Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

5 Writing Tips from Ernest Hemingway

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In the spring of 1934, an aspiring writer named Arnold Samuelson hitchhiked from Minnesota to Florida to see if he could land a meeting with his favorite author. Feeling discouraged over his writing, Samuelson believed he needed a mentor to help him improve his craft.

The writer he had picked to be his mentor? Ernest Hemingway.

Samuelson showed up at Hemingway’s front door and begged the famous author for just a few minutes of conversation. Much to Samuelson’s delight, Hemingway agreed to talk with him and read some of his work. Although Hemingway wasn’t particularly impressed by Samuelson’s writing, he was impressed by the 22-year-old’s seriousness and dedication.

Unfortunately, Hemingway had planned to leave Florida soon on his boat Pilar. But luckily for Samuelson, Hemingway invited him to join the crew. While at sea, Samuelson had the rare opportunity to pick Hemingway’s brains about writing.

In a 1935 article for Esquire magazine, Hemingway shared some of the advice he had given Samuelson. Read on for five of Hemingway’s tips that we can use to improve our own writing.

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How Tea Helps Boost My Focus and Creativity in the Afternoon

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Steaming mug on table in front of window
Photo by John-Mark Smith on Unsplash

Do you ever begin to feel tired and have difficulty focusing on your creative projects as the afternoon wears on?

In the late afternoon when I begin to feel my creative energy take a nosedive, I pause from my writing projects to enjoy tea time with my family. This is a tradition passed down to us from my British grandmother.

She saw afternoon tea as just as important a time in the day as breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I remember a conversation I once had with her when she was telling me about her experiences as a child in London during WWII.

Her family eventually sent her to the countryside during the Blitz, but she remembered before that how they would sit together in an Anderson shelter in their neighbor’s yard. She told me they put the kettle on before heading to the shelter. When the kettle whistled, one of her sisters dashed to the kitchen to prepare the tea and brought it back to the shelter.

Clearly, not even a war could come between a Londoner and her tea. The tea must have helped my grandmother cling to a sense of calm and normalcy as she waited out the air-raid warning.

In fact, when I did a little digging into the benefits of tea, I discovered that thanks to a special ingredient, tea really does relax you. Additionally, because it has less caffeine than coffee, it doesn’t cause caffeine jitters that mess with your focus and concentration. But it does give you a boost of creative energy. 

Maybe this is why so many of us writers like to drink a cup of tea while we are writing.

Read on to discover several of the famous writers who loved tea and how tea can improve your health and enhance your creativity. [Read more…]

The Top Ten Books I Read in 2016

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open book on table next to vase full of flowers, tea cup, and stack of books
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

This past year, I read thirty-five books in four different languages: English, Spanish, Italian, and French. (Yes, I might be a little obsessed with studying foreign languages.)

Some of those books I loved, others left me a little disappointed. But I learned something new from each one that helped me improve my own writing. As William Faulkner once observed,

Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.

Today, I’m rounding up ten of my favorite reads from 2016. This is always a difficult task so I’ve decided to divide this list up into categories and choose four literary works, three writing craft books, and three books on creativity to share with you.

Read on to discover which books made it into my top ten. I hope you’ll find new books to add to your reading list!

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How to Write Compelling Blog Posts That Your Readers Will Love

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Open laptop on table surrounded by mug of coffee, pencils, notepad, crumpled pieces of paper
Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash

Recently, I was talking to a friend who was feeling disappointed with her blog. She’d publish a post, and all she’d hear were crickets. Even after promoting her posts, hardly anyone was commenting or sharing her articles.

Most of us bloggers know what that feels like.

When I began this blog just over a year ago, I set out to write blog posts that would inspire and help fellow writers. But after spending days crafting a post, I would only receive a handful of comments.

Most of those comments were positive, though, and they encouraged me to keep going. Still, I felt a little discouraged. I wanted my posts to reach more readers.

After a while, it occurred to me that maybe the problem wasn’t with my content but with the way I was presenting it.

So I decided to study the rules of copywriting and read every article I could get my hands on about how to write powerful blog posts.

As I started implementing what I was learning, my posts began receiving more and more comments and shares (one even went viral on StumbleUpon). The Writing Cooperative recently republished several updated versions of those blog posts. Three of them ended up becoming trending articles and as of today have received over twenty-three thousand views.

In today’s post, I’m boiling down into five steps everything I’ve learned about writing blog posts over the past year. This isn’t a guide to writing viral posts (though your post may well go viral if you follow these steps). Rather, this is a guide to writing compelling blog posts that will resonate with your readers and add value to their lives. [Read more…]

8 Tips from The Memoir Project That Will Make You a Powerful Storyteller

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Cover of the Memoir Project book

Back in September, I traveled to Tennessee to attend the 2016 Tribe Conference, a writing conference run by my friend Jeff Goins.

All of the speakers were amazing and shared so much wisdom on writing. I filled up an entire notebook with everything I learned, but I particularly loved Marion Roach Smith’s talk.

She illustrated all of her writing advice with stories, recounting her experiences writing for The New York Times and NPR and her struggle to pen a memoir about her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Marion is a powerful storyteller. I lost my own grandmother to Alzheimer’s, and Marion’s words drew me in and resonated with me.

Afterward, even though I previously didn’t have any intention of writing a memoir, I hurried to the book table to meet Marion and buy a copy of her guide to memoir writing, The Memoir Project (Amazon affiliate link). She was kind and encouraging and wrote in my book, “Tell your tale and write on.”

I dove into The Memoir Project on the flight home, and since then I’ve kept coming back to it for tips on how to improve my writing.

Don’t let the title fool you. This book isn’t just for memoirists.

Telling compelling stories adds another dimension to our writing. This fascinating Infographic shows how the human brain is hardwired to respond to storytelling differently than other forms of writing.

If you’re writing an article about Alzheimer’s, you could just quote studies and statistics. Or you could go one step further by including the stories of Alzheimer’s sufferers. The second method will impact your reader more than any study or stat could.

Whether you’re a blogger or any other kind of nonfiction writer, you can use the techniques of memoirists to connect with your readers on a deeper level.

In today’s post, I’m sharing eight storytelling tips that I learned from The Memoir Project.

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