He lived 2500 years ago. He was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. His incredible philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, the correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity.
He was Confucius, the father of Confucianism and his teachings are still relevant — not least when it comes to writing.
Here are five classic Confucian tips that are vital to remember if you want to be a successful Writer.
It is only after the white background is prepared that any painting is possible.
This is a simple brutal truth.
As writers, you have always been told to bleed raw on a white paper. But bleeding without any precaution will only kill you. No other result is possible.
In short, Confucius tells to make adequate preparations before embarking upon a career as a writer.
Have you laid the necessary groundwork for your writer? Have you identified the right audience? Do you have the necessary expertise or experience to write about a subject? Have you done your research? Do you have a solid idea of what you will be writing about for the next month? The next 3 months?
Always remember you are not gambling here or leaving everything to luck. You have to make solid preparation before even attempting to write one paragraph for reader’s consumption. Brainstorm every element of your project, do your research, lay a strong foundation and then build from there.
If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then a gram of good preparation is worth a ton of work.
If people under your reign are happy, people will be attracted to come from afar.
Giving your readers the power of new knowledge is the most important thing your articles can do. Empower your reader with a new skill they didn’t have ten minutes ago, and they’ll not only be grateful — they’ll want to get more of what you have to offer.
Why wouldn’t they get excited and sign up for more of what this article writer has to offer? Why wouldn’t they share it with their friends?
Empowering articles are like a magic potion. Drink down what it has to say and you walk away stronger, smarter, and more powerful.
The interesting thing about offering unique “knowledge” is that most of the times it does not require much storytelling skills. You can just present the facts in an interesting way and that should do the trick.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
This saying could be interpreted in a lot of ways and in Writing, it is all about handling criticism.
Critics come with varied agendas, Moods, and attitudes.
A good critic is like an angel from Heaven. He/She will precisely tell you where you lack as a writer and what you need to do to reach the next level. They are just the kind of people you need as a launching pad to success. Treasure them. Respect him and follow their words to the hilt.
Bad critics are in the twilight zone. They will berate you. They will also publicly abuse you for bad writing but they will never tell you where you need to improve. You need to be smart enough to figure it out what they want to say and improve yourself. They might also have high egos and it will be tough work to placate them. But it is worth the effort as you are learning in the process.
Useless critics are messengers from Hell. They will only troll you mercilessly and will not offer any iota of advice in return. They will degrade you to their level and leave you feeling low and discouraged. Shut them, block them or Report them as required. There is no other way.
Always remember, if you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.
Do not make haste. If you make haste, you cannot reach your goal
This is related to what’s probably the most common mistake of people who try to write for a living, or who try to earn income from writing. . . It takes TIME to achieve the critical mass of content, subscribers, and notoriety that bring in those huge paychecks every month.
At first, you are almost treated like an outcast. Nobody knows you and wants to read your creation. Your everyday routine will be the same dreary saga of disappointment and frustration.
And Soon you will also start doubting your own ability.
And in these trying times, Confucius tells us to dig deep within our reserves of grim determination and stick-to-it-iveness to go the distance and persevere until you’ve attained that critical mass.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand
This is perhaps the best advice Confucius can give to any writer at any stage of expertise.
You can get tons of tips and advice along the way, but dedication and hard work are the key components to be a successful writer.
Theory only becomes really useful once you get your hands dirty and gain your own experience about what does (and doesn’t) work for you personally.
And in addition to hard work, you also need to develop a really thick skin…….
As Writers, we need to be deaf to the outside world. There will be soothsayers and there will be doomsayers. Listen to everybody but do your own thing. Don’t stop writing. You embarked upon this writing journey all alone; Develop the guts and the thick skin to reach the final destination. Settle for nothing less.