Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Work with Me

How Tea Helps Boost My Focus and Creativity in the Afternoon

Published March 12, 2017 | Last Updated August 7, 2017 By Nicole Bianchi 27 Comments

How Tea Helps Boost My Focus and Creativity in the Afternoon


Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

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…]

Filed Under: creativity, inspiration, productivity, writing

How to Use Medium to Share Your Writing and Grow Your Email List

Published February 18, 2017 | Last Updated September 29, 2017 By Nicole Bianchi 40 Comments


Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

As a writer, you’re probably seeking more exposure for your work. What if I told you there was a website where you could publish your writing and tap into a potential audience of 30,000 people per month?

Enter Medium. A blogging and publishing platform developed by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, it’s a fantastic place to share new articles or republish old blog posts and reach more readers.

However, there are several steps you need to take in order to get your writing in front of Medium’s audience. When I first tried posting on Medium back in March 2016, my posts received very little views and interaction. Feeling discouraged, I stopped posting.

But in November a friend encouraged me to try posting again. One of her posts had gone viral on the platform and brought her several hundred new email subscribers. She advised that I try submitting to Medium publications. These publications are like magazines that exist inside the Medium platform and curate articles around specific topics.

I followed my friend’s advice, and the results were amazing. My Medium following grew from around 200 people to 1,800. Three of my posts ended up becoming trending articles in a publication and as of today have received over twenty-five thousand views. Another was featured on the Medium homepage.

Best of all, Medium drove traffic back to my website. Over the past three months, 550+ new subscribers have joined my email list with most of those subscribers coming directly from Medium.

Today, I’m going to share with you how to set up an account and all of the strategies I’ve used to turn Medium readers into subscribers. [Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, writing

The Top Ten Books I Read in 2016

Published February 8, 2017 | Last Updated August 7, 2017 By Nicole Bianchi 14 Comments

The Top Ten Books I Read in 2016


Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

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!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: book reviews, creativity, inspiration, writing

How to Write Compelling Blog Posts That Your Readers Will Love

Published January 19, 2017 | Last Updated December 10, 2018 By Nicole Bianchi 66 Comments

How to Write Compelling Blog Posts That Your Readers Will Love


Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

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…]

Filed Under: blogging, writing

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

Published December 17, 2016 | Last Updated October 24, 2017 By Nicole Bianchi 12 Comments

The Memoir Project


Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

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. 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. I’m also running a holiday giveaway to win a copy of Marion’s book!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: book reviews, inspiration, writing

10 Films About Writers When You Need Some Motivation

Published December 7, 2016 | Last Updated March 26, 2018 By Nicole Bianchi 40 Comments

10 Films About Writers When You Need Some Motivation


Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

Several weeks ago I wanted to relax after a long day of writing so I decided to watch a movie. And what could be better than watching a movie about a writer? Haha, we writers can’t get away from writing for long, can we?

Films about writers often give me an extra boost of inspiration and motivation. Seeing someone on the big screen struggling to craft their story reminds me that writing is a process. There will be ups and downs, but we have to keep striving forward.

I chose to watch Misery, the intense thriller based on the novel by Stephen King about a writer who gets kidnapped and tortured by his number one fan. No, it wasn’t very relaxing at all, but it was a gripping story. It got me thinking about the lessons about writing that we can learn from movies like these.

So today I’m sharing with you ten movies about writing that I’ve enjoyed and the different lessons I’ve learned from them. This list is far from exhaustive. It is not meant to represent the top ten best writing films of all time (believe me, there are many more fantastic movies about writing, and I could probably have made this list more than twice as long with all of them).

These are just ten entertaining films (in no particular order) that serve up some insightful lessons about writing and the writing process. I hope they will give you an extra boost of inspiration and motivation too! [Read more…]

Filed Under: inspiration, motivation, movie reviews, writing

6 Tips From John Steinbeck That Will Help You Complete Your First Book

Published November 15, 2016 | Last Updated February 28, 2018 By Nicole Bianchi 29 Comments

6 Tips From John Steinbeck That Will Help You Complete Your First Book

Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

Today marks the halfway point of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This November, writers from all around the world have been racing to complete a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days.

If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, maybe you’re one of those writers who’s already finished their novel or is right on track to have it completed by November 30. If so, congratulations! But maybe you’re like me: terribly behind in your word count and feeling a bit overwhelmed.

I jumped into the challenge excited to begin working on a new story. But soon my schedule became busy. I kept writing when I could, but I started to fall behind in my target daily word count. Today when I checked my stats, I realized I was over 10,000 words behind.

When you’re working on a huge writing project and start falling behind, it’s easy to feel frustrated and even consider giving up. That’s how I’ve felt at times, but I’ve kept moving forward, thanks in part to some wonderful advice from John Steinbeck.

Steinbeck was an expert at finishing long writing projects. The Grapes of Wrath is over 500 pages long while his marvelous epic East of Eden (one of my favorite novels) runs about six hundred pages. In a 1962 letter to his friend Robert Wallsten, Steinbeck shared his six strategies for successfully making it through the first draft of a book.

