Do you have any idea of the basic branch structure? You post this photo of this tree from maybe five feet away from one view and expect to get good advise on what to do? If the trunk is as large as I suspect it is you are not going to be able to bend it without hollowing out a portion of the trunk and embedding wire, a complicated and extreme technique not used much even by "the masters".
The real strength in this tree as a bonsai is the trunk. You need to examine the branches and explore the stylistic possibilities. It is impossible with this photo to give those options to you when all we can really see is a thick trunk and that the tree is healthy. If you could provide a bunch more photos something could be offered in way of advise. Your original question of advise on how to proceed would be to look at this tree closely starting with the base which you probably cannot change. Many times a four foot tall tree will make a foot and a half inches tall bonsai.
If you are not at the stage in your bonsai insight where you can visualize a much smaller tree hiding in that mess of branches it is probably a good idea to let the tree be until you can find someone with a bit of experience greater than your own to give you some help. It's a nice tree, from what little I can see, and it deserves being made into something a bit more compelling than a truncated Christmas tree with bar branches and artistically unaccounted for jins. The idea of a literati is also, and probably-- not going to happen, though it is a possibility. But the choice of the literati style is only the first in a litany of choices that are nothing more than choices. Because the tree is tall it is easy to think that a Literati would be a good choice, but there is a lot more to a literati than being tall and spindly. You need to see what the tree can be not force it to be one of your arbitrary choices. Don't misunderstand me please, I don't mean to sound like I am scolding you. I am only trying to take the tree as seriously as I hope you are. I am only pointing out the truth of what you have in front of you. We can tell you to make an informal upright of the tree, almost anything, but that would only be an option based on nothing.