Maoism generally refers to MLM, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This is confusing because it is not something Mao ever believed or forwarded, but is a later construction by formations like the Shining Path (complete with Chairman Gonzalo) who named their work after Mao because they liked (their interpretations of) some of his salient approaches.
You will need a dedicated glossary to read and understand MLM publications, they use their own internal references for things and they are sometimes references to the CPC under Mao and even in those cases they can still be imbued with a specialized MLM meaning (like the "mass line").
But the short of it is that Maoists tend to pose themselves as anti-revisionists above all who seek revolution through a protracted people's war. They appreciate the CPC's military strategy of embedding with the countryside people and fighting a direct violent revolution from this basis, with their own modifications. They are hyper-critical of all other tendencies and their writings are often dense and obscurantist when doing so. There are, however, existing MLM or MLM-ish armed revolutionary projects with some level of foothold, more than many other tendencies. The Naxalites in India and the CPP in the Philippines, and much respect to both for actually doing the work.
In the West, Maoists are known for being very pessimistic and not very active, which aligns in many ways with MLMs holding to the (arguably correct) line that the imperial core has no revolutionary potential. In the West, MLMs are known to focus on reading groups and trying to figure out how they can assist movements outside their countries, in the periphery, including the CPP.
I recommend searching for information about MLMs since many people still think "Maoism" means "what Mao enthusiasts in China believe". And because I have in no way provided a comprehensive description.
