Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

How to Use NaNoWriMo to Reach Your Writing Goals

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November is only a few days away, and that means that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo!) is nearly here.

If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo before, it’s a month-long event where writers challenge themselves to pen a 50,000-word novel (about the length of novels like The Great Gatsby or Fahrenheit 451).

The goal is to begin writing on the first of November and finish by midnight of November 30. You can plan and outline your story as much as you like beforehand, but the actual writing of the story can only be done during November.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Whoa, that sounds intimidating! Not for me.” Perhaps you don’t have any idea for a story, or you have an idea but not a plot, or maybe you’re not even interested in writing fiction.

Well, one of the cool things about NaNoWriMo is that you can adapt it to your own writing goals. Whether you want to start a daily writing routine or overcome writer’s block or begin working on a nonfiction project, NaNoWriMo can be the perfect way to motivate yourself to start writing.

In today’s post, I’m sharing three ways that I’ve used NaNoWriMo in the past to reach several different writing goals. 

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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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Feeling stuck while writing? Try this strategy (Video)

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I hope you’re crushing it with your writing this month and getting your unique message out to the world. 🙂 I’m really excited to share this week’s writing resource with you because…it’s a video!

For several years, I’ve wanted to revive my YouTube channel. I used to post educational videos there for my tutoring students quite a while ago. This summer, I finally decided to take the leap.

Here’s the first video I recorded for you:

In this video, I share a strategy that helps me overcome writer’s block when I’m beginning a new writing project (you can use it anytime you get stuck while working on a piece of writing).

I hope you find it helpful! I’d love to hear if you use it too.

If you enjoy the video, it would be awesome if you could give it a like and leave a comment. And make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel if you’d like to see more videos like this one. 🙂

Thanks for watching!

Four Powerful Creative Writing Exercises From Famous Authors

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Pen resting on top of open book
Photo by Dewang Gupta

A few months ago, I wrote an article sharing five powerful writing exercises from famous authors.

Just as pianists practice scales to strengthen their skills like rhythm and timing, writers can sharpen specific skills through deliberate practice.

Since publishing that original article, I’ve been searching for more creative writing exercises, and I discovered four more gems that I’m excited to share with you today.

Struggling to write effective dialogue? Or craft vivid descriptions? Or maybe you’re facing writer’s block?

These creative writing exercises will help you overcome those obstacles.

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How to Finish a Big Writing Project: Six Effective Strategies

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Pens, notebook, keyboard, and pair of glasses on a table
Photo by Plush Design Studio

Last week, I completed a big writing project. I finished working on expanding and updating a small eBook on email marketing that I’d written several years ago and turning it into an in-depth online course. (I’ll be releasing it soon!)

At the same time, I’ve been working to wrap up the first draft of a novel that I started writing at the end of last year. I’m not at the finish line yet, but this week I reached 52,000 words total.

Working on both these projects has tested my endurance. A big writing project comes with many more challenges than writing a blog post or a short story.

It requires far more motivation, especially on those days when it feels like you’ll never make it to the end of the project.

It requires far more time because you have to devote months to the project, not just a handful of days or weeks.

And it requires far more planning up front so you don’t end up overwhelmed and unsure how to move forward from one day to the next.

In today’s article, I’m sharing six strategies that have helped me overcome these challenges and work diligently on big projects from start to finish.

I hope these strategies will help you whether you’re working on a novel, a nonfiction book, a college thesis, an in-depth digital product, or any other type of big writing project.

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