Books Take the Time They Take, with Christine Fischer Guy

In this episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show, I’m joined by Toronto writer and journalist Christine Fischer Guy, author of The Umbrella Mender and her new novel, The Instrument Must Not Matter.

Christine’s latest novel follows Lila, a gifted young classical pianist who leaves Toronto for New York City after being chosen to study with a prestigious mentor. It’s an exciting opportunity, but also a terrifying one. Lila has to leave behind everything she knows and step into a world of artistic pressure, ambition, loneliness, and possibility.

What I loved about this conversation is how Christine talks about the way her novels begin: with character. For The Instrument Must Not Matter, the spark came from walking past the statue of Glenn Gould outside the CBC building in Toronto. That small moment of curiosity led her into biographies, research, music, and eventually into the world of this novel.

Christine isn’t a classical pianist herself, but while writing the book, she took piano lessons and even learned to play a Bach Partita in C. I loved hearing about that kind of immersive research—the kind that lets a writer feel their way into a character’s world, even when that world is technically demanding and unfamiliar.

We also talk about the deeper family history behind the novel. Lila’s grandmother was a violinist in Prague in 1968, when Soviet tanks rolled in after the Prague Spring. On the night before her planned debut, she goes out after curfew and plays the piece she was meant to perform—an act of artistic resistance that leads to her arrest and to a lifetime of silence as a musician.

One of the most fascinating parts of our conversation is Christine’s discussion of writing about music. Music exists beyond language, so how do you put that on the page? For Christine, part of the answer came through Lila’s synesthesia. Lila experiences sound as colour, which gives the novel a vivid, sensory way to bring music into language.

And of course, we talk about the writing process. Christine describes herself as a discovery writer. She doesn’t begin with an outline. Instead, she writes a messy first draft to find out what happens, then shapes the book through revision. 

The Instrument Must Not Matter took ten years and at least ten major revisions, including one big change: in the first draft, the pianist was a man. When the protagonist became a young woman, the story truly opened up.

This is such a generous conversation about research, revision, artistic courage, and trusting the long process of writing a novel.

For any writer who is deep in the messy middle of a project, I think you’ll find real comfort here. Some books take the time they take—and sometimes, the long way through is exactly what allows the book to become its best self.