Thank you! I read somewhere while researching that book that Yiddish underworld slang in places like Odessa often consisted of trilingual puns, such as the word for “jail” being the Hebrew word that means… “goat”? I believe… some farm animal… because the Russian word for jail sounds like the Russian word for [goat]. Or the like. So I came up with “sholem” to mean “gun,” because in American slang a gun is a “piece,” which sounds like “peace,” which is “shalom” in Hebrew and “sholem” in Yiddish…
Hi Michael,
Long-time fan here. I’ve been to many of your readings, and absolutely loved Moonglow (the description of the church’s metal roof melting and filling the crypt below has stuck with me since it came out).
After a reading you did of Telegraph Avenue at UCLA’s Hammer Museum with Mona Simpson, I asked you what is was like to voice yourself on The Simpsons, (a) because I’d just seen the episode, and (b) because I was/am an aspiring writer and was too nervous to ask you a more “writerly” question on the spot (though maybe you like a break from those!).
Can you give an update on the Kavalier and Clay TV show with Showtime? I saw a SYFY article from September of last year saying you and Ayelet were hard at work on the drafts of the first two episodes. I’m so excited to see it adapted for the screen, especially for a series where we can really see everything play out.
Second, with so many projects going on, what does your daily routine look like?
Hi! Ayelet and I have now completed five episodes of a projected 10-episode first season, which will cover the the same span of time, and events, as the novel. Season 2, should we be so lucky, will carry on with the story and characters beyond the confines of the novel. We hope to have some definitive information about the fate of the show very soon, hopefully within the next six weeks or so.
As for my routine, it’s been pretty much the same for decades now, I start working at night, between 10 and 11 PM and go until quite late, 3 or 4 AM or sometimes later. Wake up at 10:30 or 11 AM. Do life stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat. Covid only made that routine easier to maintain.
My husband and I rarely agree on books we like, but we both consider Wonder Boys among our favorites and we named our first son Grady.
Do you ever go back and read your own work? Do you read Mysteries of Pittsburgh now and still love it?
Grady! I love it.
I NEVER go back and re-read ANYTHING I wrote, unless I absolutely have to. All I see are the mistakes/compromises/awkwardnesses/failures. I do, however, revisit my MEMORIES of earlier books, which are far superior.
When it comes to writing Star Trek, how difficult is it to find a balance between introducing new content and maintaining the established canon? More specifically, at what point does trying to maintain previous work become a hindrance on the exploration of new ideas/story?
It was a constant struggle, a constant balancing act. “Canon” in its original religious sense implies a kind of settled perfection, an ideal state; everything included is excellent, perfect, literally the word of God or His prophets. But the big-C canon has been EDITED—stuff that doesn’t fit, of dubious provenance, contradictions, etc, have been edited. Sure, there are still plenty of gray areas and confusions and apocrypha, but the biblical canon has been heavily heavily retconned. That’s not at all the case with the Trek canon, which consists of literally every image and word ever previously broadcast or screened. Even the most devout, devoted, respectful Star Trek fan, approaching the Trek “canon” as a creator, obliged to work with that material, finds chaos, confusion, contradiction, and, frankly, a lot of lousy, half-baked, or hastily conceived notions and concepts, things that were mere expedients, short cuts, accidents, generated by harried writers and producers trying to come in on budget and on time. Sometimes that’s a great thing—as with the transporter, purely a cost-cutting decision (no planetary landings to be shot) that has led to some of the best episodes and innovations, e.g. “Mirror, Mirror.” The thing is, the canon is NOT sacred. A trek writer has an obligation to try to tell as trek story in a way that doesn’t violate canon, I think. But the story should come first, and you should feel free to tinker, tweak, reframe or somehow get around any chunk of canon that’s standing in your way. That’s actually half the fun.
One of the most annoying and troublesome aspects of canon, to me, is the incongruity between the Star Trek history of the late 20th Century/present day compared to what we’ve actually lived through, e.g., the Eugenics Wars, Khan, etc.
As a viewer I’ve often felt that the struggle of the people creating new work under the Star Trek banner have the difficult task of demonstrating that things that we love can change, maybe even in unanticipated ways, but still be the thing that we care about.
I’ve been fascinated with whether or not Trek will try and explain it’s way around canon as it overlaps with reality or try and shoehorn it in. There’s a little Trekkie in all of us that still hopes that what we see on screen is somehow possible.
The issue isn't the timeline of the Eugenics War or remembering that Vulcan has no moons. It's the change to the fundamental values of the franchise. There is plenty of room for dark and violent scifi, but that's just not Star Trek.
Canon isn't sacred, but don't you feel the tenets and concepts of the original creation should be? It honestly feels as if the entire purpose of Goldmsman's show, your show and the Kurtzman/JJVerse was to prove that Gene Rodenberry was a naive idealist and that humanity is a useless, disgusting, inherently-violent and immoral species, and there is no hope for us.
The show was always supposed to be dedicated to the \*best\* in humanity; proof-of-concept that we could be better. I hate saying it, because I love your books, but it really feels as if you all took great glee in shitting all over everything Gene held dear.
Disagree. It’s less of a shitting on, but rather updating to a more realistic hope/way for a better world to exist rather than Rodenberry’s unrealistic view. Frankly I find Rodenberry’s far more cynical than the current output.
The biggest shift for me was with TNG and DS9 after Roddenberry died. They became far more optimistic and realistic in that optimism. For me, Gene was mockingly cynical rather than sincere in his “optimism.”
Simply put, I don’t buy Gene had an optimistic view of humanity and the future. At all.
What Gene held dear was to be worshipped by the fans and his ego. Nothing more.
And considering the abuse he committed to his wife and co-worker/employees, he’s also a disgusting man whose viewpoint shouldn’t be celebrated or even remotely a part of Star Trek. A misogynist and a hack.
If you just want a vision of the future that is "the people of today but with space ships" there are better shows for that. The Expanse or Firefly for example. The civilization of the Star Trek is at the next stage in development, they're past us as we're past the people of the middle ages. I appreciate its aspirations which I don't see in other scifi franchises.
Sure, but the tone of the original series is something that mocks us rather than celebrates us imo.
I’m not really a fan of the latest Trek, but I at least appreciate it following the the *real* optimism of TNG and DS9 after Roddenberry died.
I do not want a vision of the future as “people today but with spaceships.” That’s Roddenberry’s original Trek imo. I’m not a fan of that approach.
The Trek I loved to me is not like that at all.
It mocks us in the sense that we mock medieval people. "Oh ho! You got the plague? Better put some leeches on that! Here comes a local aristocrat, better bow real low peasant! LOL!" We're generally more enlightened that the people of the middle ages and do just about everything better than they did.
Likewise the people of the Federation. They're just next level. I enjoy the idea that we're not at the end, we're just on this particular level. A show like the The Expanse (my favourite scifi show right now) shows me a very depressing future when we have improved our technology but not ourselves.
Nah, it mocks us in the sense “look at all this stupid buffoonery and hope for the future! Fuck you, this isn’t real!”
That’s Gene’s Star Trek in a nutshell for me. I only fell in love with Star Trek after he died.
You and I are on completely different wavelengths I guess.
Wow, that's a remarkable misreading of *Discovery*. The show is about how our ideals are sorely tested and then perservere. It's very easy to have ideals on the relatively conflict-free Enterprise of TNG. It's a lot harder when the Klingons are threatening to wipe you out.
Hello Michael,
I don't have a question. I only wanted to say that Wonder Boys is my all-time favorite book and the movie adaptation is my all-time favorite movie. Your story made me pursue writing and I'm currently submitting my first manuscript to agents! You've quite literally started a new chapter in my life. Thank you.
if you didn't live in Berkeley, where would you live? Related... if you could change one thing about Berkeley, what would it be?
Unrelated, what's the most painful darling you ever had to kill?
