Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

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8 Strategies That Will Help You Improve Your Writing Skills

Published January 6, 2023 | Last Updated January 6, 2023 By Nicole Bianchi 9 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

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence: How to Write a Powerfully Persuasive Essay, Article, or Speech (Video)

Published June 26, 2022 | Last Updated June 29, 2022 By Nicole Bianchi 2 Comments

I hope all of your writing projects are going well this June. It’s been a few months since I last published a post here, and I’m happy to finally be back.

While I was away, I was making a new video, and I just uploaded it to YouTube:

You can click on the CC button for subtitles. In this video, I look at a persuasive speech outline called the Motivated Sequence created by psychologist Alan H. Monroe.

I first learned this structure when I was competing in a speech and debate league back in high school. It was extremely effective at grabbing the attention of the audience and inspiring them to action. 

Since then, I’ve continued to use it for articles and essays and have taught it to many writing students who were working on persuasive essays and speeches. And I’ve been wanting to share it here on the blog for quite a while! I hope you find it helpful.

If you enjoy the video, be sure to give it a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe to the channel. This lets me know that you found the video helpful and also encourages YouTube to share it with more people on the platform. Thank you!

**RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO**:

  • 📚 Principles of Speech eBook by Alan H. Monroe: https://archive.org/details/principlesofspeemonr
  • 📚 Paperback copy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xQEyDL
  • 🎙Full Text of “I Have a Dream”: https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety
  • 📝 2015 study on Attention Span: https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/
  • 🎥 My Video about Four Powerful Persuasive Techniques: https://youtu.be/h2Zx6oBolZY
  • 📬 My email newsletter, The Inkwell: https://nicolebianchi.com/newsletter/
[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, copywriting, featured, video, writing

F. Scott Fitzgerald on How to Write Vivid Character Descriptions (Video)

Published December 16, 2021 | Last Updated December 16, 2021 By Nicole Bianchi 1 Comment

If you’re celebrating Christmas next week, I hope you have a lovely, joy-filled holiday. If you don’t celebrate or if this is a difficult time for you, I wish you peace and happiness this December.

And I have a writing gift for you — I’ve just uploaded a new YouTube video:

In this video, I look at how F. Scott Fitzgerald writes vivid physical character descriptions in The Great Gatsby. I share four strategies that will help you describe people in both fiction and nonfiction so they come alive for readers.

I hope you enjoy this last writing resource of 2021! Be sure to give it a like, leave a comment (comments are awesome), and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one in the new year.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

  • 📚 “The Great Gatsby” book: https://amzn.to/3pV3GF9
  • 🎬 Movie stills from “The Great Gatsby” 2013 film: https://amzn.to/3GMGCiD
  • 🎥 Dinner Table Exercise (video): https://youtu.be/39XZzQrHfxY
  • 🎥 How to Close Read (video): https://youtu.be/VSwNF-wqL_I
  • 📝 Fitzgerald on Writing Masterful Dialogue: https://nicolebianchi.com/3-tips-fitzgerald-for-writing-masterful-dialogue/
  • 📝 Fitzgerald on Writing Masterful Descriptions: https://nicolebianchi.com/writing-vivid-description/
  • 📬 My email newsletter, The Inkwell: https://nicolebianchi.com/newsletter/

Some of the above links might be affiliate links. Thank you for helping to support the blog!

Filed Under: copywriting, featured, fiction, video, writing

5 Essential Marketing Strategies From Legendary Copywriter Claude C. Hopkins

Published July 17, 2021 | Last Updated December 15, 2021 By Nicole Bianchi 3 Comments

When you think of the word “copywriter”, you might picture advertising executives like those from the show Mad Men. Copy generally refers to the text in an advertisement: those words that persuade the customer to buy a product or service.

But in today’s Internet age we’re all writing copy even if we’re not selling a product for a company. We might be trying to persuade someone to click a link to read an article or leave a comment on a social media post or sign up to our email list or buy our book and write a review.

No matter whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you can learn invaluable marketing and writing strategies from copywriting books. These strategies will help you write more persuasively and market more effectively so you get your message out to the world.

One of the copywriting classics is a book called My Life in Advertising by legendary copywriter Claude C. Hopkins. It was published way back in 1927 but still contains many copywriting lessons that we can learn from in 2021. 

In today’s post, I’ve written up my top five takeaways. Let’s dive in.

(Please note that links to books are affiliate links which means I’ll earn a small commission if you buy through the link with no extra cost to you. Thank you!)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: copywriting, marketing, writing

4 Copywriting Templates That Will Help You Beat Writer’s Block

Published June 28, 2021 | Last Updated June 28, 2021 By Nicole Bianchi 4 Comments

You’ve poured your heart and soul into creating something new to share with your audience. Maybe it’s a helpful blog post or an entertaining short story or even a product like an online course.

At last, you’re ready to send an email, publish a social media post, or write up a sales page to promote what you’ve created.

But your fingers hover over your keyboard as you struggle to figure out what to write. How can you grab your audience’s attention? How can you communicate the value of what you’ve created and make them eager to check it out?

You don’t want all of your time and effort to go to waste. You don’t want to lose this chance to impact your audience’s lives just because your promotional post wasn’t as compelling as it could be.

Not to worry.

In today’s article, I’m sharing four powerful copywriting templates that will help you structure a piece of writing that captivates your audience.

Whenever I face writer’s block when typing up an email, a social media post, a sales page, or even a blog post introduction, I love turning to these fantastic templates for guidance.

Let’s dive in.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, copywriting, creativity, featured, inspiration, 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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