Amy Duong is still excited by the novelty of being able to read her writing in a physical book. Duong was one of three runners up in the 2020 SBS Emerging Writers' Competition and last month had her entry, published in Roots: Home is who we are, an anthology of the top 30 submission to the competition.
She spoke to SBS Voices commissioning editors Caitlin Chang and Candice Chung on the latest episode of The New Writer's Room about the process of writing and publishing the story.
The process began she says, after reading an interview with 2020 competition judge Melissa Lucashenko; "Who talked a little bit about kind of what inspires her to write and the way she draws from her history."
The interview prompted Duong to start writing really unstructured, random scenes and vignettes that she remembered from her childhood. At that point, she wasn't sure that she would enter the competition at all.
The interview prompted Duong to start writing really unstructured, random scenes and vignettes that she remembered from her childhood
It was only once she had hit on the motif of the red plastic chair, that she realised that she had the beginning of a story that would allow her to explore the idea of a generational gap that exists for many people.
"I think a lot about the things like losing languages and what the implications are of your relationship with your parents when that happens.
"So, I kind of just started looking at what are the recurring motifs and how do they represent the distance you feel when your parents have a very different life to you?"
Finding time to write the story meant that Duong got up at 6am for a few weeks so that she could fit in an hour of two of writing before she left for her day job.
"Writing in the morning is a lot better for me. Because if I write in the evening I basically won't stop until I go to bed. And then I'm a bit wired."
While Duong was able to find her groove during the writing process, she found that getting ready for publication in the anthology was a huge learning curve.
"Having to do all those little things that I imagine freelancers become very used to doing, which is your invoicing, and doing this paperwork, and being like 'Oh do I have access to a scanner? Like how do I do all that? I've got to get an ABN!' Yeah all of that stuff was very interesting."
Having to do all those little things that I imagine freelancers become very used to doing, which is your invoicing, and doing this paperwork, and being like 'Oh do I have access to a scanner? Like how do I do all that? I've got to get an ABN!'
When it came to getting the piece itself print-ready, Duong says that her day job as a public servant meant that she was well prepared not to be precious about the changes suggested by her editors.
"Generally in the public service when you write things, it goes through five six different people...everyone rewrites it, and it goes up the chain and then it comes back to you....so I was prepared for that.
"It's probably quite healthy to get that feedback. Because you write mostly in the dark."
Through the process, Duong has learnt not to get too attached to the way that a piece of writing sounds.
"When you re-read it, you can tell for yourself the things that you've just left in there because you don't want to get rid of them.
"Challenging the things that you like in your writing and having to re-evaluate them is really useful."
Part of learning to be critical, Duong says, is "reading things that are similar to the kind of things you want to write.
"Even if there are similarities, there's going to be something you want to write about yourself."
Roots: Home Is Who We Are (Hardie Grant) is on sale now.
SBS wants to hear your story...because there's a writer in all of us. Submit your story of 1000-2000 words that speaks to the beauty and/or challenges of being Between Two Worlds in diverse Australia and you could win up to $5000 and kickstart your career. Entries are open from August 16-September 16. Go to for more information and register to enter.
Listen to SBS Voices' new podcast, The New Writer’s Room, in the , , , , or wherever you listen to podcasts.