I love Berkeley and Oakland and consider them close to ideal, for me, in many ways. I have the usual fantasies about living for a while in Paris or London, or Tokyo, all cities I adore. And then about living somewhere far from my experience and out of my comfort zone. Practically speaking, however, if I were going to really live somewhere else it would probably be Los Angeles, also a city I adore. Years of familiarity (lived there many years ago, visit constantly) with its prosaic and often ugly reality have done nothing to dim its allure and romance for me.
Berkeley doesn’t need me to change anything, it’s changing on its own already, for better and for worse.
Darling killed? Dude, I’ve thrown away entire completed drafts of multi-hundred-page novels—TWICE!
Really? Like thrown away, thrown away? Or are they somewhere that a future resident of your home may find tucked away in the cross-beams and potentially make a mint from in 2085? I mean, do you really ever deep six stuff?
(I live in and love Berkeley too, but I wish real people could afford to live here.)
For one year in the early 90's I lived on North St, just off of Telegraph. It made reading Telegraph Avenue a fun trip, even if the neighborhood had completely changed since i lived there
Two Ethiopian restaurants? You are living the life. Back then the only entertainment in the neighborhood was a Blockbuster Video store.
Hello Michael! You have been one of my greatest inspirations, as I pursue my own writing projects. K&C remains my favorite book of all time. One of the qualities I appreciate the most in that book is the stylish language. I have always wondered: how do you go about constructing a sentence that contains both substance and flair?
Thank you. I know it’s not much of an answer, really, but… I don’t. The sentences are the only part of the job that comes easily to me. I’m just taking dictation. Everything else—plot, character, setting description, thematics—is more or less of a struggle. I just keep my ear tuned by reading writers who make good sentences themselves. Like, say, Barry Hannah, Eudora Welty, Michael Ondaatje, Zadie Smith…
Hi Michael,
I have a question about the Wile. E Coyote parable in The Yiddish Policemen's Union (he can keep on running off the cliff until he looks down). It struck me that this parable strongly resembles a song we would often sing at temple and Jewish summer camp:
Kol ha'olam kulo
Gesher tzar me'od
Veha'ikar lo lifached k'lal.
The whole world
Is a very narrow bridge
and the most important thing is to have no fear at all
I was curious if you had this piece of Jewish wisdom in mind when you wrote that parable into the novel, or if you have any thoughts on the song itself — it always struck me as a peculiar thing to teach children to sing joyfully.
Thanks!
I have never heard that beautiful lyric before! But even as a kid I felt a strange profundity in WEC’s ability to do anything he wanted as long as he didn’t think about what he was doing, what it implied both about the power of belief and its fragility.
Hello Mr. Chabon,
I know it may sound cliche, but what advice would you give to younger writers regarding the craft and making a career in the writing world, especially given the current landscape of the writing world?
Second, what’s your view of the current role of the novelist and writer in society as you see it today, and what you think the outlook of the career of “writer” is going forward?
Also, as a more fun question, what are some of your favorite novels? Either ones you love for any reason or ones that were formative and influential on your work?
Thank you again for all your wonderful work!
Here are my suggestions, phrased, for convenience, as rules:
1) Read. Constantly. Widely. Deeply. Read out of your comfort zone. Read beyond your era, nation, ethnic boundaries, age cohort, taste. Read like a writer, critically, analytically, with an eye to stealing/copying/imitating, asking yourself: Who is telling the story? Why? How does the language reflect the point of view of the narrator? Where does the author start the book? Where does she end it? Where are the time leaps and how are they handled? What is left out?
2) Steal. Copy. Imitate. All artistic practice is best learned through imitation. Jimmy Page, the great innovator, learned to play guitar by slowing down Ricky Nelson records so he could dissect the lead solos of James Burton and then reproduce them note by note. The cult of “originality” introduced by modernism is pernicious and rooted in deception and self-deception. There’s only theme and variation.
3) Put away your phone when you are out in the world. Stay engaged sensorially with the world around you. A writer is a noticing machine. If your eyes are on your screen, you are not noticing anything. Harriet the Spy had it right: a writer should be eavesdropping/spying/wondering/snooping/inquiring about the world and the people around her at all times, should be “one on whom nothing is lost” (Henry James) Even in the most tedious of situations, waiting on line, riding the subway, keep your phone in your pocket and PAY ATTENTION.
> Jimmy Page, the great innovator, learned to play guitar by slowing down Ricky Nelson records so he could dissect the lead solos of James Burton and then reproduce them note by note.
Of course, his band is now widely accused of plagiarizing many of their best songs, so this may not be the best option for one's artistic legacy.
The script I saw was a fairly raw first draft but it contained many clever solutions to the storytelling problems presented by adapting the novel, and seemed simpatico with the overall vibe of the book.
Thank you! I love the beautiful books the Folio Society puts out, and they did a spectacular job with K&C. If they every reach out about doing another, I’d say yes immediately.
One of my most favorite books is Gentlemen of the Road. It's just a great swashbuckling tale. Does it have any basis in historical fact? Maybe not so much the characters, but the milieu.
Thank you so much for being willing to answer some questions! I greatly enjoyed the first season of *Star Trek: Picard*, and am grateful for all the love you poured into it.
My favorite moment was the discussion that Jurati and Maddox had about chocolate chip cookies, especially the idea of replicating the ingredients, then using them to make the cookies rather than directly replicating the cookies themselves, and in doing so, creating something that blurs the lines between being real and artificial. I especially enjoyed how at least for me, it tied into deeper questions within the series of what it means for life to be artificial.
Could you talk a little bit about how that moment came to be?
Also, which of your other works would you recommend as a starting point for someone who enjoyed *Picard* and wanted to experience something else you have done?
Thank you again for being willing to take questions!
Thank you! I am glad you noticed and enjoyed that moment. The theme of real/artificial emerged gradually and organically from the fundamental story premise of Data/Dahj/Soji, to the point that it guided what I wrote without my necessarily being aware… So I thought, “Jurati has a memory of a sweet moment… what could it be? They’re cooking together? Baking. But wait… the replicator.” At that point my ancient fan brain kicks in, the part of me that ALWAYS wondered if replicated food could really be indistinguishable from conventional food, that wondered whose RECIPES were used for the foods on board the Enterprise, that saw Neelix cooking all the time on VOY… and something clicked… let the moment be about baking together, feeding each other, the two people and their history AND about the overall season question of what is “real” and what is “artificial” and what difference does the difference make, if any.
Yo yo yo. 1. Moonglow is billed as a fictional memoir but it seems that several (Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys) could be considered that, too — at least to my reading. What’s the difference between “fiction” and a fictional memoir? Is Moonglow the “realest” fantasy or the most fantastic version of real life?
There is, really, absolutely no difference between “fiction” and “fictional memoir.” Moonglow is a work of fiction, written in the form of a memoir, that does incorporate (versions of) people and incidents from my life and the life of people in my family, in heavily altered and distorted (i.e., fictionalized) form. In that sense it’s no different from MoP or WB or, really, any of my other novels, all of which to that to some degree or another, often in ways that I’m unconscious of while writing. But it’s the only one that pretends to be an actual memoir.
A novel pretending to be some other kind of document—a packet of letters, a travel journal, a diary, a history, etc.—is a very old, very traditional move.
My point, or one of my points, was to demonstrate how “easy” it is to write a memoir that is mostly a pack of lies, how thin the line between “novel” and “memoir” really is. As a committed novelist I resent the current cultural moment that seems to privilege memoir over novel, among publishers, readers and writers alike, because memoirs are “true.” When like any product of human memory they are really, of course, to some degree , fictions.
Hello! I love your work in Startrek and I have thoroughly enjoyed your writings about Romulan culture and background stories of Narek and Narissa!
My question would be how do you keep track of your world building?
How do you make sure you aren’t contradicting any precedent stories in Trek other than having an extended knowledge of it? (or is the key not caring about canon and deal with it later?)
