Nicole Bianchi

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

Published September 11, 2022 | Last Updated April 10, 2024 By Nicole Bianchi 35 Comments

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 February 19, 2024 By Nicole Bianchi 6 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.

If you prefer watching to reading, you can watch a video version of this post that I made for YouTube.

[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 April 10, 2024 By Nicole Bianchi 9 Comments

Photo by Jordan Madrid on Unsplash

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

Three Journaling Methods for Increased Productivity and Creativity (Video)

Published January 15, 2022 | Last Updated November 13, 2023 By Nicole Bianchi 1 Comment

In this video, I’m sharing the three journaling methods I’m using in 2022 to boost my creativity and productivity and stay on track with my goals and projects. Two I’ve been keeping for years (one inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule, the other by John Steinbeck’s notebooks). The third is completely new.

Do you keep a journal? Or are you planning on keeping a journal this year? What are your favorite journaling methods? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoy the video, be sure to give it a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe to the channel. This will encourage YouTube to share the video with more people. Thanks so much!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: 

  • 📝 My blog post about Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule: https://nicolebianchi.com/benjamin-franklin-daily-schedule/
  • 📝 My blog post about my journals: https://nicolebianchi.com/journals/
  • 📝 A peek into the notebooks of famous writers: https://nicolebianchi.com/how-to-keep-writing-notebook/
  • 📚John Steinbeck’s journals of The Grapes of Wrath: https://amzn.to/3Kdpk0Q (affiliate link)
  • 💻 Day One: https://dayoneapp.com
  • 💻 Evernote: https://evernote.com
  • 📬 My email newsletter, The Inkwell: https://nicolebianchi.com/newsletter/

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

How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo: 7 Helpful Resources

Published October 22, 2021 | Last Updated April 10, 2024 By Nicole Bianchi 4 Comments

Amelia Bartlett on Unsplash

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is nearly here. If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo before, it’s a 30-day challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November.

Now, that’s the official challenge, but I love adapting NaNoWriMo to my own writing goals. It’s a fantastic way to motivate yourself to make progress or get started on any writing project (fiction or nonfiction) that you’ve been procrastinating over.

I’ve put together this article rounding up lots of resources I’ve created over the years to help you crush your writing goals this upcoming month, whether you’re taking part in the challenge or not. Let’s dive in.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: creativity, featured, fiction, inspiration, motivation, productivity, 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.
•••
“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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