Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

Five of the Best Creative Writing Exercises (video)

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It’s been a few months since I last sent this email newsletter. I’ve been busy working on a novel draft (just reached 50K words!) and working on various projects for clients. I hope all of your writing projects have been going well too. 

But I did finally manage to put the finishing touches on a new video and just published it to YouTube (I hope you’ll find it helpful).

These exercises will help you practice essential skills like crafting vivid descriptions, writing effective dialogue, creating compelling characters, and much more.

You can click on the CC button for subtitles. I’d love for this video to inspire as many writers as possible. You can help by giving it a like on YouTube to encourage the algorithm to share it with more people. 

And I always love hearing your thoughts in the comments. Thank you!

FURTHER RESOURCES

Jack London’s Strategies for Writing Success (Video)

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Jack London was one of the most popular American writers and the highest paid of the 1900s. In a 1903 article for “The Editor” magazine, he shared the secrets of how he learned to write, persevere, and become a famous author. Discover these secrets in this new video on the Youtube channel.

I previously shared London’s advice in a blog post, but now I have updated and expanded that post and turned it into this video.

You can click on the CC button for subtitles. I’d love for this video to inspire as many writers as possible. You can help by giving it a like on YouTube to encourage the algorithm to share it with more people. 

And I always love hearing your thoughts in the comments. Thank you!

**FURTHER RESOURCES**:

The 5 Best Passages From Books I Read in 2023: Steal These Powerful Writing Techniques

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Photo by Suzy Hazelwood

This past year, I read over twenty books, both fiction and nonfiction. Several of those books were amazing reads, others left me a little disappointed. But I learned something new from each one that helped me improve my own writing.

As I read, I tried to pay attention to how the authors implemented storytelling principles, how they handled transitions, how they crafted their opening sentences and concluding paragraphs, etc.

When I came across a paragraph that struck me with its eloquence, I wrote it down. That helped me study it on an even deeper level and absorb the author’s techniques for structure and style.

In today’s blog post, I’m sharing five of the best paragraphs (in no particular order) that I collected in 2023 and what I learned from them. Let’s dive in.

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How to Write Like C. S. Lewis (Video)

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Happy New Year! Let’s start the year with some wonderful writing advice from C. S. Lewis. I just uploaded this new video to the Youtube channel.

In 1950, C. S. Lewis wrote a letter to a young fan of his Chronicles of Narnia series. He critiqued the fan’s writing and also shared his five rules for writing well.

I previously shared Lewis’s advice in a blog post, but now I have updated and expanded that post and turned it into this video.

You can click on the CC button for subtitles. My goal is for this video to help as many writers as possible. Be sure to give it a thumbs up on YouTube as this encourages the algorithm to share it with more people. 

And I always love hearing your thoughts in the comments. Thank you!

What an Orchid Taught Me About Creativity

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Orchid in blossom
Photo by Lina Yaroslavska on Unsplash

Several months ago, my dad surprised me with a wonderful gift. “I bought you a miniature orchid for your desk,” he said.

It joined a growing (pun intended) collection of plants on my desk, though I’m not sure those other plants are sufficiently challenging for me to claim a green thumb yet. My jade plant, snake plant, money tree, aloe, and succulent are all low maintenance. 

I’d never taken care of an orchid before, and when I read about it online, it sounded almost as difficult as a bonsai I’d had many years ago that had not lived very long.

But the orchid’s delicate purple flowers were beautiful. After they had all fallen off, I was determined to try to keep the orchid alive. Hopefully, I could encourage it to bloom again.

I watered it with ice cubes according to the instructions. I bought a plant fertilizer. And I even tried my hand at pruning the stems.

Then something horrible happened. The stems turned brown and shriveled up. 

Had I done something wrong? Was the plant dead?

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