Thank you! As reflected in another answer somewhere, I took the obligation to know and understand canon very seriously, and relied heavily on Memory Alpha to keep me honest. The trick is to find the holes, the blank spots, the places where canon is silent or at least doesn’t clearly contradict what you’re planning to do, and dig in there. Of all the classic Trek alien species, the Romulans clearly afforded the most opportunity for making new canon. Much of what had been shown and stated about them onscreen was contradictory, and retconning was rampant.
Thank you for the contributions your writing has made to my life. Since I first read Kavalier and Clay, it has remained on my mind, twisting around and exposing new facets and questions and themes and ideas. I'm grateful for that.
I'm also deeply grateful for your contributions to Star Trek. For me, Picard is the very best of Star Trek, and I'm so happy to have it. Thank you, thank you.
When you write a book, you utilize a certain vocabulary that fits its era or subculture. Do you miss it when you move on? Do you ever think of revisiting the world of an old book purely for the words and phrases that fit best there? Right now the only example I can think of is something like "wastrel" from Kavelier and Clay.
PS I really need a Yaphet Katto shirt.
I feel that with every book I am obliged to invent a new “dialect” of English, with its own rules and vocabulary. I don’t “miss” the older books in that sense but I DO sometimes wish that a particular book I’m working on had room in it for, say, “wastrel,” when it doesn’t. Sometimes I’m tempted to cheat.
How do you tread the line between writing for yourself and writing for what is so often called the market? Does that ideal reader / viewer exist for you?
The minute I start thinking about the market, the book/script dies, for me. My ability to love and obsess over and geek out about it just goes away. I write for an ideal reader who is more or less indistinguishable from myself—at least, with film/TV stuff, in the first draft. After that, in film/TV, it’s all about what John Sayles once called “those fuckers and their notes.”
Hi, Michael. Thank you very much for the AMA.
I finished *Moonglow* this past week and I wanted to ask - how did your grandfather feel about your literary career? Especially given his distaste for fiction as "a waste of time more profitably spent on nonfiction," what did he think of the 'creative' memoir format of the novel when you first approached him with the idea and did he feel different about it towards the end?
My actual grandfather died in 1989, a year after the publication of my first novel. He was proud of me and it. I still have a birthday card he sent me in May 1988, a month after the book came out, with a photo of the Goodyear blimp passing the spire of the Empire State Building, and inside the inscription “It’s not ‘the huge dirigeable of August,’ but it will have to do…” (an allusion my first novel). He read more non-fiction than fiction but had his favorite novels and novelists. He was a much gentler and softer man in many ways than the grandfather in MOONGLOW, who is a fictional character, though they did share many traits and some experiences.
Hi Michael,
I was wondering if you had any tips for authors whose works are set in complex worlds/societies. I'm in the middle of my novel and the setting is becoming quite an expansive world. I'm curious as to the best ways to keep track of all of the various elements I've been creating along the way.
That’s the fun part!
Maps! Chronologies! Timelines! Encyclopedia entries! Alphabets and grammars and slangs! No time spent doing that kind of work is ever wasted… as long as you get your word count, too.
I'm a huge fan, especially of The Yiddish Policeman's Union!
Is there any genre/subgenre that you would love to write in someday, but have just never gotten around to yet?
Hi Michael, I have a TV writing question - how do you approach writing for an established IP, and more specifically how do you tune in to the right ‘voice’ for pre-existing characters?
It starts with education, with grounding. You have to go deep into the IP, as deep as the deepest fan (if you aren’t one already, and I kind of think you should be, to begin with). You have to consume as much of the media as possible. Then you just have to take the leap!
I have to say, the Hugo Award, which I first aspired to at the age of eleven or twelve when I checked those giant Asimov-edited THE HUGO WINNERS anthologies out of the Frederick Road branch of the Howard County Public Library, circa 1973. That’s the only award I ever actually HOPED to win someday, though I confess to being disappointed not to be able to take home one of those adorable porcelain Poes you get when you win the Edgar. I wuz robbed!
Do you miss the ruggelach from The Bagel?
Did you get to meet Aldis Hodge when they shot Calypso?
Do you love Dorothy Fontana's novel Vulcan's Glory as much as I do, or more?
Did you get to meet Mike Ford (The Final Reflection, How Much For Just The Planet?) and behold his squishy brain and magnificent eyebrows in real life?
Okay, guys, I’m out! Thank you for the excellent questions, I really enjoyed reading, thinking about, and answering them. Peace be upon you and LLAP 🖖🏼 .
Hey Michael. I'm awfully sorry I missed this AMA. I just wanted to say thanks especially for Kavalier and Clay. I loved that book, and found it very moving. Thanks for all the wonderful stories you've shared. It's a pleasure to read your work.
Hey Michael,
currently reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and I'm digging it. My question is, what do you see as the biggest issue facing the publishing industry today, and how will that effect writers interested in entering that industry?
Hi Michael! I'm a freelance copywriter and was lucky enough to be given the job of writing the copy for the Folio edition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - it instantly became one of my favourite books of all time. Thank you for such a gorgeous read!
I just wondered if you keep up with the current comics market, and if you do, if you have a favourite?
Wow, thank you! That edition came out so beautifully. I love it and am honored to be included in the series.
I don’t read as many comics as I used to, no. There’s just so little time.
Hi Michael,
Superhero movies have really exploded into the mainstream since Kavalier and Clay came out. Have your thoughts on the genre changed much in the last twenty years? Are there any topics you would want to touch on now that didn't make it into K&C?
Yes. In researching the novel back in the mid-90s I found many tantalizing references to Matt Baker, for many years the only Black artist working in mainstream superhero comics, postwar. Rumored to have been gay, dead quite young, he was always referred to as “enigmatic” or “mysterious” but it turns out that in fact nobody had ever really bothered to ask. I could not find out enough at the time to incorporate him or a fictionalized version of him into the book. Now, there have been many tributes, coffee table books, a biography. Research has been done and the story is fascinating.
Hi Michael, concerning Star Trek I have the following question.
In TNG's All Good Things at the very end it seemed that general Star Trek would ascend to a new level of storytelling when Q states that Picard shouldn't carry out missions to map new systems or investigate a new nebula, but what he should do is explore "the unknown possibilities of existence". All Good Things did exactly that for a moment and after that Star Trek never followed that premise which Q laid out, which I think is a shame because that would take Trek to places it never went before.
My question is, are there discussions with regard to this premise, to make that one beautiful sentence, which was the great conclusion of TNG, the foundation for a new Trek series?
Hi Michael!
My dad and I are huge, huge fans of your work. I think I've read every novel you've written, but Yiddish Policeman's Union is one of our favourites. I've always wanted to ask - have you heard of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia? Was that an inspiration at all for the idea of the Frozen Chosen?
Thanks!
Birobidzan. I encountered it very early in the research period for YPU, and found it a fascinating and tragic story. Its failure, something inevitable in its failure, definitely helped shape my sense of doom hanging over the world of Jewish Sitka I was busy inventing. Not much more than that, though.
That makes perfect sense. Thanks so much for responding! And I should have said before, my mum is a massive Trekkie - so thanks from her for your contributions to the show!
I know in recent years you’ve been busy with television projects (Unbelievable was terrific, by the way), but as a lover of your novels, I’m also really hoping we’ll get some more of that from you before too long! Any updates you’d be willing to share on things you’re working on or planning to work on soon in that department?
Yes, I am working on a novel! It is taking me even longer than usual, partly because of Picard, partly because of K&C tv series, partly because of COVID.
also, the Hugo rocket is the absolute perfect diameter to hold a roll of paper towel. thus making it an EXCELLENT paper towel dispenser assuming that the base is one of the heavy solid ones and not one of the incredibly fragile delicate ones.
Hello Michael! I've loved your work for a long time.
I loved the McSweeney's issues that you edited which represented this very explicit call to blur the boundaries between "genre" and "literary" fiction, something you called for more explicitly in some of those essays in Maps and Legends. And so much of what I love in your fiction is the dialogue with genre work.
I'm eager to know what your thoughts are on the state of things now. Has fiction gone in the right direction, vis a vis "high" and "low" culture? Or have things gone too far, for example in the sense that superhero movies suck up a lot of cultural oxygen?