Whether you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, writing a nonfiction or fiction book on your own, or just tackling a huge writing project, John Steinbeck’s six tips can help you get back on track to bringing your project through to completion.

I’ve taken his tips and presented them in a helpful infographic. Check it out below.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: creativity, motivation, productivity, writing

How to Build a Powerful Website for Your Writing

Published October 24, 2016 | Last Updated December 28, 2018 By Nicole Bianchi 28 Comments

photo-1456244797041-024e2abaf31c

My website building adventures began when I was thirteen years old. I’d been printing a literary newsletter filled with book reviews and short stories and giving copies to friends and family. My parents encouraged me to publish the newsletter online and helped me get started with my first website.

That website no longer exists (I’ve created many different websites since then, and eventually in college, I began working as a web designer). But I still remember the excitement I felt when I hit publish on my first online newsletter and realized that anyone in the world could stumble across my website and read my writing.

Stephen King once observed that writing is about “enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.” By publishing your writing on the Internet, you are able to reach and inspire more people than you could ever imagine.

A website will give you a platform where you can publish and promote your work and establish your expertise. It will give you a way to build an audience and connect with other writers.

Ready to get started?

In today’s post, I’ve put together a quick and easy guide with my top 5 tips for creating a professional website for your writing. Please note that some of the links are affiliate links, but I only recommend services I use and think highly of.

If you have any trouble while setting up your website, you can reach out to me for help. Book a 1-on-1 strategy session with me, and we’ll have you up and running in no time.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, websites, writing

William Faulkner on How to Think Like a Successful Writer

Published August 29, 2016 | Last Updated November 6, 2018 By Nicole Bianchi 30 Comments

William Faulkner on How to Think Like a Successful Writer
William Faulkner, ca. 1954. | Photograph by Carl Van Vechten

I’m trying to dash off this post before I get swallowed up again by my short story.

Yes, I know I’ve been absent from the blog this month, but August has found me immersed in developing characters and crafting scenes. Whenever I sat down to write a blog post, I became distracted by a scene in the story that I needed to polish or a character that I wanted to add.

The writing process has been quite fun, but now I’m nearing the end of the story, and the usual fears are beginning to surface:

Is the story really any good? Have I succeeded in making the characters compelling or are they one-dimensional? Will I be able to tie everything together in the conclusion? Will it connect with the reader? Will people criticize my work?

This past week I came across a 1956 interview with Nobel laureate William Faulkner in The Paris Review. Several of his observations have encouraged me to see my story through to the end despite my doubts.

If you need a bit of inspiration in your writing journey, read on for Faulkner’s wise words on why it is healthy for the artist to question his work and the formula for becoming a good writer. [Read more…]

Filed Under: inspiration, motivation, writing

The Rilke Test: How to Know if You Have What It Takes to Be a Writer

Published July 27, 2016 | Last Updated July 30, 2016 By Nicole Bianchi 36 Comments

The Rilke Test: How to Know if You Are Called to Be a Writer
Rainer Maria Rilke at his writing desk / (Wikimedia Commons)

Have you ever doubted whether you had the talent to make it as a writer? Have you wondered whether your writing was good enough to be successful? Did you ever fear that your work would be dismissed as irrelevant?

Even the greatest writers have faced these doubts at one time or another. What is it that keeps them writing? How are they able to overcome these fears?

Perhaps it’s because they’ve discovered the most important question all successful writers need to answer first.

In the winter of 1903, 19-year-old aspiring poet Franz Xaver Kappus was confronted with this question. A student at the Theresian Military Academy in Austria, Kappus wrote poetry in his spare time while wrestling with uncertainty over his future career in the army.

He considered dropping out of school, but how could he be sure his writing dreams weren’t just a passing whim?

One day, Kappus found out that Rainer Maria Rilke, a famous poet he admired, had attended the same academy in the 1880s. Suffering from ill-health, Rilke had ultimately ended up abandoning a military career in favor of writing.

Kappus decided to write to Rilke with the hope that the poet could tell him if his poems showed any promise. To Kappus’s delight, Rilke replied. The poet posed a question that Kappus could answer to help him decide whether he should continue at the academy or pursue his writing dreams.

If you are struggling with self-doubt like Kappus did, read on for Rilke’s simple method for determining if you have what it takes to become a writer.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: inspiration, writing

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • Next Page »

Hi, I’m Nicole! I help creatives, business owners, and writers like you improve their writing and copywriting skills, grow their online audience, market their work, and boost their productivity. Find out more about me here.
•••
“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

___________________

AS SEEN ON:
 

Get the Book!

“If I could go back and change one thing about my writing career…I would have started an email list from day one. You should do the same. And this book is the perfect guide to help you.”

– Jeff Goins, bestselling author of Real Artists Don’t Starve

Follow Me on Facebook

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Medium
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Amazon Associates Disclosure

Nicole Bianchi is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Copyright © 2019 Nicole Bianchi · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Psalm 45:1