How Jumaana Abdu wrote her debut novel while finishing medical school

What was your writing process like for Translations? Did you have a writing routine or any regular rituals?

I wrote the whole book in my penultimate year of medical school while studying for major exams and attending hospital placements full-time. So, I worked in any spare moment, including leaping out of bed in the middle of the night to type a sentence into my laptop on the floor, stopping midway through a run to jot down thoughts on my phone. These snippets would accumulate and marinate for weeks until I was overwhelmed by the need to write; then I would work, crazed, sometimes not getting up for hours until I had written several thousand words.

How did you first come up with the idea for the book?

The original seed popped into my head on the bus one day: a woman working as an emergency call-taker while her own life is in a state of crisis and dysphoria. I wanted to start each chapter with a transcript from a triple zero call – cardiac arrests, housefires, prank calls – eventually leading to a scene where this woman dreams she receives an emergency call from herself. Ultimately, I ditched this gimmick, and though in early drafts of Translations, my protagonist, Aliyah, was an emergency call-taker before becoming a midwife, this backstory was cut for pacing. But the spirit of being such a stranger to herself that she fantasises about disaster and annihilation still propels the book.

What surprised you most about the publishing process?

I was worried that going with a big publisher like Penguin Random House would mean rushed and impersonal editing. Instead, from fiddling with diacritics to deciding on a book cover, I’ve been continuously astounded by the level of attention and literary rigour the team at PRH has afforded my work, and how much they have consulted with me to protect my goals and ideas.

If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be and why?

Janie Crawford from Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. This is a woman who knows how to pass a night in peace and enjoyment.

If you were a character in a novel, what would be your signature quirk or catchphrase?

To keep from swearing in high school, I would say ‘Crikey!’. It started as a joke, but I am now the only person who uses it without having a blood relation to Steve Irwin.

What fictional world would you want to live in, and how would you survive or thrive there?

I fixated on J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan for years, to the point where I wrote my own novel-length adaptation at 13. I would absolutely thrive in Neverland; mentally, I thrived there already.

What's the weirdest talent or skill you have that not many people know about?

I was (almost) a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

What's your go-to karaoke song, and how well do you perform it?

Paywalled information.

Where is your happy place and why?

Periodically, I pick a green spot on the map in Greater Western Sydney and drive out. I don’t look at a trail. I walk into the trees as deep as I can go, so deep that I can’t hear the sounds of cars or people, so deep that I’m almost lost. I stay there, quiet, until I feel healthy again.

What is your #1 tip for aspiring authors?

Understand your artistic philosophy. If you don’t have one, read writers who do until you build up your armoury. Good writing needs soul and passionate vision to elevate it to being a good story.