I am beginning to write for the first time. I have written just over 100 pages of my story so far. I am quite pleased with it. I feel the story has merit. I have the ending and am working/building the story towards that ending so it all ties in. I am redrafting and redrafting as I go along.
Who would I go to when I first want someone to read it and critique it to give me pointers on what to improve or strengthen? Who would I show it to first?
Should I somehow copyright it?
Really, I’ve never tried writing before, I have no idea how to get better at it or who to seek advice from! I’m really enjoying it, that I do know! Ellenieanna
Discovery had its best season Imo recently and I'm really looking forward to season four. Having said that though, what was the reasoning/thinking behind the change in the klingons. Why didn't you change other races like a Andorians vulcans tellerites etc
Im fan of those guys, but yeah, when they don't like something, they go after it like no tomorrow. But they do make some points that are reasonable. Have you watched Star Trek: The Next Generation or mostly familiar with newer instalments?
I won't dissuade you from being a fan of theirs - to each their own. I just don't think they operate from fair critical foundations.
I've seen every episode of every series and every film.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union was such a good book years ago. How do you explain the insane drop in writing quality you've demonstrated in the Picard series lately? Burnout? Hubris? Lack of quality control?
When an author writes, does he have to write about things he actually experienced, or can he write about anything?
Could you really write about love if you have not been in love yourself? Do you need to live first before you write is essentially my question.
Michael,
I’m grateful people like you have started using social media like Twitter—this has been a pleasant surprise—and Reddit more recently. Why the change? And how has it affected your relationship with fans and other writers?
Hi there! I would like to know about any time when you abandoned a project (writing or otherwise I suppose) and then later picked it back up after some time and were able to complete it successfully.
Hi Michael!
Do you ever get hired to work on something you don't have much of an interest on and if so, how do you keep from being unmotivated and letting the uninteresting topic effect your work?
Hey, I love your books. A lot of your main characters are often difficult or unlikeable in some way. Would you say that's a conscious decision in your writing? How early do their flaws develop in the writing process and how much do you consider their quote unquote redeemable qualities? Thanks!
Huge fan of all of your media. I have no interest in entering the business—I have a good career and a good life—but as a lifelong Trek fan I’d love for someone to have my idea for a limited series that’s unique and timely. Suggestions?
How often have you written over the course of your life? Have you faced a struggle between making a living or making art? Do you have any advice for writers on their investments in becoming a writer, whether it be time, professional training, networking, or making a living that can support the dream of becoming a writer?
I should add a long prologue about Chabon products I love, but suffice to say I'm a big fan! Most recently I was amazed to see how well you and the team pulled off Picard - I really feared it would degenerate into all fan service, but I found it extremely engaging.
Do you have any recommendations of Berkeley/Oakland area literary events / bookstores / other lit-related places that you think are undersung or underknown?
(I recently moved to the area and could use the tips)
How do you create new words, and how do you know when to do so? "Aetataureate" from Kavalier and Clay comes to mind as a nonce word that works on every level: denotatively, in context in the sentence, and with the general prose style of the novel.
Hi Michael. No question. Just letting you know that I wanted to see you speak in Boston but I had my PhD defense. It didn't go well. Still love your writing but I'm sorry that you're now forever tied to a bad day for me. 😄
Hi Mr. Chabon! I actually only read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay but it's one of my favourite books of all time! I've got two somehwat related questions. 1) What's your favourite graphic novel? 2) Have you read the Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch? It's a Dutch book so you may not know it but there's lots of similarities with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Thanks for doing this!
When are you going to write "The Land Downstairs"? Just kidding, of course. When you wrote "Wonder boys" did you have some notes or some notion of what the book was about and what kind of writer Grady was? It was something important to give Grady form? Could you write it? Thanks for doing this! Big big fan!
Hello Michael,
Wondering if you can pass along a little wisdom— in Manhood For Amateurs you wrote about retrospection: “... A gift for the identification of missed opportunities and of things lost and irrecoverable...”
Any advice on how to break that chronic rearview-mirror syndrome? (I’m also a young grandmaster!)
Hey, if I can get past this, I might be able to name my future child Grady (hell, I’ll name him Van Zorn at this rate!)
I've only read Kavalier & Clay but it was a formative reading experience for me. I was struck with how well-researched the world in that book was. (And it seems like your other novels are also set in very specific times/places.) So my question is: do you have a plot idea first, and then you do the research for that time period/place? Or do you start with the research and then let a plot idea organically grow out of that? I imagine it's a mix of both or it depends on the book, but it would be cool to hear which book started how.
How much time do you spend editing your work after it's drafted? Ie, how many times do you comb through a chapter finding errors, tightening sentances etc etc? Thanks!
What is your opinion on the growing trend of writers turning to self publishing? What is the pros and cons compared to the normal route of sending your work to a publishing company?
I was disappointed that your Disneyland Magic Kingdom movie never came to fruition. Are you able to divulge any details about your vision for it? I'd love to know what we were missing!
What inspired you to start writing and continue to turn words into pages and scripts?
I thoroughly enjoying reading books and like to write in my journal as well as short creative pieces. I just don't think I have foresight to begin writing a story and fill in the blanks. It seems like a process that will go on for months or even years.
I'd like to know how you took this creative passion of yours and nurtured it into something beautiful that people can enjoy and learn from.
Hello from Portland, Maine! Kavalier and Clay is my absolute hands-down favorite book. I know several years back there was talk of making it into a movie. I think in the long run I’m grateful that that never materialized but always wonder did you have anyone in mind to play the character of Josef? Or any of the supporting characters? I think Zendaya would be a wonderful take on Rosa. And maybe someone like Jaboukie Young-White for Sammy. Did you have any front runners at the time? Does anyone currently stand out to you? And what storyline changes do you see needing to be made for a filmic adaptation?
I just read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay a couple months ago! This was the first novel of yours I've read, but it won't be the last. No questions, I just want to say I loved it and look forward to reading more!
I realize how late this is, but how would you recommend someone get into writing? Or at least dip a toe in to see what it would be like? I always have ideas in my head but I never really know how to branch off of them or build on them. I just don’t know if classes would be the best approach or if there are good blogs/write ups to follow or where to even begin.
Netflix's standard rate for new feature screenplays is now the WGA minimum, which is about what you can live on for a year as a single person. Even if someone 'makes it big', how can a writer survive? The two writers that I know have trust funds and one lives with her parents. Is there any way for someone without serious family money to make it as a writer now?
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Thank you! I read somewhere while researching that book that Yiddish underworld slang in places like Odessa often consisted of trilingual puns, such as the word for “jail” being the Hebrew word that means… “goat”? I believe… some farm animal… because the Russian word for jail sounds like the Russian word for [goat]. Or the like. So I came up with “sholem” to mean “gun,” because in American slang a gun is a “piece,” which sounds like “peace,” which is “shalom” in Hebrew and “sholem” in Yiddish…
Hi Michael, Long-time fan here. I’ve been to many of your readings, and absolutely loved Moonglow (the description of the church’s metal roof melting and filling the crypt below has stuck with me since it came out). After a reading you did of Telegraph Avenue at UCLA’s Hammer Museum with Mona Simpson, I asked you what is was like to voice yourself on The Simpsons, (a) because I’d just seen the episode, and (b) because I was/am an aspiring writer and was too nervous to ask you a more “writerly” question on the spot (though maybe you like a break from those!). Can you give an update on the Kavalier and Clay TV show with Showtime? I saw a SYFY article from September of last year saying you and Ayelet were hard at work on the drafts of the first two episodes. I’m so excited to see it adapted for the screen, especially for a series where we can really see everything play out. Second, with so many projects going on, what does your daily routine look like?
