Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

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

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Open book in front of Hudson River and mountains
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 (Amazon affiliate link) 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.

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15 Famous Writers’ Fascinating and Unusual Hobbies

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Used paintbrushes and tubes of paint on wood table smeared with paint
Photo by Andrian Valeanu on Unsplash

Want to improve your writing? Master a new hobby.

Leo Tolstoy played chess. Ayn Rand collected stamps. Other famous writers liked to take a break from writing to play a round of golf or try a new recipe or paint with watercolors.

These hobbies not only gave them new experiences to write about but also helped them develop skills that made them better writers.

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15 of the Best Free Web Applications for Writers

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(I’ve just published an updated and expanded version of this post. You can find it here: 20 of the Best Free Web Applications for Writers.)

Once upon a time, the typewriter was the only piece of technology a writer had to make his work easier. Now we not only have computers, but we can also access an endless array of useful writing tools on the Internet. Best of all, many of these web applications are absolutely free!

But it takes time to hunt down these apps (time you could be spending on writing), so I’ve done the work for you and put together a list of my favorites. Read on to discover 15 of the best free web applications for writers.

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How to Spark Inspiration with a Powerful Writing Ritual

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Pen resting on top of journal covered in handwriting
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

A story idea suddenly appears in your head with a complete beginning, middle, and end. You sit down to write, and the words flow freely. It’s as if the story is typing itself.

How often do you experience that kind of burst of incredible inspiration?

I’m guessing that probably doesn’t happen to you very often. (If it does, I am incredibly envious of your superpower.)

However, for the majority of us writers, the Muse is more like a grouchy hibernating bear who refuses to leave its cave. If we wait for her to drop in on us before we start writing, we probably would only end up with a handful of words every year.

In Jack London’s 1905 essay on how to become a published writer, he wisely observed, “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.”

London believed that writing daily was the best way to rouse the sleeping Muse. He advised in his essay, “Set yourself a ‘stint,’ and see that you do that ‘stint’ each day; you will have more words to your credit at the end of the year.”

However, implementing a daily writing habit is hard work, and even when we show up at the computer, the words might still refuse to come.

We need a way to lure the Muse out of the cave, and one of the best ways to do that is with a writing ritual. Read on to discover how several famous writers used writing rituals to spark inspiration and how you too can design a powerful writing ritual to achieve your daily writing goals. [Read more…]

Want to Become a Better Writer? Go For a Walk

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Person walking on top of fallen tree on a forest trail
Photo by John Flobrant on Unsplash

If you’re like most writers, you probably spend a big part of your day seated at your desk in front of a computer.

There are stories and blog posts to write, comments to reply to, emails to send, Facebook pages and Instagram accounts to update, articles to Tweet, and the list goes on. If we’re not careful, we can easily fall into the trap of staring at a computer screen for hours.

And that’s not only detrimental to our health but also detrimental to our creativity.

Science fiction writer Orson Scott Card observes, “Take care of your body. Writing is a sedentary business; it’s easy for many of us to get fat and sluggish. Your brain is attached to the rest of your body. You can’t do your best work when you’re weak or in ill health.”

Card’s solution? A daily walk. He writes, “It’s worth the time to take an hour’s walk before writing. You may write a bit less for the time spent, but you may find that you write better.”

Card isn’t the only writer who lauded the benefits of walking. Read on to discover several of the famous writers who were also walkers and how a daily walk can boost your creativity.

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