How author Michael Christie tames his 'wandering, ungovernable attention' to write

Leading up to Canada Reads, CBC Arts is bringing you daily essays about where this year's authors write for our series Where I Write. This edition features Greenwood author Michael Christie.

I wrote my novel Greenwood in a small 10"x10" cabin on Galiano Island, where I was living at the time. I wrote mostly in the mornings, after my kids were off to school. But there were plenty of evenings and afternoons spent camped in there as well, especially during the lengthy process of revision and editing. 

The cabin is encircled by massive Douglas firs and Western redcedars, and as I wrote, it was almost as though I was trying to draw the trees inside with me. I felt a wonderfully sustaining sense of calm and focus arising from their steady presence.

Generally, I go for austerity while I'm working. A spare room. No phone. No internet connection (I actually have an app that completely disables my wifi). A table. A chair. A laptop. Some notebooks. A dictionary. A stereo. The overall aim is to keep distractions to a minimum.

Why? Because good writing depends on successfully marshalling your attention. And my attention is a wandering, ungovernable creature — one who will stop to gawk at any shiny object or roadside distraction passed along the way. It will stoop to anything, if it can escape the task I've set for it to complete. And so, I try to minimize the things it can attach itself to — kind of like if you're trying to tread water for a very long time, it's better not to have life preservers floating near at hand all around you, because eventually you will tire and be tempted to reach for one.

While writing Greenwood, my stimulant of choice was Yorkshire Gold tea. (I adore coffee, but I find that it spikes and crashes my motivation more than tea does, which provides a more consistent hum while I'm writing.) And I also try to keep snacking to a minimum, for distraction (and general health) reasons. But I will definitely eat a handful of roasted almonds if I'm really rolling and don't want to go back to the house to whip up a proper meal.

Though it could be classified as a distraction, music was essential to the writing of Greenwood. The novel spans 130 years, and there are five distinct time periods found in the narrative: 1908, 1934, 1974, 2008, and 2038. In order to immerse myself in each era, I did a kind of method acting, listening exclusively to music of the period I was working on. Which meant a constant rotation of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music for 1908 and 1934, plenty of protest folk from artists like Joan Baez for 1974, the apocalyptic sounds of Godspeed You! Black Emperor for 2008, and some futuristic ambience for my imagined 2038, from bands like Stars of the Lid and Eluvium.

While this cabin was probably the perfect spot for me to write a book like Greenwood, I really try not to be too precious about writing spaces. Especially after the rise of social media, I feel like there's too much emphasis placed on the aesthetics of the spaces we inhabit, and not enough on what actually happens in those spaces. It brings to mind all those fancy architectural magazines full of sad-looking people living in gorgeously designed houses, who are all probably talking about the same mundane things at the dinner table, and whose lives are no more wonderful or fulfilling than anyone else's. 

I guess I'm saying that good books can be written anywhere. You don't need a cabin in the forest — you just need a good idea, some time, and some precious freedom from distraction. With those three ingredients, you can write anything.

Read this year's Where I Write essays every day this week on CBC Arts and tune in to Canada Reads from March 27–30.