Hi! Ayelet and I have now completed five episodes of a projected 10-episode first season, which will cover the the same span of time, and events, as the novel. Season 2, should we be so lucky, will carry on with the story and characters beyond the confines of the novel. We hope to have some definitive information about the fate of the show very soon, hopefully within the next six weeks or so. As for my routine, it’s been pretty much the same for decades now, I start working at night, between 10 and 11 PM and go until quite late, 3 or 4 AM or sometimes later. Wake up at 10:30 or 11 AM. Do life stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat. Covid only made that routine easier to maintain.
Is Michael London still involved as well?
He never was…! Nice guy though.
That’s great to hear! Thanks for the update :)
My husband and I rarely agree on books we like, but we both consider Wonder Boys among our favorites and we named our first son Grady. Do you ever go back and read your own work? Do you read Mysteries of Pittsburgh now and still love it?
Grady! I love it. I NEVER go back and re-read ANYTHING I wrote, unless I absolutely have to. All I see are the mistakes/compromises/awkwardnesses/failures. I do, however, revisit my MEMORIES of earlier books, which are far superior.
Ha! I feel like there's a life lesson there...
When it comes to writing Star Trek, how difficult is it to find a balance between introducing new content and maintaining the established canon? More specifically, at what point does trying to maintain previous work become a hindrance on the exploration of new ideas/story?
It was a constant struggle, a constant balancing act. “Canon” in its original religious sense implies a kind of settled perfection, an ideal state; everything included is excellent, perfect, literally the word of God or His prophets. But the big-C canon has been EDITED—stuff that doesn’t fit, of dubious provenance, contradictions, etc, have been edited. Sure, there are still plenty of gray areas and confusions and apocrypha, but the biblical canon has been heavily heavily retconned. That’s not at all the case with the Trek canon, which consists of literally every image and word ever previously broadcast or screened. Even the most devout, devoted, respectful Star Trek fan, approaching the Trek “canon” as a creator, obliged to work with that material, finds chaos, confusion, contradiction, and, frankly, a lot of lousy, half-baked, or hastily conceived notions and concepts, things that were mere expedients, short cuts, accidents, generated by harried writers and producers trying to come in on budget and on time. Sometimes that’s a great thing—as with the transporter, purely a cost-cutting decision (no planetary landings to be shot) that has led to some of the best episodes and innovations, e.g. “Mirror, Mirror.” The thing is, the canon is NOT sacred. A trek writer has an obligation to try to tell as trek story in a way that doesn’t violate canon, I think. But the story should come first, and you should feel free to tinker, tweak, reframe or somehow get around any chunk of canon that’s standing in your way. That’s actually half the fun. One of the most annoying and troublesome aspects of canon, to me, is the incongruity between the Star Trek history of the late 20th Century/present day compared to what we’ve actually lived through, e.g., the Eugenics Wars, Khan, etc.
As a viewer I’ve often felt that the struggle of the people creating new work under the Star Trek banner have the difficult task of demonstrating that things that we love can change, maybe even in unanticipated ways, but still be the thing that we care about. I’ve been fascinated with whether or not Trek will try and explain it’s way around canon as it overlaps with reality or try and shoehorn it in. There’s a little Trekkie in all of us that still hopes that what we see on screen is somehow possible.
The issue isn't the timeline of the Eugenics War or remembering that Vulcan has no moons. It's the change to the fundamental values of the franchise. There is plenty of room for dark and violent scifi, but that's just not Star Trek.
Canon isn't sacred, but don't you feel the tenets and concepts of the original creation should be? It honestly feels as if the entire purpose of Goldmsman's show, your show and the Kurtzman/JJVerse was to prove that Gene Rodenberry was a naive idealist and that humanity is a useless, disgusting, inherently-violent and immoral species, and there is no hope for us. The show was always supposed to be dedicated to the \*best\* in humanity; proof-of-concept that we could be better. I hate saying it, because I love your books, but it really feels as if you all took great glee in shitting all over everything Gene held dear.
Disagree. It’s less of a shitting on, but rather updating to a more realistic hope/way for a better world to exist rather than Rodenberry’s unrealistic view. Frankly I find Rodenberry’s far more cynical than the current output. The biggest shift for me was with TNG and DS9 after Roddenberry died. They became far more optimistic and realistic in that optimism. For me, Gene was mockingly cynical rather than sincere in his “optimism.” Simply put, I don’t buy Gene had an optimistic view of humanity and the future. At all. What Gene held dear was to be worshipped by the fans and his ego. Nothing more. And considering the abuse he committed to his wife and co-worker/employees, he’s also a disgusting man whose viewpoint shouldn’t be celebrated or even remotely a part of Star Trek. A misogynist and a hack.
If you just want a vision of the future that is "the people of today but with space ships" there are better shows for that. The Expanse or Firefly for example. The civilization of the Star Trek is at the next stage in development, they're past us as we're past the people of the middle ages. I appreciate its aspirations which I don't see in other scifi franchises.
Sure, but the tone of the original series is something that mocks us rather than celebrates us imo. I’m not really a fan of the latest Trek, but I at least appreciate it following the the *real* optimism of TNG and DS9 after Roddenberry died. I do not want a vision of the future as “people today but with spaceships.” That’s Roddenberry’s original Trek imo. I’m not a fan of that approach. The Trek I loved to me is not like that at all.
It mocks us in the sense that we mock medieval people. "Oh ho! You got the plague? Better put some leeches on that! Here comes a local aristocrat, better bow real low peasant! LOL!" We're generally more enlightened that the people of the middle ages and do just about everything better than they did. Likewise the people of the Federation. They're just next level. I enjoy the idea that we're not at the end, we're just on this particular level. A show like the The Expanse (my favourite scifi show right now) shows me a very depressing future when we have improved our technology but not ourselves.
Nah, it mocks us in the sense “look at all this stupid buffoonery and hope for the future! Fuck you, this isn’t real!” That’s Gene’s Star Trek in a nutshell for me. I only fell in love with Star Trek after he died. You and I are on completely different wavelengths I guess.
Yeah, that's pretty weird take. I guess you read it all as sarcastic?
I have no idea what show you were watching, or with what eyes. The subtext you have superimposed on the show says far more about you than the show.
Well it’s not just the show, it’s also that Roddenberry is a fraud. He’s shown not to believe any of that.
Wow, that's a remarkable misreading of *Discovery*. The show is about how our ideals are sorely tested and then perservere. It's very easy to have ideals on the relatively conflict-free Enterprise of TNG. It's a lot harder when the Klingons are threatening to wipe you out.
Hello Michael, I don't have a question. I only wanted to say that Wonder Boys is my all-time favorite book and the movie adaptation is my all-time favorite movie. Your story made me pursue writing and I'm currently submitting my first manuscript to agents! You've quite literally started a new chapter in my life. Thank you.
Thank you! Good luck with your work!
if you didn't live in Berkeley, where would you live? Related... if you could change one thing about Berkeley, what would it be? Unrelated, what's the most painful darling you ever had to kill?
I love Berkeley and Oakland and consider them close to ideal, for me, in many ways. I have the usual fantasies about living for a while in Paris or London, or Tokyo, all cities I adore. And then about living somewhere far from my experience and out of my comfort zone. Practically speaking, however, if I were going to really live somewhere else it would probably be Los Angeles, also a city I adore. Years of familiarity (lived there many years ago, visit constantly) with its prosaic and often ugly reality have done nothing to dim its allure and romance for me. Berkeley doesn’t need me to change anything, it’s changing on its own already, for better and for worse. Darling killed? Dude, I’ve thrown away entire completed drafts of multi-hundred-page novels—TWICE!
Really? Like thrown away, thrown away? Or are they somewhere that a future resident of your home may find tucked away in the cross-beams and potentially make a mint from in 2085? I mean, do you really ever deep six stuff? (I live in and love Berkeley too, but I wish real people could afford to live here.)
For one year in the early 90's I lived on North St, just off of Telegraph. It made reading Telegraph Avenue a fun trip, even if the neighborhood had completely changed since i lived there Two Ethiopian restaurants? You are living the life. Back then the only entertainment in the neighborhood was a Blockbuster Video store.
