Advice For Writers From Michael Chabon

In the extras at the back of my paperback edition of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union are some great nuggets from Michael Chabon to inspire the writers out there:

  • Michael Chabon wrote a 600 page first draft of the novel which he ended up throwing away.
  • He says that success comes from three elements “talent, luck and discipline”. “Discipline,” he says, “is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.”
  • He spent five years working on his second novel then threw it away. He then completed a draft of The Wonder Boys in less than seven months.

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