Learning experience from the "Ouchi Expert Lecture" in June 2018: Observe carefully, pay attention to everything, and brew your writing inspiration
The author of this article Xiao Feng (opens in a new tab) shares his experience in e-sports games, workplace worries and new ideas in life through Blog (opens in a new tab), and is working hard to learn content creation.
Have you ever thought about why writing requires “inspiration”?
I used to have a myth that if I could be inspired when writing, it would mean that I would have great ideas, and then I would be able to write masterpieces. However, in this “Ouchi Master Lecture”, teacher Vista carefully explained that the main function of inspiration is to bring the finishing touch to the article. But it would be unprofessional behavior for a writer to only write when he or she feels inspired—because everyone doesn’t know when inspiration will come to them.
And it’s not enough to just wait for inspiration and delay writing. We must learn the trilogy of “input→process→output” and think about how to appropriately present the content we want to express, so that the article can have [value] for readers (https://www.vista.tw/en/blog/thinking-from-the-readers-perspectivehow-to).
I consider myself a person with a lot of inspiration, but the main purpose of attending the “Building an Inspiration Database” lecture this time is to understand how to organize inspiration into a database that is unique to you.
In response to the question of how to find “inspiration” that everyone is concerned about, Teacher Vista cited his own experience as an example and suggested that everyone observe more details about the big and small things that happen around them in their lives (https://www.vista.tw/en/blog/learning-experience-from-the-ouchi-master-1), and always maintain curiosity to find many sources of inspiration. Many newspapers and magazines published on the market are good reference objects. For those who like reading novels and watching dramas, you can also deeply analyze the characters in novels and idol dramas, and understand how screenwriters portray characters, write lines, and set backgrounds. These behind-the-scenes efforts can help you continue to create “inspiration.”
In terms of tools for building an inspiration database, Teacher Vista shared the tool Notion (opens in a new tab) (please refer to the teacher’s Book List (opens in a new tab)). Notion’s simple website interface is quite attractive, and it is not too difficult to operate (Editor’s note: Currently, Notion has a website version and an iOS App, and recently also launched an Android App (opens in a new tab)). Although Notion currently only provides an English interface, it is not complicated to operate and will still make people want to use it. It is very suitable for using it to accumulate your own inspiration database.
In addition, when Mr. Bai Xiong shared “Industry News”, he mentioned that Content Marketing is not incompatible with traditional marketing, but can use Content Marketing Strategy to integrate the copywriting content of other marketing channels such as advertising and public relations. Well, I strongly agree with this.
For me, in the company I am currently working for, I am responsible for writing posts and operating content marketing using Facebook fan pages. In the past three months of operation, the [interaction rate] of fans (https://www.vista.tw/en/blog/lazy-persons-bag-the-sky) and the number of product orders have indeed increased significantly. This also proves that it is really important that we invest in content marketing as early as possible to accumulate potential users.
In the future, I plan to continue to do the basic work of collecting and organizing inspiration databases in my daily life. When I need “inspiration”, I can dig it out immediately to achieve the effect of adding points to my articles. Let’s build our own inspiration database together!
A postscript not related to the inspiration database: In addition to learning the organization methods and tools of the inspiration database, this lecture also included delicious homemade braised meat and handmade raw milk lemon pie, which can be regarded as a brand new lecture experience!
★ Photo Credit: Xiaofeng, Vista Cheng, Fabius Chin
★ How to get more returns from content marketing with less investment? Please sign up for the Ouchi expert lecture on July 10: Use less, earn more! Content Marketing Save Money (opens in a new tab).
★ Vista Book Club June Special: “Is this idea a success?” Internet entrepreneurship master turns your ideas into cash (opens in a new tab)》.
★ To improve your content power, please don’t miss the online course “Content Power: The Super Power of Building Brands (opens in a new tab)”.
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Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
