Ha Jin, On Persistence and Writing Fiction

00:08 [Ha Jin] You know, my teachers, sure, they helped me a lot in the beginning. But once you graduate, as a young writer you graduate from the program, and very often they would have some kind of a workshop or writing

00:30 community. But those communities very often don't last, honestly, a year or two and then they would be on their own. Eventually, everybody is on his own. I think in a way, in my case, I lived in Georgia for many years. I was on my own. That was good, it really forced me to be self-sufficient and eventually have the work stay in your own room, work hard.

01:00 Spent a lot of hours every day.

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01:04 If you write fiction, you have to do it every day, especially when you write a longer piece. You have to do it every day, no matter what, because once you stop the whole thing will get cold. And it will be half-cooked, you can't warm it up. It would be a different thing.  So no matter what, you have to do something every day.

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01:29 You know, people always think there's a sense for success or an aura for success for a writer. I don't think in the beginning you should think about that. Failure is a major part of the writer's life, and that's why I never, never encourage my students to be a professional writer. You can write a good book or two, that's fine. If you feel that this is the way of life, that you can

02:00 only exist finding meaning on the page, that's fine. You do the writing, you try to be a writer, a professional writer. But if you don't have that kind of longing, don't bother about it because there are so many good professions that will make you happier as a person. So really don't take it too seriously. Always consider the failure as part of the process.