Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

  • Home
  • About
  • Stories & Essays
  • Blog
  • Courses
  • Contact

7 Inspiring Questions For A Personal Year-End Review

Published December 20, 2022 | Last Updated December 20, 2022 By Nicole Bianchi Leave a Comment

This is a post that I originally shared in 2020 that I’ve updated for 2023. Enjoy!

The new year is right around the corner. If you’re like me, you’re already thinking about goals for the new year and planning out projects you hope to accomplish.

But, it’s worthwhile to take a step back and put these past twelve months in perspective. At the end of each year, I do that by writing up a personal year-end review.

This exercise helps me set myself up for success in January. I reflect over what I achieved during the year, what obstacles I faced, and what lessons I learned. I try to think positively on the past year so I’ll be motivated and inspired as the new one begins.

The insights I gain help me choose my goals for the new year. I’m able to see what worked and what didn’t so I can draw up a plan of action. As the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once wrote, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

In today’s blog post, I’m sharing the seven questions from my annual review. Feel free to adapt them as you like — your answers can be a few sentences or several paragraphs long. It’s entirely up to you.

And you can still do this annual review even if December has passed. I usually write it up the last week of December, but I’ve also completed it at the beginning of January.

Let’s dive in.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, creativity, featured, inspiration, motivation, productivity, writing

5 Favorite Things I Found This Summer: Writing Tips and Creative Inspiration

Published October 8, 2022 | Last Updated October 22, 2022 By Nicole Bianchi Leave a Comment

Hello, friends! 

I hope you had a lovely summer and are enjoying the first weeks of autumn. (If you’re in the southern hemisphere, I hope you’re having a wonderful spring!)

A few months ago, I published a blog post called “Five Favorite Things I Found in June”. It seemed that many of you enjoyed it, and I planned to continue with similar posts for July and August.

However, I soon became busy with summer things: enjoying the outdoors, exploring new places, reading many books, working on various writing projects, and spending time with family who hadn’t been able to visit since before 2020.

Well, before I realized it, it was autumn. But better late than never! Without further ado, here are five favorite writerly and creativity-minded things I found this summer.

Let me know if you continue to like this format, and I’ll try my best to write up an autumn installment at the end of November. Enjoy!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: book reviews, creativity, featured, inspiration, motivation, writing

Ernest Hemingway on What to Do When You Feel Like Giving Up on Writing (Video)

Published September 11, 2022 | Last Updated September 11, 2022 By Nicole Bianchi 35 Comments

Ernest Hemingway, Paris, circa 1924. Photograph in the Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston.

I just updated this post with a brand new video. Check out it now!

It was 1922, and a 23-year-old Ernest Hemingway had just experienced one of the most devastating blows to his writing career.

A blow so devastating that he did not think he could ever write fiction again.

In fact, he seriously considered giving up on his dreams of becoming a famous novelist.

But eventually something within him drove him back to his typewriter.

He kept writing.

Four years later, he had completed The Sun Also Rises, and over thirty years later, he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Are there obstacles, interruptions, and distractions threatening to sabotage your writing goals in the New Year? Here’s what Hemingway can teach us about remaining dedicated to our craft even when life seems set on undermining our plans. [Read more…]

Filed Under: featured, inspiration, motivation, writing

Jack London on How to Become a Bestselling Author

Published August 6, 2022 | Last Updated August 8, 2022 By Nicole Bianchi 5 Comments

Public Domain image, Wikimedia Commons

In 1903, Jack London skyrocketed to fame with the publication of The Call of the Wild. Three years later, readers greeted the publication of White Fang with similar enthusiasm, helping to establish London as one of the most popular American writers and the highest paid of the 1900s.

An article in The New Yorker notes, “By 1913, he was making more than ten thousand dollars a month, nearly a quarter of a million in today’s money.” But London’s success did not happen overnight. In order to write The Call of the Wild and White Fang, he drew on his experiences in the Yukon in the 1890s when he was living in poverty.

In an article in Literary Hub about London’s Alaskan cabin, Joy Lazendorfer writes:

In 1898, Jack London was trapped in an Alaskan cabin while, outside, winter froze everything to icy stillness. ‘Nothing stirred,’ he wrote later. ‘The Yukon slept under a coat of ice three feet thick.’ London, then 22, had come to Alaska to make his fortune in the gold rush, but all he’d found was a small amount of dust worth $4.50. A diet of bacon, beans, and bread had given him scurvy. His gums bled, his joints ached, and his teeth were loose. London decided that, if he lived, he would no longer try to rise above poverty through physical labor. Instead, he would become a writer. So he carved into the cabin wall the words ‘Jack London Miner Author Jan 27, 1898.’

Obviously, London was determined to become a successful writer. But the odds seemed stacked against him. Not only was he poor, but he also had no literary connections or literary background.

How was he eventually able to find success? 

Luckily for us fellow writers, London shared the secrets of how he learned to write, persevere, and become a famous author. In a 1905 article for The Editor magazine, he explained exactly how he got into print. 

In today’s blog post, I’ve collected seven tips from this article that we can use to improve our own writing. Read on for London’s writerly wisdom.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: creativity, featured, inspiration, marketing, motivation, productivity, writing

5 Favorite Things I Found in June: Writing Tips and Creative Inspiration

Published July 9, 2022 | Last Updated July 9, 2022 By Nicole Bianchi 9 Comments

Hello, friends!

In my Saturday email newsletters, I usually include a little section with links to articles and writing tips I’ve stumbled across in my Internet travels. But sometimes I want to make a comment on one of the articles or highlight a specific quote. So I thought I’d turn that little section into its own blog post today and share five favorite writerly things I found in June. 

Let me know if you like this format, and I might write up a second installment next month. Enjoy!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, book reviews, creativity, featured, inspiration, motivation, productivity, writing

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 14
  • Next Page »

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.
•••
“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:

Support the Blog!

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 © 2023 Nicole Bianchi Creative LLC · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Psalm 45:1