Buzzfeed’s advice for writers of color is a treasure trove for all

Buzzfeed asked 20 established writers of color for their best advice to writers just starting out. The resulting 39 answers make for enlightening reading. For anyone.

Here are the three questions Buzzfeed asked:

What piece of advice would you, as a writer of color, give to burgeoning writers/journalists of color?

What do you know now about being a writer of color that you wish you’d known when you first started?

Is there anything you did as a writer starting out that you now regret?

Here’s the first answer, from Cord Jefferson, who left Gawker earlier this year to write for LeBron James’ upcoming TV show, “Survivor’s Remorse.”

Read a lot of what interests you, and don’t feel bad if what interests you isn’t the cover of the New York Times every morning. Obviously you should keep up with world events, but don’t think that being able to speak at length about every A1 Times story is necessarily important. Write more than you read. Do things/go places that make you feel scared. Don’t be afraid to be passionate and earnest; detached irony is dead. Treat interns and HR people and everyone else in your office with the same level of respect you give to your direct colleagues and boss. Be as kind as your constitution will allow to everyone both in and outside of your office. Get into the habit of talking to people and asking them questions about their life, and don’t do the thing where you zone out of conversations until it’s your turn to speak — actually listening to people and the world around you is like 35 percent of being a good writer. Don’t surround yourself only with other writers/journalists/media people; self-imposed insularity is the fastest way to smother your creativity. And don’t stress out about ingratiating yourself with The Media Scene. A lot of the parties suck.

That’s one answer. As you can see, there’s a lot more than one piece of advice in there. And there are 38 more answers after that, many of them just as rich and wide-ranging.

Not all of the advice is directed only to people of color. Some of it is—like “Don’t let yourself become their ‘token’”—but words of wisdom aimed at some people can have value for all.