Meet the Author: Christine Fischer Guy

How do you structure your writing time? What are the things that trip you up, and how do you move through them? Today's author interview with Christine Fischer Guy explores these questions and more as Christine prepares to publish her second novel, The Instrument Must Not Matter (affiliate link*).

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Christine Fischer Guy is a Toronto writer and journalist. She’s a 2024 VCCA fellow and is the author of The Umbrella Mender (Wolsak and Wynn 2014), a “terrifically entertaining read” that “keeps the reader interested partly because she avoids setting up stereotypical opposites.”

Her second novel, The Instrument Must Not Matter, is a coming-of-age story about a classical pianist and arrives in spring 2026. Her short fiction has appeared in Canadian, American and British journals. She was awarded a National Magazine Award and contributes criticism and interviews to literary journals.

Tell me about your journey to writing The Instrument Must Not Matter.

​The Instrument Must Not Matter (affiliate link*) has been a decade-long journey, partly because I had to write it twice. I burned the first version in a fire pit in April 2021 to help me move on emotionally, because I realized I wasn’t telling the right part of Lila’s life story and needed to start over. Same character, twenty years earlier in her career. It was a complete rewrite, but I’d at least gotten to know the character at a later career stage.

I think the novel took root when I’d walked past the statue of Glenn Gould at the CBC building in downtown Toronto one too many times and decided I needed to find out what the fuss was all about. I read one biography, which led to many more, and suddenly I was writing a book about a musician, not Gould, but Lila Rys, also a pianist.

The story didn’t lift off until Lila appeared on the scene, the granddaughter of a silenced musician in Soviet-occupied Prague. Writing about silence and music was a tall order: both are beyond the reach of words. By that point I knew there was something there for me.

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Can you walk me through a day in the life of your writing practice?

That depends on the stage I’m at. If I’m writing a first draft, and if I have the day to write, the best-case scenario (and most productive) is to go straight from bed to the page, no morning walk or yoga until later.

That decision means a mighty argument with myself, because I do love an outdoor walk in the morning before starting work, but if I do that at the first-draft stage, getting back to that mysterious creative place between sleeping and waking where stories live takes a long time. Sometimes hours.

If I’m editing, I can have my morning exercise and then get down to work for whatever portion of the day I have for writing, and it varies depending on my other work.

I use distraction blockers of various kinds because I’m distractible and the internet has a million ploys to distract me! I’m not a good cafe writer, and no daily news until after my creative work is done, for the same reason.

What mindset challenges have you encountered while writing? How do you handle those?

I’m the daughter of an immigrant, so putting hundreds of hours into something that may or may not yield a measurable outcome has been my main obstacle. I’ve had to use all sorts of ninja mind tricks to devote the kind of serious time necessary to make something that means something to someone else.

One of my favorite tricks, and it stopped me in my tracks when I heard it, was to ask myself this question: “How would you work if success was guaranteed?” This question is a way of holding yourself responsible for your dedication.

That part comes easily to me, as it turned out, courtesy of my immigrant dad, so when I made that mind shift, suddenly it became a question of dedication, not a fear of indulgence.

Another simple but good mantra: Treat it like a job. It is a job.

What is something you love about the craft of writing?

Writing is just about the only thing I do that doesn’t make me wish I was doing something else. When the right words show up, it’s a white-hot creative thrill that I don’t find anywhere else.

Writing has also reliably been the way for me to find my people, nerds like me who cultivate the moment when the right words come and care deeply about making stories. I don’t think I’d have had a chance of meeting most of the fascinating people I’ve met on the research trail, either, which has enriched my life beyond measure.

What was your publishing experience like?

Publishing a novel is a level of self-exposure that isn’t for the faint of heart! I’d been a journalist for more than 20 years when my first novel came out, and I naively thought I was used to the experience.

Fiction is different, though. “You can’t lie in fiction,” Kevin Barry said, in an interview. “Your soul is there, pinned and wriggling on the page.” I agree.

Fortunately, my publishers at Wolsak and Wynn believe in my work and in literature itself. It’s hard to overstate the value of that commitment and support over the long years leading up to publication.

What’s next for you creatively?

Another novel is already underway. I’m too superstitious to say much about it at this point, but I thought it was a short story for a long time (years) and kept picking away at it, but my agent and some friends gently told me I’d started another novel.

What is the number one piece of advice you would offer to other writers?

Read. As much as you can. Read widely, read things you like and dislike in your own genre and outside of it. The writing brain is always listening.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

I hesitate to say best or even favorite, because those shift over time, but I recently loved Bear by Julia Phillips (affiliate link*). This story is built on Snow White and Rose Red, with Elena and Sam as the two sisters, and for a long time I thought that she was adding characterization, with class as an additional factor, to the fairy tale.

Elena becomes increasingly enchanted by a bear to the point of seeking it on her walks home from work. This is highly dangerous and Sam, who has contacted wildlife services, disapproves. This becomes a point of conflict for the sisters who seem to have had a harmonious relationship to this point.

But a shift happens, gradually and explosively for me, and it seemed clear to me that the bear is more than just a bear, and the book becomes an extended metaphor for anything hidden that comes between two people who care for each other.

I have my thoughts about what Phillips was thinking about, metaphorically, but I’ll leave that for other readers to decide for themselves. I love it when a book subverts my expectations that way.

Meet the Author interviews are lightly edited for clarity.

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I loved learning about Christine's processes for writing—I also find that attuning to those magical writing times is incredibly important.

When is your creativity closest to the surface? How can you protect that time?