Emma Babbington: 'My favourite part of writing psychological thrillers is the unsaid communication between characters'
BY Maya Fernandes
19th Jun 2025
Emma Babbington was a student on our Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course in 2022. We caught up to discuss her debut novel, The Neighbours – out now from HQ (HarperCollins).
Read on to discover the inspiration behind Emma's psychological thriller, her writing routine and her advice for budding thriller writers.
Emma, you studied on our Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course in 2022. How did your time with us shape your approach to writing?
Well, for starters I cheated and hadn’t actually completed a first draft when I applied for the course! But having what was then a four-week deadline to go from a 45k MS to an 85k one was just the impetus I needed, it turned out. I’m a journalist in my day job and I’ve always worked best with a firm deadline, so I managed it thankfully.
Those extra 40,000 words ended up being deleted in my second draft and that was in part thanks to the course really making me look really critically at what I had in front of me.
I’ve always been quite ruthless with what I produce and four other unpublished novels in was very aware that the hard work is done in the rewrites. The course helped me knuckle down and keep the momentum going and taught me good methods of how to go about this. About six months after the course ended I had a solid second draft. Maybe four months after that, a third and then I began submitting to agents.
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met during the course?
Yes, quite a few of us kept in touch and check in sporadically to see how our writing journeys are going which is lovely. Some are still working on the same manuscript, some have moved on to others, I know one of the cohort was also picked up by an agent and is on submission to publishers. I’m particularly excited watching what Gen Velzian is up to via her TikTok – she writes romantasy and her Fayte & Blood and Fayte & Bone books are flying high.
In The Neighbours, you shift between 1989 and the present day. What was your strategy for structuring the novel in this way, and what challenges did you face in balancing the dual narratives?
So many, not least because although I knew quite clearly what went on in the present day storyline – a famous TV doctor is found dead in suspicious circumstances in a Sydney harbourside park and his neighbour discovers her teenage daughter was there at the time and panics that she might be implicated in the police investigation. But I was less certain about what happened in the past storyline which also involves this neighbour who is reunited with a schoolfriend from childhood who might have sinister intentions.
I knew something significant had happened back in the 80s which affected the present day storyline’s subplot but I got in a bit of a tangle trying to work it all out.
I only really figured it out when I was doing my structural edit for my publisher, which was pretty late in the day. And in the end, I didn’t include many chapters from 1989 and what does appear from three decades earlier is shown in the form of letters. It was complicated but satisfying when it all finally came together!
As the novel unfolds, the atmosphere becomes increasingly tense and claustrophobic. How did you go about building that sense of suspense?
I love twisty turny, atmospheric novels and I enjoy writing in a way that is hopefully brooding and unsettling. I also try to write chapters that end on something that might make the reader think, uh-oh, what’s going on, and hopefully propels them to keep turning the pages.
My favourite part of reading and writing psychological thrillers is the unsaid communication between characters – the body language or slight change in speech patterns and how character’s intentions and moods and fears can be reflected in that. I find it really hard to pull off but again it’s very satisfying when it feels like I’ve got it right.
I’ve also learnt not to over-egg things. Less is definitely more – I think readers pick up on subtle suggestions that a person might not be a good guy without writers hammering it home to them.
What do you think makes a good twist – and do you have any advice for budding thriller writers on how to pull one off?
I love a last chapter twist and mine – again! – came really late in the process. I think I wrote two or maybe three drafts of The Neighbours where the final twist – or explanation of what happened to the man who is found dead at the beginning of the book – was presented in a different way each time.
But you often hear thriller authors saying that they aren’t sure who the baddie is while they’re writing which is not necessarily a bad thing because hopefully it means the readers won’t either.
When the explanation finally slots into place in your brain, it’s a wonderful moment. For my next book The Gardens, a plot twist appeared out of nowhere while I was having a morning walk. I literally stopped in my tracks and did a mental fist pump. It was perfect and made total sense and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it earlier.
And I find this is often what happens with plot twists or other moments in the creative process – they come out of the blue. I suppose it’s our subconscious doing its thing and doing the work while we write away. Note to subconscious: personally, it would be helpful if you turned up earlier in the process!
Your novel has drawn comparisons to writers like Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriarty. Which authors have you been enjoying recently?
Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriarty are two of my favourite authors so to be compared in the same sentence as them, or even have my book one day share a shelf with theirs, is a huge thrill. There are so many Aussie authors who I love including Cassie Hamer, Petronella McGovern, Kate Horan, BM Carroll, Ali Lowe, Pip Drysdale and Hayley Scrivenor. British writers who are my auto-reads include Sabine Durrant, Sarah Clarke, G. D Wright and Gillian McAllister.
What does a typical writing day look like for you?
I work three days a week on a magazine where I look after the real-life and crime pages (useful), but I try to get in at least an hour of writing around 6am before I have to get ready, so I can keep my head in the story. But that doesn’t always happen. I find I can’t write my book after work because I spend all day writing/interviewing or editing features and I’m done with words by then.
In the past, my writing days have been the two weekdays I’m not doing my day job but at the moment, because I have to deliver my second book to HQ soon, I also write on the weekends.
I can generally write in bursts of a few hours, then I take a break, maybe go out and do errands, have lunch or watch TV, and then come back to it. When I’m writing my first draft, I try to do at least 1,000 words a day but once I’m past the 60,000 mark and I feel like I’m flying to the end I can write much more, maybe 3,000 or sometimes 4,000.
But my biggest rule these days is not looking back during that first draft otherwise I start rewriting and get myself in a spiral of self-doubt and basically think everything I’ve done is rubbish. So, I just forge ahead and know I can fix it all later once I’ve got to the end.
And finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I have a two book deal and my next one, The Gardens, is due out this time next year. After I’ve delivered and if it’s hopefully accepted by my publisher then in between edits I’ll start on book 3. I have a vague idea of what it’s about – something to do with a beach, a reunion of friends, a stalker and a dead body found on the sand. I’m just hoping that my subconscious kicks in and lets me know the rest of the plot soon!
Emma can be found on Instagram as @emmababbington and on Facebook as @emmababbingtonauthor.
Get your hands on a copy of The Neighbours.
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