Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

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:

[Read more…]

3 Tips From F. Scott Fitzgerald for Writing Masterful Dialogue

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September 22 marked the beginning of autumn, and it reminded me of this wonderful quote from The Great Gatsby,

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

As the quote repeated itself in my brain, I wondered what part of the book it came from. There are so many quotes like this one that people lift from books and share across Instagram and other social media sites, devoid of their original context.

So I went in search of the quote and found it on page 107 of my edition of The Great Gatsby. It’s a line of dialogue that the character Jordan says in reply to Gatsby’s love interest, Daisy:

‘What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon,’ cried Daisy, ‘and the day after that, and the next thirty years?’

‘Don’t be morbid,’ Jordan said. ‘Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.’

The writer in me sprang to attention and said, “What masterfully written dialogue!”

Perhaps I could glean several tips from Fitzgerald that would help me to write masterful dialogue as well.

So I continued reading a little more of the scene and came away with these three takeaways.

[Read more…]

Create Compelling Characters with the Dinner Table Exercise (Video)

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

Recently, I dove into editing the first draft of my novel so I decided to re-read Robert Mckee’s book Story for editing tips.

While reading, I stumbled across a fantastic piece of advice that I thought would make an excellent writing exercise for creating compelling characters. I share all about it in the video:

I hope you find it helpful! I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

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

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

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.

Let’s dive in. [Read more…]