When he finally decided to abandon "Fountain City", Chabon recalls staring at his blank computer for hours before suddenly picturing "a straitlaced, troubled young man with a tendency toward melodrama, trying to end it all." He began writing, and within a couple of days had written 50 pages of what became his second novel, "Wonder Boys". Chabon drew on his experiences with "Fountain City" for the character of Grady Tripp, a frustrated novelist who has spent years working on an immense fourth novel. He wrote "Wonder Boys" in a dizzy seven-month streak, without telling his agent or publisher he'd abandoned "Fountain City". The book, published in 1995, was a commercial and critical success.