Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

How to Write a Powerful Inciting Incident (Video)

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The inciting incident or “call to adventure” is the event that launches the main action of a story, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction.

When your inciting incident is powerful and upends the life of your protagonist, you have one of the key ingredients for a gripping and unforgettable story that your readers won’t be able to put down.

In this video, I share three rules for crafting powerful inciting incidents and also look at mistakes to avoid when writing this critical part of your story.

I hope you enjoy the video! It would be awesome if you could give it a thumbs up and leave a comment on YouTube. This helps me know you are enjoying these videos. Do you have any more tips for writing a gripping inciting incident?

Also make sure to subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already!

I’ve just started making YouTube videos and really appreciate your support. I hope the video inspires you with your writing. Thanks for watching! 

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How To Use “The Hero’s Journey” in Fiction and Nonfiction Writing (video)

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I’m excited to share a new video with you today! 

It’s all about the fantastic story template called the Hero’s Journey. In this video, I look at how you can use this template for both fiction and nonfiction to make your writing more compelling and captivate your readers.

I hope you enjoy the video! It would be awesome if you could give it a thumbs up and leave a comment. Have you used the hero’s journey before or will you use it in a future piece of writing? Also make sure to subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already!

I’ve just started making YouTube videos and really appreciate your support. I hope the video inspires you with your writing. Thanks for watching! 

**RECOMMENDED RESOURCES**:

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

3 Powerful Writing Exercises from Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Steering the Craft”

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Last year, I compiled two articles sharing writing exercises from famous authors. Writing exercises give you a fantastic way to strengthen specific skills through deliberate practice. They can also help you spark new ideas for stories or memoir essays or blog posts (very helpful if you’re struggling with writer’s block!).

In response to the articles, a reader asked if I had ever read Ursula K. Le Guin’s book Steering the Craft (Amazon affiliate link), saying it was filled with a powerful set of writing exercises too.

Well, of course, I immediately put it on my to-read list. This past month I found a copy at my local library, and I dove in.

Le Guin was a sci-fi and fantasy author, but her book Steering the Craft is a useful guide for both fiction and nonfiction writers.

It deals with the nuts and bolts of the craft of writing and the subtle stylistic choices that will help you take your writing to the next level. For example, there’s a chapter on how to select the best point of view for your piece. Each chapter ends with several writing exercises so you can put into practice what you learned.

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The Ladder of Abstraction: Make Your Writing Memorable (Video)

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I’m excited to share a new video with you today! It’s all about a fascinating writing concept that I discovered while reading Jack Hart’s book Storycraft. It will help you make your fiction and nonfiction writing more memorable and meaningful to your readers.

I hope you enjoy the video! It would be awesome if you could give it a thumbs up and leave a comment because this tells YouTube to show the video to more writers on the platform. Also make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already!

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3 Fantastic Writing Tips from Arthur Conan Doyle

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Doyle in 1930, license

This month I’ve been watching Granada’s “Sherlock Holmes” television series from the 1980s starring Jeremy Brett.

While I’ve enjoyed numerous different screen adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery stories (including Cumberbatch’s modern spin on the detective), I love how this series seems to bring the stories to life exactly as Doyle envisioned them, including his Victorian England. Jeremy Brett is absolutely fantastic as Holmes, portraying him to the letter.  

Here’s a clip from one of the episodes (you can find many of the episodes on YouTube).

I also love how this show makes me want to dive back into the Holmes books all over again (I read them long ago when I was a little kid). Stay tuned! I might be typing up a blog post soon filled with writing techniques gleaned from Doyle’s stories.

But, today, I have an interesting find to share with you. 

While reading about Doyle and the Holmes stories online, I stumbled across a short article by Doyle titled “How I Write My Books”. The article first appeared in The Strand Magazine in 1924. 

It’s always fascinating to get a peek at the writing process of a famous author. 

Here are my top three takeaways:

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