Education

Benjamin Law’s Top 3 Most Essential Writing Tips

When it comes to trying to carve out room for yourself during the middle of a sometimes-chaotic, always-random routine, Benjamin Law is indeed a wealth of wisdom. Ben explains how he gets everything done, from planning his iCal ‘down to the minute’ to turn off all digital devices at 10 p.m.

Law, who is also on the judges’ panel of the SBS Emerging Writers competition, advises writers to read widely and to join a writing community.

Here are His Top Three Tips for Aspiring Writers

1. Read

“You’d be surprised by the number of individuals who tell me people want to be authors but aren’t active readers, which is weird because who will indeed want to be a cellist if they didn’t listen to music? Who wants to become a performer if they don’t watch TV shows?” he claims.

2. Seek Assistance

“Find other individuals who write & want to become writers [whose] judgement you could indeed trust since if writers take it to a member of the family, they’ll just tell you ‘it’s great’ because they who love you. You need to discover other individuals who are actually continuing to pursue the task and work with them, so you feel supported.” he claims.

3. Accept your Uniqueness

As debates over representation and inequality in the art world continue, Law believes that the absence of writers of colour from the country’s publication and media scenes has become more glaring & urgent.

“This will prevent us all from recognising ourselves, our family members, our societies, our neighbourhoods, and this country – and that needs to be present for conversations regarding our history to discussions about 21st century Australia Today,” he says.

About half of all Australians have had at least one parent born in another country and is either first or second-generation migrant. First Nation peoples did belong to “the oldest civilisation the world has ever seen”.

This, according to Law, means that there is a rich diversity of tales that aren’t being reflected in the mainstream and commercial media.

Early Life

Benjamin Law grew up on the Sunshine Coast. He was born to Cantonese parents who immigrated to Australia from Hong Kong. His father was Chinese, and his mother was Malaysian.

Ben, who presently lives in Sydney city, describes himself as ‘obsessed with sex, irritatingly focused, intensely curious, but he may be instantly reduced to quiet if you put on a good journal, movie, TV show, or print edition in front of [him].’

Working in journalism, broadcasting, film, and television, Benjamin Law gained experience as a freelancer and associate producer. Waltzing the Dragon, his new 2 part documentary series, premiered on 30th July 2019.

Ben Law shared a few of his best tips and tricks, as well as advice for creating a stable schedule, all whilst constantly changing gears and trying out new things.

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Based in Sydney, Benjamin Law is a well-known young writer in Australia. Ben has created innovative work based on his individuality as a gay man and has helped transform the way the LGBTQIA+ community is perceived in Australia.

He spoke out in support of gay people at a public discussion held by Mildura Pride, a Mildura Rural Town Council initiative, in November 2015. Mildura‘s social inclusion initiative aimed to make it more welcoming to LGBTIQ sex communities.

Views on Racism and Marginalization

“When people ask me, ‘Is diversity important?’ I say yes. First and foremost, we are already diverse; we shouldn’t have to impose things on individuals because the diversity, as well as richness, are already there,” he says.

“What has happened is that people have been excluded. It is active in some cases. In other cases, it’s because we’re overlooked or since there are a huge amount of white individuals in charge, which is due to structural racism in with us industries, which prevents you from obtaining a foot on the ground in the door.” he added.

Work of Benjamin Law

Benjamin Law is the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia: The Adventures within Queer East (2012), and the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017). Law is the creator of the epic poem Formative Years Queer in Australia (2019), as well as the creator and co-writer of the award-winning SBS Television show The Family Law, which is based on his memoir.

Benjamin Law was named in the list of Asian-Australian Leadership Summit’s (AALS) 40 Under 40 as the Greatest Influential Asian-Australians (Arts, Culture & Sports category winner) and one of Harper’s Bazaar’s Visionary Men in 2019.

Benjamin Law co-hosts ABC RN’s weekly nationwide pop culture exhibition Stop Everything every week. Benjamin Law holds a PhD from the great Queensland University of Tech in creative writing as well as cultural studies (QUT).

Benjamin Law also co-hosts the online startup as well as the tech TV show That Startup Show. He also has also appeared on Q&A (ABC), This Same Drum (ABC), The Project (Ten), and Filthy Rich & Homeless (SBS). He also appears in Waltzing the Dragon, which is a two-part ABC feature series of documentaries on Chinese-Australian history.

Benjamin Law has also contributed to over 50 Australian and international publications, such as the Monthly,  The Guardian, Frankie, Good Weekend, The Australian, Monocle, & The Australian Review Process.

Benjamin co-wrote and was the co-creator of Shit Asian Mothers Say (2014), which was the best major comedy series on SBS television. He appears in the series along with his sister Michelle. In Law School (2017), he shares the screen with his mother, Jenny.

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Apart from the journals and the Law Family, Sydney Morning Herald also published his essay named Moral Panic 101, which was on the Safe Schools Program. Sydney Morning Herald also published an article on Family Law. At that time, Family Law was a blockbuster.

Benjamin Law worked as a researcher and assistant director on Family Law, Deep -Water: The Real Story (SBS) by Blackfella Films, and as a writer on Endemol Shine‘s Sisters (Netflix/Ten), a linked series with puzzling questions. Family Law depicts him as a skilled author and a born humorist.

Benjamin Law lives in Sydney. He is a Pinnacle Foundation emissary, a Plan Australia ambassador, and a member of the Story Factory Board of Directors. His debut performance, Torch the Place (Melbourne Theatre Company), premiered in February and March 2020.

As a journalist, Benjamin Law has written for publications such as Frankie and The Australian Financial Review, The Saturday Paper, The Monthly (including a 2014 adjunct on the Exhibition of Old and New Art), The Courier-Mail, as well as its Qweekend supplement.

He also wrote for other publications like New Matilda, The Griffith Review, Good Weekend, The Big Issue, and Crikey (all of which are owned by Fairfax Media).

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