Advice
NSW DoE 2015
Viewing guide
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Which careers have you considered?
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What do you think it would be like to be a writer?
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What would be the negative and positive aspects of choosing writing as a career?
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Jokes usually have a serious side. Tristan at first tells his audience not to become writers. What is the serious side of this joke?
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Why does Tristan think it important to write every day, no matter the quality of the writing?
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Do you ever whinge about having to write something? What does Tristan advise about whingeing?
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Think about the times you have enjoyed writing. What made it enjoyable? How can you replicate those things that make it enjoyable, when you have the next writing task?
Interviewer: What advice would you give to young people who may want to become writers?
Tristan Bancks: Probably don't … become a writer. No, I'm only joking. I think it's the best job in the world, I really do, getting lost in your own ideas and being able to spend months within these worlds that you create. So I'd say, if you want to become a writer, it's that old advice of write a lot, write every day, whether you write a page or three pages or ten minutes, try to be strict about doing that every day. And before long you'll have filled up a whole book with ideas. And start your pen moving and don't stop it moving. That's the only rule you should have when you're writing. And if you start whingeing about, ‘Blerh, I don't know what to write … this is terrible … I've got no story ideas,’ you get sick of whingeing after half a page and suddenly these little pearls start to come forth. So I'd say write every day, be strict about it, and don't try to make everything perfect. Be okay about writing rot to begin with because eventually something interesting will come out.
Interviewer: Thank you very much for joining us for Writers Talk 2009.
Tristan: Sure.
Videos
Tristan’s inspiration
Writing process
Character
Plot
Advice
