The Promise of Failure is part memoir of the writing life, part advice book, and part craft book; sometimes funny, sometimes wrenching, but always honest. McNally uses his own life as a blueprint for the writer鈥檚 daily struggles as well as the existential ones, tackling subjects such as when to quit and when to keep going, how to deal with depression, what risking something of yourself means, and ways to reenergize your writing through reinvention.
What McNally illuminates is how rejection, in its best light, is another element of craft, a necessary stage to move the writer from one project to the next, and that it鈥檚 best to see rejection and failure on a life-long continuum so that you can see the interconnectedness between failure and success, rather than focusing on failure as a measure of self-worth. As brutally candid as McNally can sometimes be, The Promise of Failure is ultimately an inspiring book鈥攏ever in a Pollyannaish self-help way. McNally approaches the reader as a sympathetic companion with cautionary tales to tell. Written by an author who has as many unpublished books under his belt as published ones, The Promise of Failure is as much for the newcomer as it is for the established writer.
鈥The Promise of Failure is a book I鈥檒l be giving to my writing students. Rejection has always been part of every writer鈥檚 life, but the writer鈥檚 market is now more adversarial than ever before, and John McNally鈥檚 precept and example will help them find what it takes to survive in it. This book is both a compendium of good advice and a memoir of the life of a writer willing to try anything鈥攔eally anything鈥攁nd to stick with it against any odds. This book isn鈥檛 about failure; it鈥檚 about never giving up.鈥濃擬adison Smartt Bell, author, All Souls鈥 Rising
鈥淭his slim volume delivers its entertaining and enlightening message with candor, humor, and clarity.鈥濃Booklist
鈥淏eside Dillard鈥檚 The Writing Life and Gardner鈥檚 On Becoming a Novelist, place John McNally鈥檚 The Promise of Failure. The book is a gut-funny, bone-honest memoir of the highs and lows (mostly lows) of a life-long writer. Read the book and you鈥檒l learn what to do with all those rejection letters, all that bitterness at the success of other writers (proudly displayed on Facebook), all those abandoned novels and stories, and all those grim moods that make your every word seem stupid. There is a secret 鈥榶es鈥 in the negative McNally shows, and a wisdom deep and rare that arises only from suffering. This book, a gorgeously written account of the difficulty of writing, exemplifies that rising.鈥濃擡ric G. Wilson, author, Against Happiness
