Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

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The Future of Blogging + My Writing Goals for 2023

Published January 29, 2023 | Last Updated February 1, 2023 By Nicole Bianchi 1 Comment

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood

I sent this blog’s very first email newsletter way back in 2016. That’s seven years ago! 

A lot has changed in the blogging world since then. In fact, it was just around that time that video was rising in popularity, and people were beginning to ask whether blogging was dying.

Funnily enough, Vine (the popular short form video platform at the time) did end up dying. But short form video did not. Instagram reels, Tik Tok videos, and YouTube shorts have become all the rage.

So, seven years later, is blogging dead? 

I have to admit that I’ve worried over that question. It has seemed that people have been losing interest in blogging over the years. Many of the bloggers I knew back in 2016 have long stopped blogging. Even I started creating YouTube videos in addition to my blog posts.

However, over the past year or so I’ve sensed a shift.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, creativity, featured, marketing, writing

Ernest Hemingway’s Favorite Writing Exercise (Video)

Published January 7, 2023 | Last Updated January 7, 2023 By Nicole Bianchi Leave a Comment

Let’s start this year with some wonderful writing advice from Ernest Hemingway.

I’ve just uploaded a new YouTube video sharing Hemingway’s 3-step exercise that will help you improve your writing. I hope this video gives you a bit of inspiration as you work towards your 2023 writing goals.

An aspiring writer once asked Ernest Hemingway, “How can a writer train himself?” Hemingway shared an exercise for sharpening a writer’s observational skills so they can vividly describe their experiences on paper. This exercise can be broken down into three-steps and gives us a fantastic way to practice “show, don’t tell” in our writing.

You can click on the CC button for subtitles. My goal is for this video to help as many writers as possible. 🙂 It would be awesome if you could give it a thumbs up on YouTube and share it with a fellow writer. And I always love hearing your thoughts in the comments. Thank you!

Here’s the full text of Hemingway’s article “Monologue to the Maestro”.

**FURTHER RESOURCES**:

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Filed Under: creativity, featured, fiction, inspiration, motivation, video, writing

8 Strategies That Will Help You Improve Your Writing Skills

Published January 6, 2023 | Last Updated January 6, 2023 By Nicole Bianchi 8 Comments

Black journal and yellow pencil on wooden table. | 8 Strategies That Will Help You Improve Your Writing Skills
Photo by Aaron Burden

Ernest Hemingway once observed of writers,

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

No matter where you are in your writing journey (maybe you’re just starting out or maybe you’re already a published author), there is always more to learn in order to improve your skills and inspire more people with your words.

In today’s post, I’m sharing eight ways you can become a better writer in the New Year.

Let’s dive in. [Read more…]

Filed Under: copywriting, creativity, featured, motivation, writing

How to Develop a Daily Writing Habit: 7 Effective Strategies

Published January 4, 2023 | Last Updated January 30, 2023 By Nicole Bianchi 26 Comments


Ray Bradbury once stated, “I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true — hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice.”

If you need thousands of hours of practice to become an expert at your craft, then writing every day is the quickest way to start racking up those hours in order to become a master wordsmith.

Writing daily has other benefits besides helping you sharpen your writing skills.

It forces you to clarify your thoughts and arrange them logically. It helps you become a more creative person because you must think up new ideas each day to write about. And, finally, it gives you a constructive way to redeem the time by training you to work productively every day.

Of course, if you’re not used to writing regularly, you’ll probably find it difficult at first. I know I did. I’d make excuses that I didn’t have enough time that day, that I wasn’t inspired, that I had just finished a project and had no idea what to write about next, that I was suffering from an incurable form of writer’s block.

However, these are all bad excuses. Writing every day actually boosts your creativity and helps you overcome writer’s block. Writer’s block is more difficult to beat if you write only sporadically because then writing is unnatural rather than being second nature.

Ultimately, when you start writing every day, eventually it becomes easier and easier to write every day.

Now I make sure to write something every day: it might just be an entry in my journal or it might be several paragraphs of a new article or a new short story.

Here are the seven steps that help me write every day.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, creativity, featured, inspiration, motivation, productivity, writing

7 Inspiring Questions For A Personal Year-End Review

Published December 20, 2022 | Last Updated December 20, 2022 By Nicole Bianchi Leave a Comment

This is a post that I originally shared in 2020 that I’ve updated for 2023. Enjoy!

The new year is right around the corner. If you’re like me, you’re already thinking about goals for the new year and planning out projects you hope to accomplish.

But, it’s worthwhile to take a step back and put these past twelve months in perspective. At the end of each year, I do that by writing up a personal year-end review.

This exercise helps me set myself up for success in January. I reflect over what I achieved during the year, what obstacles I faced, and what lessons I learned. I try to think positively on the past year so I’ll be motivated and inspired as the new one begins.

The insights I gain help me choose my goals for the new year. I’m able to see what worked and what didn’t so I can draw up a plan of action. As the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once wrote, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

In today’s blog post, I’m sharing the seven questions from my annual review. Feel free to adapt them as you like — your answers can be a few sentences or several paragraphs long. It’s entirely up to you.

And you can still do this annual review even if December has passed. I usually write it up the last week of December, but I’ve also completed it at the beginning of January.

Let’s dive in.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, creativity, featured, inspiration, motivation, productivity, writing

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Hi, I’m Nicole! I help creatives, business owners, and writers take their writing and copywriting to the next level and grow their online audience. I’m also a published writer of essays and short stories. As a Christian, I seek to follow in the tradition of artists like Johann Sebastian Bach, dedicating all my work Soli Deo gloria.
Find out more about me here.
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“My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.”
– Psalm 45:1

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