Yoda

Yoda is half wrong.

The part that is wrong is about the wise men, which is why I grabbed this meme.  It makes it sound like you eventually hit a point in your life when you don’t need advice.  Many believe this is so, but has anyone ever really hit that point?

I remember my grandparents asking my parents and sometimes me for advice.  They had questions about things that they didn’t understand.  They were certainly wise and experienced in their 90’s and 100’s (grandma made it to 102), which would mean, according to this meme, that they didn’t need advice.  Yet, they were unsure of things and would ask for outside opinion.

A better quote would be the following:

“The only true wisdom is that in knowing you know nothing.” -Socrates

This is the opposite of fake Yoda and answers the post question rather well.  No matter how experienced and wise you get, the reality is that there is always more to learn.  There is always an area that one is not an expert in or new information that changes what you know about things.  A truly wise and experienced person knows this, but it is difficult to fully accept since various aspects of our society work of seniority.  We assume a person who has been at an activity for years knows everything or shouldn’t take advice from someone else.  Well, that’s just asking for trouble.

It is a high level of arrogance for a person to believe there is nothing left to learn.  Even scientists acknowledge that there is more to learn about their fields, which is why they’re always experimenting and researching.  You never know when you’ll stumble onto a new piece of information that enhances your wisdom.  For authors, this is even more so because we need to be constantly growing and learning to prevent our stories from becoming stale.  Challenging ourselves with new tricks and following advice is what makes us better.  It makes our stories more interesting and usually adds a new level to them, but one wouldn’t know if one is too proud to accept advice.

I’m sure some people have rolled their eyes because they can’t believe there are authors out there who don’t take advice.  Well, you just haven’t run into them yet.  Another possibility is that the authors you’ve interacted with haven’t been put in the position of receiving advice.  That can change a person’s demeanor, especially if they are caught by surprise.  The belief the one is too experienced and wise to need advice also means that receiving it can be like a slap to the face.  It’s an unfortunate dark side to people that you don’t notice until it’s reared up at full force.

This mentality is fairly easy to avoid though.  Just keep yourself humble and routinely set out to learn new things.  As long as you acknowledge that there is more to learn, you won’t believe you are too good to grow.  It can be with writing styles, plot creation, character design, or general information.  You never know what you’re going to need down the road, so leave yourself open to advice and absorbing what attracts your interest.  Once you decide that you’re too experienced to listen to anyone else, you’re going to miss out on a lot of useful information.

Want to grow as an author?  Check out Do I Need to Use a Dragon? on Amazon!