7 Powerful and Important Writing Lessons From Oprah

5. Fill your cup.

Oprah Winfrey has been named time and time again the most influential person in the world.

Watching ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ growing up could either make you tear up or motivate you. It still has that power today.

Oprah Winfrey has a way to make her guests open up, become their most vulnerable, and show their base humanness.

Her legacy as both an inspirational person and example of excellence can teach you a few writing lessons.

1. Earn success.

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.” — Oprah Winfrey

In today’s world, a get-rich-fast scheme is alluring and sexy. It solves all our problems with instant gratification. It’s why we look up to overnight Instagram influencers as role models.

But Oprah is a prime example of how success is never owed to you, to me, or anybody if we are not willing to go through the process. The path to success is boring and unsexy.

The path to success is defined by delayed gratification. The world does not owe you success as soon as you leave university.

You will not be a millionaire straight out of college with your graduation certificate still hot from the printer.

As a writer, to have millions of readers treasuring your hand-crafted words is the ultimate dream. It’s what Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and so many other writers dreamed and lusted after.

But they all had to earn their success.

“You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” — Oprah Winfrey.

You must write those 1,000,000 bad words and get them out of your system. You have to iterate and have bullish perseverance to better your writing style. Even if it’s all for free.

That’s how you earn success.

2. Align yourself with your dream.

“Everybody has a calling. And your real job in life is to figure out as soon as possible what that is, who you were meant to be, and to begin to honour that in the best way possible for yourself.”― Oprah Winfrey

If you say you want to be a writer, you have to start acting like a writer. Walk the talk.

If you don’t align yourself with your dreams just as energetically as your talk, nothing will happen. It’s a cold truth. So start believing it.

As a writer that means you have to be consistent. Day in and day out. Treat your writing like it’s a professional job. You don’t get to choose when to write. You have to write. It’s a job. That’s how you become in flow with your dreams.

Because opportunities start to open up when you’ve given your all.

Doesn’t luck play a key part? Sure.

But “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” — Oprah Winfrey

The more work you put out consistently, the luckier you get.

Your one job as a ‘writer’ is to write.

3. Find a way to serve.

“I don’t think you ever stop giving. I really don’t. I think it’s an on-going process. And it’s not just about being able to write a check. It’s being able to touch somebody’s life.” — Oprah Winfrey

Words have power. Oprah knows that. That’s why she writes her books and that’s why she had a Book Club segment in her show.

It’s true that everybody wants to be famous — we established that in lesson number 1. We all believe that being known has value. But fame fades away.

At least, superficial fame fades away.

Do you know what keeps giving though? Service.

As a writer, you have to serve the reader. None of your writing will be read if they read like journal entries. But writing that serves the reader and puts the reader as the audience is read.

We’re lucky to have Medium as a platform where people can share their words. But it’s our duty to create content that serves the reader. To use writing as a form of good.

And Oprah promises that success will follow.

4. Just be yourself.

“I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.” — Oprah Winfrey

As a writer, being your most authentic self is the greatest and most heroic practice. You’re writing style and voice will develop faster than if you were trying to copy another writer.

Every one of us has a voice. A unique voice. By being yourself, you are choosing personal development over a pretence.

Readers can smell fakeness faster than a vulture can smell a carcass. The art of authenticity is what will drive readers to your work.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you — always.” — Oprah Winfrey

By being authentic, you decide your triumph.

5. Fill your cup.

“Work on yourself to fill yourself up and keep your cup full.” — Oprah Winfrey

As content creators, we have to be able to step back and not harm our creativity through our lack of focus.

Whilst many writers choose to meditate or pray, some choose to do a HIIT workout right before writing to get the creative juices flowing.

Whatever you choose to do, understand that it is vital to fill your cup.

This also expands to our ideas, creativity, and delivery.

It’s the philosophy behind the idea machine. When you come up with 10 potential blog post ideas or 10 headlines every day, you keep your cup full. Because when your cup is empty, you can’t pour out of it.

When your cup is empty, you feel unmotivated, uninspired, and dried up.

But the truth is that everything is worthy to be written about. Fill your cup with ideas, focus, meditation, and positivity to stay sustained and nourished when everyone around you has an empty cup.

6. Put out positivity.

“What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what.” — Oprah Winfrey

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” — Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

As a writer, when you put out positivity, you get positivity as a return. The positivity you give out doesn’t have to be a moral message. It could be a great piece of creative work you’ve written.

But whatever positive writing you put out, you will receive positive messages of encouragement.

It’s easier to be kind than to be mean. So people will always be kind if you be kind. Of course, there’s going to be the keyboard warrior-haters. But they don’t deserve to count. For every hater, there are 10x more lovers.

“You are responsible for the energy that you create for yourself, and you’re responsible for the energy that you bring to others.” — Oprah Winfrey

That is the golden rule. Karma. What goes around comes back around. Put out positivity to receive positivity.

7. Become your own greatest competition.

“Every day, you’re only as good as your last show.” — Oprah Winfrey

As a writer, it’s easy to look around you and think that you can’t make it because the competition is fierce. You might look at your favourite author and feel that’s impossible to reach them.

But your job is not to look around and compare yourself. Your job is to emulate what techniques they use and reverse engineer it.

Your only competition is yourself. Everyone around you is a teacher. Whether they teach bad lessons or good lessons, your job is to learn good lessons and iterate them in your own work.

I’ve started to compile a notes page where I write down any words or phrases that my favourite authors use that I’d like to add to my writing. I’m trying to develop my writing voice and style.

I’m trying to read like a writer.

When you compare your work to your last performance or your first-ever performance, over time, you’ll see a stark difference.

“Stop comparing yourself to other people. You’re only on this planet to be you, not someone else’s imitation of you… Your life journey is about learning to become more of who you are and fulfilling the highest, truest expression of yourself as a human being. That’s why you’re here.” — Oprah Winfrey

Channel your work to better yourself.

“Look at how hard it was to get to where I am. It doesn’t make sense to give it up.” — Oprah Winfrey

It’s easy to give up and quit. It’s the easiest choice. But to pull through and trudge every step of the way reaps greater rewards.

If you truly want to be a writer, don’t give up.

Fatima Sultan is a writer, tutor and self-proclaimed nerd. She writes about life and its many excitements and disappointments. She also apparently likes referring to herself in the third person. You can read more of her writing by subscribing to her free newsletter.