In this episode of Why Authors Write, host Mary J. Cronin talks with Yu-Mei Balasingamchow about the inspiration for her dazzling debut novel Names Have Been Changed, a gripping, propulsive story about identity, exile, and reinvention, told by an anonymous runaway criminal on her underground podcast. Origin Story Unlike her earlier unpublished works that were carefully outlined and plot driven, this novel came to life as a voice inside Yu-Mei's head. One day she was idly wondering: What would happen if someone fled their country after committing a crime? How would they survive, build a life, stay hidden? Almost immediately, an urgent, insistent voice took shape as Ophir, a young woman from Singapore who has stolen money, sold her passport, and gone on the run. As the novel opens, she is driven by an urgent need to tell us everything that has happened since she fled. Why a Podcast? Disclosure amd Secrecy during the Pandemic The podcast becomes a “safe space” where Ophir can confess everything to a swelling global audience while fiercely guarding her identity and location—creating a rich tension between secrecy and revelation. Ophir needs to talk openly, to unpack her motives, regrets and narrowing options, while staying invisible. That contradiction—hide everything / tell everything—generates tension on every page. The Outsider’s Eye Everywhere Ophir lands (from Tokyo, to London, Colorado, and beyond), she encounters other Singaporeans living abroad, none quite at home in their new lives. Drawing on her own experience as a mixed-race Singaporean who now lives in the US, Yu-Mei uses Ophir’s outsider status to heighten the book’s observational power. As a perpetual outsider—racially, nationally, and legally—Ophir pays close attention to accents, gestures, and cityscapes, always alert, never fully safe. From Plotter to Character Builder Yu-Mei wrote the first draft of Names Have Been Changed in about 18 months, after spending nearly a decade on two earlier novel drafts. Looking back, she says that work provided an essential education in how to structure a novel. For Names Have Been Changed, she avoided over-outlining and let discovery happen on the page. A major part of her process is a daily writing habit: writing first thing in the morning, some days for just 30 minutes. That small but steady commitment keeps her “in touch” with the novel so it continues to move forward, even in 50-word increments. Voice of Experience Yu-Mei offers grounded, practical advice for aspiring and mid-career writers: Write the story only you can tell. There is something singular in your background, obsessions, and point of view that is worth putting on the page.Love your project enough to stay with it. You are the only person who can advocate for your book through doubt, boredom, and multiple drafts.Embrace revision. Cutting, reshaping, and enriching your scenes is not a punishment—it’s how you get closer to the book you meant to write.Stay in daily contact with your work. Even short, consistent writing sessions keep the world of the novel alive in your mind.
