the literary life THE TURNI wanted, more than anything, to
break into the industry. So I put to-
gether a massive, seventy-page bible
for a horror project called “Red Moon.”
I met with an editor at DC Comics for
coffee. He took it up the ladder.
But DC ultimately passed; they
already had a horror series in the
lineup, they said. And the story
I proposed would take years to
play out as a series of twenty-
page issues. I didn’t have a track
record as a comics writer yet. It
was hard for DC to simply hand
over a four-year commitment to
a novelist.
A novelist. Right. That’s what
I was. I had been so hell-bent on
making comics I hadn’t recog-
nized the project’s potential as a
novel. So I took the turn—and wrote it
as prose instead. And Red Moon became
my breakout book. Blurbed by Stephen
King. Translated all over the world. De-
veloped for TV. All of that happened
because someone said no.
I could go on. I spent six months
writing a failed screenplay that turned
into a two-issue Batman comic. I sold
a crime series to Starz—about the oil
fields of North Dakota—that died indevelopment hell, so I changed the
subject matter to sci-fi and sold it as a
novel trilogy.
I continue to hear no a lot. I heard
no last week. Twice. These weren’t
little noes either. These were big noes.The kinds of noes that—if they were
yeses—could have been life-changing.
Hollywood noes.
Sometimes those can feel like the
most dangerous rejections. A plum-
meting sensation accompanies
them, as if you’re suddenly fall-
ing as far as you could have risen.
But a thousand tiny noes can have
the same disabling effect. Adding
up over time. Fissuring and then
shattering you.
I know you know what I mean.
Because you’re daring the dream,
chasing down poems and essays
and stories and screenplays and
novels.
But I am here to tell you about
the generative power of no. I
can’t wait to see what I build out
of the wreckage of last week. I can’t
wait to find the turn. Because I know
the only true failure is to stop trying.
Whenever you encounter wreckage,
think about the turn. It’s waiting up
ahead, even if you can’t see it yet.55 POETS & WRITERS^I am here to tell you
about the generative power of no.
I can’t wait to see what I build out of the
wreckage of last week. I can’t wait
to find the turn. Because I know
the only true failure is to stop trying.