Brooke Robinson: 'A novel is for the mind of the reader, an interior space'

Brooke Robinson studied on our Writing a Psychological Thriller course in 2020. Her debut novel The Interpreter was published by Vintage Publishing (an imprint of Penguin Random House) earlier this year.

We spoke with Brooke about studying with CBC during lockdown, the inspiration behind her debut, and the challenges when writing a novel compared to working on a playscript.

You took our Writing a Psychological Thriller course in 2020. How did your time studying with us impact your writing journey?

I had written a couple of plays which could loosely be defined as ‘psychological thrillers’ but I’d never written a novel before and really had no idea what I was doing. Erin’s course was so wonderfully practical and thoughtful in its analysis of the genre and the market. The course also taught me how to read psychological thrillers as a writer, which is such a crucial skill when you’re trying to write your own.

Your debut novel The Interpreter was published by Vintage Publishing earlier this year. The novel follows a police interpreter and single mum who begins deliberately mistranslating statements to secure convictions, only for someone to discover what she’s doing and seek justice of their own. Can you tell us a bit more about the book and the inspiration behind it?

I came across a newspaper article written by a language interpreter who worked in the criminal justice system in London and this is where I first got the idea for the book. Like most monolingual people, I’d never given thought to the fascinating profession of interpreting before. I immediately knew I wanted to write about it but I couldn’t settle on a story until I thought about uniting interpreting with my long-time love of fictional vigilantes. I wanted to make my character, Revelle, a vigilante who is quite different from most vigilantes in that she uses words to get justice, instead of violence. I think of her as a linguistic vigilante.

As a playwright, you have had numerous plays commissioned and produced in Australia. Did you face any different challenges when writing a novel compared to working on a playscript?

A good play leaves plenty of space for other artists to come in and collaborate: sound designers, set designers, costume designers, the director etc. When you’re writing a novel as a playwright, you constantly have to remind yourself to close those gaps as no one is going to come in and design the weather, or the choose what colour the set should be, or the lights. There is a tendency as a playwright to underwrite and to leap from one dramatic moment of action to the next without proper context or description. Writing dialogue for the page is also different to writing for actors in a way that I find quite difficult to describe. Essentially, a novel is for the mind of the reader, an interior space, while a play script is written to be performed live, in a room full of people, so it’s natural that what works in one, won’t suit the other. Theatre is at its best when it’s allegorical and the dialogue is all subtext, but in a novel, characters can actually say what they mean, and I really find this liberating!

You studied with us during lockdown, how did you stay motivated?

I have to admit I didn’t mind lockdown for the most part, and used it as an opportunity to re-evaluate what I was doing with my playwriting career and think about the stories I really wanted to tell going forward. Writing retreats – whether formal or just you booking yourself an Airbnb – are also great for encouraging this kind of self-reflection.

If you could only take three books with you to a desert island, which would you bring and why?

I’d bring Ian McGuire’s The North Water for some tips on maritime survival, Heartburn by Nora Ephron and one of Michael Connelly’s Bosch novels so that Nora and Harry Bosch can keep me company and be my dinner party companions.

Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?

I’m editing my second thriller, The Negotiator, which will be out in 2024.

The Interpreter is out now.

Order your copy here