8. Writing Routine:
Sheehan wakes up late, takes a cold shower, wears a tie, and goes for a walk.
He thinks and observes until an idea strikes.
Then returns to write, researching and publishing late at night.
(I don’t recommend this routine due to health concerns.)
I don’t have a Content schedule. I just wake up and wait until something strikes me. Something inspires me that day and then I write about it when the passion is there. When it’s fresh in your mind that that that I think that’s the vital part of my writing process. — Sheehan Quirke
9. Write when an idea strikes:
Sheehan urges to write immediately when an idea hits you.
Sometimes you can find him running on the streets of the UK when inspiration strikes (don’t bother him then).
Tip — Use phone if you can’t run.
Some days if I’m on the street and then I’ve got an idea I I’ll run home because I’m like I have to start typing for and I I literally run down the street back back to where I live and I’write. — Sheehan Quirke
10. Passion + Rational = Success
Writing with passion is great, but it must be rational.
Put effort into researching and editing your piece.
Once it’s out there, it’s irreversible.
Be mindful of the writing process.
I think all the greatest stuff doesn’t just come from this pure completely uncontrolled passion and that stuff usually ends up being messy and poorly structured. The best work always comes when you have have the passion and you can see it clearly but then you’re also able when you need to to step back and think about it very rationally. — Sheehan Quirke
11. Trust yourself:
A lot of writing advice out there. How much can you follow?
There is no one way to do something.
Trust your instincts.
If an idea excites you and you feel good about writing it, go for it.
What we all have is a instinct a spark whatever it is that thing inside you. That little voice, that good feeling and I think you’ve got to trust that and sometimes it’s wrong you got to learn to understand yourself more clearly but as soon as you start ignoring that instinct within you I think that’s when you get lost. — Sheehan Quirke
12. Writing for the Algorithm:
Sheehan admits he fell into the trap of engagement.
He wrote a few pieces that turned out poorly; they didn’t perform well, and he felt bad afterward.
He says it’s much better to write what makes you happy than to write for engagement.
I have been tempted to write about things because I think people want to hear it and occasionally. I’ve fallen for that Temptation. I’ve written something because I think this will get the most engagement. Those sorts of pieces have done the worst either just got the worst engagement or got the worst feedback and I didn’t feel very good about them afterwards. I think I’ve come to realize it’s worth paying the price of what you think will be less engagement creating something you actually want to create and that you’re proud of. — Sheehan Quirke
13. Deadlines:
His only goal is to write one thread a day, and he has maintained this for two years.
He believes that everyone has ideas to write about, but execution is more important than having ideas.
A deadline is incredibly useful because it forces you to write.
What you lack is deadlines not ideas and that’s essentially the rule I’ve applied to my work. On Twitter one thread a day. Ideas are cheap. There’s like 10 billion ideas and you can think of 100 ideas a day. The difficulty is in picking one and executing it, yeah that’s the skill. — Sheehan Quirke
14. Passion over routine:
Sheehan prefers passion over routine, believing strict schedules can hinder creativity and lead to writer’s block.
For example, if you miss your morning writing time, feel free to write in the afternoon or evening instead.
You think by having the perfect routine good things will just happen and and they’ll manifest. That might not be true, and at least if ever I’ve written anything good it’s not because I had a good routine or because I was being productive. It all came from Passion and brute force and a little bit of chaos. — Sheehan Quirke
15. Useful, Interesting and Beautiful:
Sheehan focuses on 3 factors while writing:
- Is it useful?
- • Is it interesting?
- • Is it beautiful?
You can apply these filters while writing.
Beautiful means shorter sentences, fragmented into paragraphs, make it easier on the eyes.
I hope what I write is useful I I always say what I produce I want it to be useful and interesting and beautiful for other people. — Sheehan Quirke
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Thank you for reading and good luck with your writing.
