The author or editor of seventeen books, including The Creative Writer’s Survival Guide: Advice From an Unrepentant Novelist (2010) and Vivid and Continuous: Essays and Exercises for Writing Fiction (2013), both also published by the University of Iowa Press, McNally returns with a book that mixes thoughtful advice, tips on craft, and memoir of the writing life with humor and honesty. Using his own life as a blueprint, McNally navigates thorny issues such as how to know when to quit and when to persevere as well as how to deal with depression as a creative person and ways to energize your writing through reinvention.