Switching off

Solace in silence: An interview with Christine Jackman

Christine Jackman’s Turning Down the Noise sees one of Australia’s most seasoned journalists tackle the increasingly important issue of how to regain clarity and peace of mind amid the deafening clatter of digital distractions and the myriad demands of contemporary life. Jackman appeared at Byron Writers Festival 2022.

What was the inspiration to write Turning Down the Noise? How did it initially take shape in your mind, and what questions were you trying to answer? By many metrics, I was living the dream: a well-paid executive career, living in harbourside Sydney, travelling regularly and meeting lots of ‘important’ people in politics, business and the media. But I was always in a rush, under-slept and unhealthy. I began to feel overwhelmed by the noise in my life: not just the audible noise of phones, constant meetings and email and text alerts, but the insidious digital noise that has crept into most of our lives. At first, I was just trying to work out whether I was the only one feeling this way! But the more I explored the topic, the more I began to suspect that the rising incidence of things like anxiety, depression, insomnia and general social dislocation in our communities was in part being fuelled by how overstimulated and over-worked we are. Can you outline some of the biggest challenges you faced with the book – either on a creative level or in the publishing process, promotion and so on? My first book [Inside Kevin07] was written really quickly, in five months after the 2007 federal election. The political news cycle moves so swiftly, you have to move fast to stay relevant. But Turning Down the Noise was a very different proposition. For a start, it was a more personal, experiential venture. A few months

in, I realised I had to stop writing about things at arm’s length, in that comfort zone of apparent objectivity that journalism encourages, and be more honest with readers about my own personal experiences and struggles. But here’s the irony: this was a book about noise and the multiple demands in our lives – and while I was writing it, all of those demands were still happening! My father was diagnosed with advanced melanoma and we moved back from Sydney to Brisbane, partly so I could be closer to him and so we, as a family, could really slow down and take some of the external pressures off. Meanwhile, there were major changes at my original publisher; fortunately, my brilliant agent Alex Adsett was able to negotiate a move to the wonderful Murdoch Books. But that took a while. And then I developed a very rare eye condition; I was hospitalised and for several months I was unable to read and write because of light sensitivity. So, as I said, life got in the way a bit.

What books or authors served as inspirations or influences for the writing of Turning Down the Noise? Back when I was a Sydney commuter, I started listening to a brilliant podcast called On Being, with Krista Tippett. One evening, she introduced an acoustic ecologist named Gordon Hempton. I didn’t think I’d be interested in the interview but within thirty seconds of listening to Gordon I was hooked. He is a mix of poet, scientist and modern-day mystic and he’s evangelical about the importance of preserving spaces that are free from the intrusion of man-made noise. His book One Square Inch of Silence documents his campaign to protect the peace of the Hoh River Valley in Olympic National Park in Washington state; I ended up hiking the Hoh River trail as part of my research. I also gained a great deal from reading the works of several monks from Buddhist and Christian traditions that observe vows of silence, including Thomas Merton, Father Michael Casey and the late Thich Nhat Hanh. In the book, I write about staying at several monasteries and hermitages, here and in the US, where silent contemplation is a core part of daily life. What I’ve learned is that, in silence, we can transcend a lot of humanity’s petty differences and appreciate instead how closely we are all connected. It’s worth noting there is also a rich tradition of something called ‘deep listening’ in Indigenous cultures in Australia.

Can you identify some of the key skills and insights from your stellar career in journalism that were particularly important to writing this book? Thank you for the compliment! First, when you spend over twenty years writing to tight deadlines, as I did, you learn not to be intimidated by the empty page (or screen). There is no time for writer’s block! Second, my work in longform feature writing particularly taught me that story is everything; even in non-fiction, you need to give your readers a strong narrative arc, ideally one where they can find characters to empathise with as they overcome the challenges they face.

Can you tell us a little about your writing practice, perhaps in relation to the themes in your book – how do you carve out space and time to devote to writing amid life’s many demands? I’d love to say I now maintain a state of balanced, Zen-like calm! However, as in the meditation practices I learned while researching the book (for example, I went to a ten-day silent retreat in the Tasmanian bush), the key is not removing all intrusions and interruptions but learning how to deal with those inevitable challenges as they arise. I’ve learned that creativity (and happiness!) flows best when I prioritise sleep, when I meditate daily and when I get out regularly into nature. I also try hard to limit my use of social media and often use a productivity app called Freedom that blocks the internet (or parts of it) while I’m working to restrict intrusions. Lately, I’ve also been embracing something called the ‘nifty 350’, made famous by thriller writer James Scott Bell. It’s based on the idea that anyone can write 350 words, even if life is really busy. Setting such a bite-sized goal removes a lot of the pressure that stalls writers – and once you’ve started, you usually discover you can write more. But even if you just write 350 words a day, you will finish an 80,000-word draft in about eight months. It’s like the old saying: 'How do you eat an elephant? One teaspoon at a time.'

What is your next project? What are you working on at the moment? Confession: having sworn I’d never write another political book, I was very tempted to write one after the last federal election, about the rise of the teals and other community independents. I suspect we’re undergoing a long overdue and potentially really exciting change in how politics is ‘done’ in Australia. But meanwhile… I’m about 20,000 words into my first novel. After the release of Turning Down the Noise, I’d been planning to start work on another non-fiction project. But while I was tinkering with that a couple of characters arrived in my head from nowhere and they’ve refused to leave. Creativity works to its own mysterious ways!

Turning Down the Noise is published by Murdoch Books.