Written By February/March 2012 : Page 4

the MAGAzine of the Writers Guild of AMericA, West fAde in Let us now praise faiLure. It’s feared, and it’s everywhere in the entertainment business—cancelled TV series, pilots discarded, screenplays moldering in development limbo. Fail-ure is especially scorned during what publicists call Awards Season, which nominees dub Trauma Season and re-cipients christen the Season of Envy. Failure is certain to be bountiful in the Hollywood Palladium during the 2012 Writers Guild Awards. Why? Because successful people fail more often. Each success story is constructed out of failure. Again and again, draft after draft, writers experience the grim R’s: rewrite, rejection, resume, revise. Resubmit. Repeat. Those who get up and continue the work are the ones who fail more often than most. And those who embrace failure, who “fail up” and “fail better”— those become the elite minority who find themselves at the Pal-ladium tables. Case in point: Paul Selvin Award honoree Tate Taylor. As you’re about to read in our cover story, since the age of 5 Taylor’s close friend has been Kathryn Stockett. In Manhattan, struggling to be-come an author, Stockett called her childhood friend, who was in Hollywood laboring to become a screenwriter. She asked if he’d read a manuscript. “Tell me what’s wrong with it,” she pleaded. Some 60 rejections had dismissed her novel. Tate Taylor decided the manuscript needed his helping hand, that if he made it into a film it would be published. After many “failures,” both the book and the movie of The Help evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Case in point: Writers Guild Award nominees Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig had been revising their original script for two years. Although a start-up was approaching, producer Judd Apatow decid-ed it wasn’t ready. “I will never forget that moment in my life,” Mu-molo told Written By. “[The dream] vanished in one phone call.” But the dream didn’t die, because the writers took that failure to heart and risked yet another. Then Apatow read their new, im-proved Bridesmaids. “Some people get frustrated,” Apatow has seen, “and those are the people who don’t get movies made. But [Mu-molo and Wiig] powered through.” Case in point: Woody Allen, nominated for his original script of Midnight in Paris, believes, “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything innovative.” Ultimately, it’s about gratification with the work, not with awards. As Stephen Gaghan discovered upon receiving best screen-play adaptation for Traffic, “By the time they call the nominees for this Writers Guild Award, everyone in the audience doesn’t give a damn who wins. They just want you to be brief. They’re three hours past dessert. So 300 glassy-eyed writers were staring at me after the announcement, thinking, Just say thank you and goodnight.” —Richard Stayton, Editor 4 • WG AW Written B y FEBRU AR Y/MARCH 20 12 W ritten By © PuBlicAtion stAff editor in chief Richard Stayton Managing editor Christina McBride contributing editors Louise Farr, Mark Lee, Susan Littwin, Lisa Rosen, Marsha Scarbrough, Pat Sierchio editorial offices 7000 W. Third Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048 TEL 323.782.4522; FAX 323.782.4802 E-MAIL writtenby@wga.org Toll-Free Subscription Line 888.WRITNBY AdVertisinG rePresentAtion helena yohannes, Advertising sales 7000 W. Third Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048 E-MAIL hyohannes@wga.org tel 323.782.4510 fAX 323.782.4802 editoriAl AdVisory coMMittee Peter Barsocchini, Steve Chivers, F.X. Feeney, Georgia Jeffries, Peter Lefcourt (chair), Glen Mazzara, Margaret Nagle, Rosanne Welch creative director Ron S. Tammariello Written By (ISSN 1092-468X) is published bimonthly (January, February/ March, April/May, Summer (June/July/August), September/October, November/December) by the Writers Guild of America, West, 7000 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048-4329. Copyright ©2011 by the Writers Guild of America, West. subscriptions: Annual nonmember subscriptions to Written By: $50. Student rate: $30 with a copy of a valid student identification card. single copies: $10 each. Periodicals Postage Paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Written By, the Writers Guild of America, West, 7000 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048-4329. Advertising Policy: Readers should not assume that any products or ser-vices advertised in Written By are endorsed by the WGAW. Although the Editorial Advisory Board adheres to standard industry practice in requiring advertisers to be “truthful and forthright,” there is no extensive screening process by either Written By or the WGAW. editorial Policy: The WGAW neither implicitly nor explicitly endorses opin-ions or attitudes expressed in Written By. Written By actively seeks material from Guild members and other writers. Submissions are subject to editing for length, style and content. letters are subject to editing for length without correspondent approval. The content of letters is subject to review. Not all letters are published. Inquiries about column writing should be directed to Written By. MARK HANAUER

Fade In

Let us now praise failure. It’s feared, and it’s everywhere in the entertainment business—cancelled TV series, pilots discarded, screenplays moldering in development limbo. Failure is especially scorned during what publicists call Awards Season, which nominees dub Trauma Season and recipients christen the Season of Envy. Failure is certain to be bountiful in the Hollywood Palladium during the 2012 Writers Guild Awards. Why? Because successful people fail more often. Each success story is constructed out of failure. Again and again, draft after draft, writers experience the grim R’s: rewrite, rejection, resume, revise. Resubmit. Repeat. Those who get up and continue the work are the ones who fail more often than most. And those who embrace failure, who “fail up” and “fail better”— those become the elite minority who find themselves at the Palladium tables. Case in point: Paul Selvin Award honoree Tate Taylor. As you’re about to read in our cover story, since the age of 5 Taylor’s close friend has been Kathryn Stockett. In Manhattan, struggling to become an author, Stockett called her childhood friend, who was in Hollywood laboring to become a screenwriter. She asked if he’d read a manuscript. “Tell me what’s wrong with it,” she pleaded. Some 60 rejections had dismissed her novel. Tate Taylor decided the manuscript needed his helping hand, that if he made it into a film it would be published. After many “failures,” both the book and the movie of The Help evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Case in point: Writers Guild Award nominees Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig had been revising their original script for two years.Although a start-up was approaching, producer Judd Apatow decided it wasn’t ready. “I will never forget that moment in my life,” Mumolo told Written By. “[The dream] vanished in one phone call.” But the dream didn’t die, because the writers took that failure to heart and risked yet another. Then Apatow read their new, improved Bridesmaids. “Some people get frustrated,” Apatow has seen, “and those are the people who don’t get movies made. But [Mumolo and Wiig] powered through.” Case in point: Woody Allen, nominated for his original script of Midnight in Paris, believes, “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything innovative.” Ultimately, it’s about gratification with the work, not with awards. As Stephen Gaghan discovered upon receiving best screenplay adaptation for Traffic, “By the time they call the nominees for this Writers Guild Award, everyone in the audience doesn’t give a damn who wins. They just want you to be brief. They’re three hours past dessert. So 300 glassy-eyed writers were staring at me after the announcement, thinking, Just say thank you and goodnight.” —Richard Stayton, Editor

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