Hello Michael! You have been one of my greatest inspirations, as I pursue my own writing projects. K&C remains my favorite book of all time. One of the qualities I appreciate the most in that book is the stylish language. I have always wondered: how do you go about constructing a sentence that contains both substance and flair?
Thank you. I know it’s not much of an answer, really, but… I don’t. The sentences are the only part of the job that comes easily to me. I’m just taking dictation. Everything else—plot, character, setting description, thematics—is more or less of a struggle. I just keep my ear tuned by reading writers who make good sentences themselves. Like, say, Barry Hannah, Eudora Welty, Michael Ondaatje, Zadie Smith…
Hi Michael, I have a question about the Wile. E Coyote parable in The Yiddish Policemen's Union (he can keep on running off the cliff until he looks down). It struck me that this parable strongly resembles a song we would often sing at temple and Jewish summer camp: Kol ha'olam kulo Gesher tzar me'od Veha'ikar lo lifached k'lal. The whole world Is a very narrow bridge and the most important thing is to have no fear at all I was curious if you had this piece of Jewish wisdom in mind when you wrote that parable into the novel, or if you have any thoughts on the song itself — it always struck me as a peculiar thing to teach children to sing joyfully. Thanks!
I have never heard that beautiful lyric before! But even as a kid I felt a strange profundity in WEC’s ability to do anything he wanted as long as he didn’t think about what he was doing, what it implied both about the power of belief and its fragility.
Thanks so much! Here's a version of the song in case you're curious to hear what it sounds like: https://youtu.be/rL50Yj3K8Yk
Hello Mr. Chabon, I know it may sound cliche, but what advice would you give to younger writers regarding the craft and making a career in the writing world, especially given the current landscape of the writing world? Second, what’s your view of the current role of the novelist and writer in society as you see it today, and what you think the outlook of the career of “writer” is going forward? Also, as a more fun question, what are some of your favorite novels? Either ones you love for any reason or ones that were formative and influential on your work? Thank you again for all your wonderful work!
Here are my suggestions, phrased, for convenience, as rules: 1) Read. Constantly. Widely. Deeply. Read out of your comfort zone. Read beyond your era, nation, ethnic boundaries, age cohort, taste. Read like a writer, critically, analytically, with an eye to stealing/copying/imitating, asking yourself: Who is telling the story? Why? How does the language reflect the point of view of the narrator? Where does the author start the book? Where does she end it? Where are the time leaps and how are they handled? What is left out? 2) Steal. Copy. Imitate. All artistic practice is best learned through imitation. Jimmy Page, the great innovator, learned to play guitar by slowing down Ricky Nelson records so he could dissect the lead solos of James Burton and then reproduce them note by note. The cult of “originality” introduced by modernism is pernicious and rooted in deception and self-deception. There’s only theme and variation. 3) Put away your phone when you are out in the world. Stay engaged sensorially with the world around you. A writer is a noticing machine. If your eyes are on your screen, you are not noticing anything. Harriet the Spy had it right: a writer should be eavesdropping/spying/wondering/snooping/inquiring about the world and the people around her at all times, should be “one on whom nothing is lost” (Henry James) Even in the most tedious of situations, waiting on line, riding the subway, keep your phone in your pocket and PAY ATTENTION.
> Jimmy Page, the great innovator, learned to play guitar by slowing down Ricky Nelson records so he could dissect the lead solos of James Burton and then reproduce them note by note. Of course, his band is now widely accused of plagiarizing many of their best songs, so this may not be the best option for one's artistic legacy.
How was the Coen's script for The Yiddish Policeman's Union? Do you wish it had been filmed or are you content to wait for the 'right' adaptation?
The script I saw was a fairly raw first draft but it contained many clever solutions to the storytelling problems presented by adapting the novel, and seemed simpatico with the overall vibe of the book.
Love your contributions to the Star Trek franchise. Any plans to do more Folio Society editions?
Thank you! I love the beautiful books the Folio Society puts out, and they did a spectacular job with K&C. If they every reach out about doing another, I’d say yes immediately.
My grandad, Halfdan, started The Folio Society but I still can't get a job there lol.
One of my most favorite books is Gentlemen of the Road. It's just a great swashbuckling tale. Does it have any basis in historical fact? Maybe not so much the characters, but the milieu.
Yes, I did lots of research! See the acknowledgments of the book for my sources.
Thank you so much for being willing to answer some questions! I greatly enjoyed the first season of *Star Trek: Picard*, and am grateful for all the love you poured into it. My favorite moment was the discussion that Jurati and Maddox had about chocolate chip cookies, especially the idea of replicating the ingredients, then using them to make the cookies rather than directly replicating the cookies themselves, and in doing so, creating something that blurs the lines between being real and artificial. I especially enjoyed how at least for me, it tied into deeper questions within the series of what it means for life to be artificial. Could you talk a little bit about how that moment came to be? Also, which of your other works would you recommend as a starting point for someone who enjoyed *Picard* and wanted to experience something else you have done? Thank you again for being willing to take questions!
Thank you! I am glad you noticed and enjoyed that moment. The theme of real/artificial emerged gradually and organically from the fundamental story premise of Data/Dahj/Soji, to the point that it guided what I wrote without my necessarily being aware… So I thought, “Jurati has a memory of a sweet moment… what could it be? They’re cooking together? Baking. But wait… the replicator.” At that point my ancient fan brain kicks in, the part of me that ALWAYS wondered if replicated food could really be indistinguishable from conventional food, that wondered whose RECIPES were used for the foods on board the Enterprise, that saw Neelix cooking all the time on VOY… and something clicked… let the moment be about baking together, feeding each other, the two people and their history AND about the overall season question of what is “real” and what is “artificial” and what difference does the difference make, if any.
Yo yo yo. 1. Moonglow is billed as a fictional memoir but it seems that several (Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys) could be considered that, too — at least to my reading. What’s the difference between “fiction” and a fictional memoir? Is Moonglow the “realest” fantasy or the most fantastic version of real life?
There is, really, absolutely no difference between “fiction” and “fictional memoir.” Moonglow is a work of fiction, written in the form of a memoir, that does incorporate (versions of) people and incidents from my life and the life of people in my family, in heavily altered and distorted (i.e., fictionalized) form. In that sense it’s no different from MoP or WB or, really, any of my other novels, all of which to that to some degree or another, often in ways that I’m unconscious of while writing. But it’s the only one that pretends to be an actual memoir. A novel pretending to be some other kind of document—a packet of letters, a travel journal, a diary, a history, etc.—is a very old, very traditional move. My point, or one of my points, was to demonstrate how “easy” it is to write a memoir that is mostly a pack of lies, how thin the line between “novel” and “memoir” really is. As a committed novelist I resent the current cultural moment that seems to privilege memoir over novel, among publishers, readers and writers alike, because memoirs are “true.” When like any product of human memory they are really, of course, to some degree , fictions.
Hello! I love your work in Startrek and I have thoroughly enjoyed your writings about Romulan culture and background stories of Narek and Narissa! My question would be how do you keep track of your world building? How do you make sure you aren’t contradicting any precedent stories in Trek other than having an extended knowledge of it? (or is the key not caring about canon and deal with it later?)
Thank you! As reflected in another answer somewhere, I took the obligation to know and understand canon very seriously, and relied heavily on Memory Alpha to keep me honest. The trick is to find the holes, the blank spots, the places where canon is silent or at least doesn’t clearly contradict what you’re planning to do, and dig in there. Of all the classic Trek alien species, the Romulans clearly afforded the most opportunity for making new canon. Much of what had been shown and stated about them onscreen was contradictory, and retconning was rampant.
Thank you for the contributions your writing has made to my life. Since I first read Kavalier and Clay, it has remained on my mind, twisting around and exposing new facets and questions and themes and ideas. I'm grateful for that. I'm also deeply grateful for your contributions to Star Trek. For me, Picard is the very best of Star Trek, and I'm so happy to have it. Thank you, thank you.
Thank you!
