Travel Writing with Ben Stubbs

Travel writer and published author Ben Stubbs began his writing career after graduating from the University of Canberra with a Bachelor of Communication in 2000. Taking a role as a screenwriter for Comedy Inc. Ben worked there for a few years before taking some time off to travel. It was during this time that he discovered his passion for travel writing.

There is something wonderful about writing about different places, people, cultures and things that I wasn’t accustomed to in my normal life in Australia.

Ben quickly transitioned into working as a travel writer for the next 8 years; travelling to over 65 countries in the process. He has written guidebooks for Lonely Planet and has more than 150 features for publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Geographic, International Traveller, The Toronto Star and Griffith Review.

Curious about the world around him, Ben became a published author in 2012. His first novel Tickets to Paradise, follows his search for the Australian utopian colony in Paraguay. Ben returned back to the University of Canberra and completed his PhD in Communications in 2014. Last September saw the release of his second book, After Dark: A Nocturnal Exploration of Madrid, published in Europe and the UK.

After Dark was a chance for Ben to push his travel writing, exploring a quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The renowned philosopher and writer observed in his booked Emile (1762) that ‘we are blind half our lives’ because of what we miss during the night.

I was curious to explore a place during the hours of darkness to see what sort of people and stories I could uncover.

Ben spent a significant amount of time in Madrid, uncovering the different layers within the city that many visitors do not usually get to see. One of the biggest conceptions about being a writer, says Ben, is the amount of research that goes into the process.

“It can be very time consuming with months and months of reading. The writing and researching is the fun part – but it’s the next step with the publishers can be increasingly hard.”

Ben currently works now as a lecturer in journalism and writing at the University of South Australia, teaching feature writing and professional writing and is looking at virtual reality in journalism.

With the continuous evolution of technology and the future of hard copy books unclear, Ben believes that change is not always a bad thing. He agrees that the future of publishing is changing with the evolution of technology. “It’s inevitable. Change is not always a bad thing, people of all professions (including writers) just need to roll with it in a way that makes sense to them and still gets them excited about the craft. Books will still be bought and read, so I don’t think that will change much in the long run.”

As for future students and young graduates Ben offers the following advice;

Be persistent. There are lots of clichés around this, though it really is about backing yourself and having thick enough skin to stay with it.