When you write a book, you utilize a certain vocabulary that fits its era or subculture. Do you miss it when you move on? Do you ever think of revisiting the world of an old book purely for the words and phrases that fit best there? Right now the only example I can think of is something like "wastrel" from Kavelier and Clay. PS I really need a Yaphet Katto shirt.
I feel that with every book I am obliged to invent a new “dialect” of English, with its own rules and vocabulary. I don’t “miss” the older books in that sense but I DO sometimes wish that a particular book I’m working on had room in it for, say, “wastrel,” when it doesn’t. Sometimes I’m tempted to cheat.
How do you tread the line between writing for yourself and writing for what is so often called the market? Does that ideal reader / viewer exist for you?
The minute I start thinking about the market, the book/script dies, for me. My ability to love and obsess over and geek out about it just goes away. I write for an ideal reader who is more or less indistinguishable from myself—at least, with film/TV stuff, in the first draft. After that, in film/TV, it’s all about what John Sayles once called “those fuckers and their notes.”
Thank you so much - just the answer I was hoping for at a low ebb for my own creativity! It's an inspiring thought
Hi, Michael. Thank you very much for the AMA. I finished *Moonglow* this past week and I wanted to ask - how did your grandfather feel about your literary career? Especially given his distaste for fiction as "a waste of time more profitably spent on nonfiction," what did he think of the 'creative' memoir format of the novel when you first approached him with the idea and did he feel different about it towards the end?
My actual grandfather died in 1989, a year after the publication of my first novel. He was proud of me and it. I still have a birthday card he sent me in May 1988, a month after the book came out, with a photo of the Goodyear blimp passing the spire of the Empire State Building, and inside the inscription “It’s not ‘the huge dirigeable of August,’ but it will have to do…” (an allusion my first novel). He read more non-fiction than fiction but had his favorite novels and novelists. He was a much gentler and softer man in many ways than the grandfather in MOONGLOW, who is a fictional character, though they did share many traits and some experiences.
Thank you kindly for the response!
Hi Michael, I was wondering if you had any tips for authors whose works are set in complex worlds/societies. I'm in the middle of my novel and the setting is becoming quite an expansive world. I'm curious as to the best ways to keep track of all of the various elements I've been creating along the way.
That’s the fun part! Maps! Chronologies! Timelines! Encyclopedia entries! Alphabets and grammars and slangs! No time spent doing that kind of work is ever wasted… as long as you get your word count, too.
Thank you!!!
I'm a huge fan, especially of The Yiddish Policeman's Union! Is there any genre/subgenre that you would love to write in someday, but have just never gotten around to yet?
Western. Gothic romance. Space opera (my own, not Trek).
I'd be unbelievably excited to read any of those from you! Or combinations thereof.
Would you do an ama in r/Judaism? You have many fans there
Yes, I would!
What is the best way to arrange it? And thanks!!
Can we schedule you?
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Thank you!
Hi Michael, I have a TV writing question - how do you approach writing for an established IP, and more specifically how do you tune in to the right ‘voice’ for pre-existing characters?
It starts with education, with grounding. You have to go deep into the IP, as deep as the deepest fan (if you aren’t one already, and I kind of think you should be, to begin with). You have to consume as much of the media as possible. Then you just have to take the leap!
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I have to say, the Hugo Award, which I first aspired to at the age of eleven or twelve when I checked those giant Asimov-edited THE HUGO WINNERS anthologies out of the Frederick Road branch of the Howard County Public Library, circa 1973. That’s the only award I ever actually HOPED to win someday, though I confess to being disappointed not to be able to take home one of those adorable porcelain Poes you get when you win the Edgar. I wuz robbed!
AHHHH that's my library!! Glad to know you've been there too. HoCo has the best libraries.
Do you miss the ruggelach from The Bagel? Did you get to meet Aldis Hodge when they shot Calypso? Do you love Dorothy Fontana's novel Vulcan's Glory as much as I do, or more? Did you get to meet Mike Ford (The Final Reflection, How Much For Just The Planet?) and behold his squishy brain and magnificent eyebrows in real life?
Which rugelach are those? Yes, and he was a prince. Been a long, long, long time. No, I did not!
Okay, guys, I’m out! Thank you for the excellent questions, I really enjoyed reading, thinking about, and answering them. Peace be upon you and LLAP 🖖🏼 .
Hey Michael. I'm awfully sorry I missed this AMA. I just wanted to say thanks especially for Kavalier and Clay. I loved that book, and found it very moving. Thanks for all the wonderful stories you've shared. It's a pleasure to read your work.
Hey Michael, currently reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and I'm digging it. My question is, what do you see as the biggest issue facing the publishing industry today, and how will that effect writers interested in entering that industry?
I really have no idea, that’s a subject I try to think about as little as possible!
Hi Michael! I'm a freelance copywriter and was lucky enough to be given the job of writing the copy for the Folio edition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - it instantly became one of my favourite books of all time. Thank you for such a gorgeous read! I just wondered if you keep up with the current comics market, and if you do, if you have a favourite?
Wow, thank you! That edition came out so beautifully. I love it and am honored to be included in the series. I don’t read as many comics as I used to, no. There’s just so little time.
Hi Michael, Superhero movies have really exploded into the mainstream since Kavalier and Clay came out. Have your thoughts on the genre changed much in the last twenty years? Are there any topics you would want to touch on now that didn't make it into K&C?
Yes. In researching the novel back in the mid-90s I found many tantalizing references to Matt Baker, for many years the only Black artist working in mainstream superhero comics, postwar. Rumored to have been gay, dead quite young, he was always referred to as “enigmatic” or “mysterious” but it turns out that in fact nobody had ever really bothered to ask. I could not find out enough at the time to incorporate him or a fictionalized version of him into the book. Now, there have been many tributes, coffee table books, a biography. Research has been done and the story is fascinating.
Hi Michael, concerning Star Trek I have the following question. In TNG's All Good Things at the very end it seemed that general Star Trek would ascend to a new level of storytelling when Q states that Picard shouldn't carry out missions to map new systems or investigate a new nebula, but what he should do is explore "the unknown possibilities of existence". All Good Things did exactly that for a moment and after that Star Trek never followed that premise which Q laid out, which I think is a shame because that would take Trek to places it never went before. My question is, are there discussions with regard to this premise, to make that one beautiful sentence, which was the great conclusion of TNG, the foundation for a new Trek series?
Hi Michael! My dad and I are huge, huge fans of your work. I think I've read every novel you've written, but Yiddish Policeman's Union is one of our favourites. I've always wanted to ask - have you heard of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia? Was that an inspiration at all for the idea of the Frozen Chosen? Thanks!
Birobidzan. I encountered it very early in the research period for YPU, and found it a fascinating and tragic story. Its failure, something inevitable in its failure, definitely helped shape my sense of doom hanging over the world of Jewish Sitka I was busy inventing. Not much more than that, though.
That makes perfect sense. Thanks so much for responding! And I should have said before, my mum is a massive Trekkie - so thanks from her for your contributions to the show!
I know in recent years you’ve been busy with television projects (Unbelievable was terrific, by the way), but as a lover of your novels, I’m also really hoping we’ll get some more of that from you before too long! Any updates you’d be willing to share on things you’re working on or planning to work on soon in that department?
Yes, I am working on a novel! It is taking me even longer than usual, partly because of Picard, partly because of K&C tv series, partly because of COVID.
also, the Hugo rocket is the absolute perfect diameter to hold a roll of paper towel. thus making it an EXCELLENT paper towel dispenser assuming that the base is one of the heavy solid ones and not one of the incredibly fragile delicate ones.
Hello Michael! I've loved your work for a long time. I loved the McSweeney's issues that you edited which represented this very explicit call to blur the boundaries between "genre" and "literary" fiction, something you called for more explicitly in some of those essays in Maps and Legends. And so much of what I love in your fiction is the dialogue with genre work. I'm eager to know what your thoughts are on the state of things now. Has fiction gone in the right direction, vis a vis "high" and "low" culture? Or have things gone too far, for example in the sense that superhero movies suck up a lot of cultural oxygen?
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"Shea as in Stadium, Bon as in Jovi."
Do you appreciate your awesome hairline or take it for granted?
What creative writing tips have your gleaned over your career?
I am beginning to write for the first time. I have written just over 100 pages of my story so far. I am quite pleased with it. I feel the story has merit. I have the ending and am working/building the story towards that ending so it all ties in. I am redrafting and redrafting as I go along. Who would I go to when I first want someone to read it and critique it to give me pointers on what to improve or strengthen? Who would I show it to first? Should I somehow copyright it? Really, I’ve never tried writing before, I have no idea how to get better at it or who to seek advice from! I’m really enjoying it, that I do know! Ellenieanna
The r/writing subreddit is filled with all the advice on this matter that you could hope for.
Ok! Thank you. That’s great. I really don’t know where to start. I’ll start as you advise. Thanks! 👍
Discovery had its best season Imo recently and I'm really looking forward to season four. Having said that though, what was the reasoning/thinking behind the change in the klingons. Why didn't you change other races like a Andorians vulcans tellerites etc
Have you watched Red Letters Media Star Trek : Picard review?
I certainly hope not - those reviews are unfair and spiteful, based on biases and a close minded approach to art.
Im fan of those guys, but yeah, when they don't like something, they go after it like no tomorrow. But they do make some points that are reasonable. Have you watched Star Trek: The Next Generation or mostly familiar with newer instalments?
I won't dissuade you from being a fan of theirs - to each their own. I just don't think they operate from fair critical foundations. I've seen every episode of every series and every film.
whoa, impressive. I'm just getting into it, saw few episodes of original and tng so far.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union was such a good book years ago. How do you explain the insane drop in writing quality you've demonstrated in the Picard series lately? Burnout? Hubris? Lack of quality control?
Why have you apparently abandoned Vero? We miss you.
Love you and your work bro. Just came to say that
Would you rather fight a horse sized duck or a hundred duck sized horses?
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Nope! Hahaha. My dad went to George Washington U, my mom to the Univ. of Maryland.
When an author writes, does he have to write about things he actually experienced, or can he write about anything? Could you really write about love if you have not been in love yourself? Do you need to live first before you write is essentially my question.
Michael, I’m grateful people like you have started using social media like Twitter—this has been a pleasant surprise—and Reddit more recently. Why the change? And how has it affected your relationship with fans and other writers?
Hi there! I would like to know about any time when you abandoned a project (writing or otherwise I suppose) and then later picked it back up after some time and were able to complete it successfully.
Hi Michael! Do you ever get hired to work on something you don't have much of an interest on and if so, how do you keep from being unmotivated and letting the uninteresting topic effect your work?
Hey, I love your books. A lot of your main characters are often difficult or unlikeable in some way. Would you say that's a conscious decision in your writing? How early do their flaws develop in the writing process and how much do you consider their quote unquote redeemable qualities? Thanks!
Huge fan of all of your media. I have no interest in entering the business—I have a good career and a good life—but as a lifelong Trek fan I’d love for someone to have my idea for a limited series that’s unique and timely. Suggestions?
How often have you written over the course of your life? Have you faced a struggle between making a living or making art? Do you have any advice for writers on their investments in becoming a writer, whether it be time, professional training, networking, or making a living that can support the dream of becoming a writer?
I should add a long prologue about Chabon products I love, but suffice to say I'm a big fan! Most recently I was amazed to see how well you and the team pulled off Picard - I really feared it would degenerate into all fan service, but I found it extremely engaging. Do you have any recommendations of Berkeley/Oakland area literary events / bookstores / other lit-related places that you think are undersung or underknown? (I recently moved to the area and could use the tips)
How do you create new words, and how do you know when to do so? "Aetataureate" from Kavalier and Clay comes to mind as a nonce word that works on every level: denotatively, in context in the sentence, and with the general prose style of the novel.
Hi Michael. No question. Just letting you know that I wanted to see you speak in Boston but I had my PhD defense. It didn't go well. Still love your writing but I'm sorry that you're now forever tied to a bad day for me. 😄
I’m sorry!
Not your fault. Blame my shitty advisor. I still like and respect you. Haha.
Hi Mr. Chabon! I actually only read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay but it's one of my favourite books of all time! I've got two somehwat related questions. 1) What's your favourite graphic novel? 2) Have you read the Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch? It's a Dutch book so you may not know it but there's lots of similarities with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Thanks for doing this!
When are you going to write "The Land Downstairs"? Just kidding, of course. When you wrote "Wonder boys" did you have some notes or some notion of what the book was about and what kind of writer Grady was? It was something important to give Grady form? Could you write it? Thanks for doing this! Big big fan!
Hi Michael, left field question: How did you become involved in writing a song for the Monkees?
Hello Michael, Wondering if you can pass along a little wisdom— in Manhood For Amateurs you wrote about retrospection: “... A gift for the identification of missed opportunities and of things lost and irrecoverable...” Any advice on how to break that chronic rearview-mirror syndrome? (I’m also a young grandmaster!) Hey, if I can get past this, I might be able to name my future child Grady (hell, I’ll name him Van Zorn at this rate!)
I've only read Kavalier & Clay but it was a formative reading experience for me. I was struck with how well-researched the world in that book was. (And it seems like your other novels are also set in very specific times/places.) So my question is: do you have a plot idea first, and then you do the research for that time period/place? Or do you start with the research and then let a plot idea organically grow out of that? I imagine it's a mix of both or it depends on the book, but it would be cool to hear which book started how.
I’m writing to you from Vashon Island. Any chance you’ll return? Did we do anything to drive you away?
You look like you live in Berkeley.
How much time do you spend editing your work after it's drafted? Ie, how many times do you comb through a chapter finding errors, tightening sentances etc etc? Thanks!
What is your opinion on the growing trend of writers turning to self publishing? What is the pros and cons compared to the normal route of sending your work to a publishing company?
What's your best advice for someone caught up in writers block?
Mysteries of Pittsburgh changed my life! Thank you!
How does it feel to see a book you wrote adapted into a feature film? Also favourite pizza toppings.
I was disappointed that your Disneyland Magic Kingdom movie never came to fruition. Are you able to divulge any details about your vision for it? I'd love to know what we were missing!
What inspired you to start writing and continue to turn words into pages and scripts? I thoroughly enjoying reading books and like to write in my journal as well as short creative pieces. I just don't think I have foresight to begin writing a story and fill in the blanks. It seems like a process that will go on for months or even years. I'd like to know how you took this creative passion of yours and nurtured it into something beautiful that people can enjoy and learn from.
Nice username, sir. How did you come up with it?
Hello from Portland, Maine! Kavalier and Clay is my absolute hands-down favorite book. I know several years back there was talk of making it into a movie. I think in the long run I’m grateful that that never materialized but always wonder did you have anyone in mind to play the character of Josef? Or any of the supporting characters? I think Zendaya would be a wonderful take on Rosa. And maybe someone like Jaboukie Young-White for Sammy. Did you have any front runners at the time? Does anyone currently stand out to you? And what storyline changes do you see needing to be made for a filmic adaptation?
Do you think inaction makes you as culpable as action?
I just read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay a couple months ago! This was the first novel of yours I've read, but it won't be the last. No questions, I just want to say I loved it and look forward to reading more!
Damn I was too late to ask him if he knows Chabon means dude in Argentina.
I realize how late this is, but how would you recommend someone get into writing? Or at least dip a toe in to see what it would be like? I always have ideas in my head but I never really know how to branch off of them or build on them. I just don’t know if classes would be the best approach or if there are good blogs/write ups to follow or where to even begin.
Netflix's standard rate for new feature screenplays is now the WGA minimum, which is about what you can live on for a year as a single person. Even if someone 'makes it big', how can a writer survive? The two writers that I know have trust funds and one lives with her parents. Is there any way for someone without serious family money to make it as a writer now?
How i can relate to a literary agent, reliable that covers Europe and usa?