Is this what failing looks like?

Oh, hi friends!

I really wanted people to laugh at me.

It was a comedy song, after all.

People are supposed to laugh.

They didn’t.

The song I presented on Monday in my musical theater writing workshop didn’t work. And I got to stand there and hear every reason why it didn’t work.

Failure hurts.

But in a twisted way, it’s thrilling. Being that uncomfortable is clarifying. 

So while drowning my sorrows in a ginger ale, I thought three things:

— Why did this happen? Specifically—how exactly did this happen?
— How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again?
— What am I writing next?

I’m so glad to fail.

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Dress up the walls put in front of you.

You’ve said there was a moment in your career following The Last Airbender and After Earth when you’d hit a wall and nobody would make a movie with you.

What I was getting was a lot of, “Hey, what do you want to do?” And I’d say, “Well, I want to do this.” And they’d say, “Hmmm. How about this instead?” Then I’m like, “Yeah, maybe you’re right.” When that happens, I’m lost.

So basically you were making movies that you knew could get made and not ones you wanted to make.

I had stopped doing the things that allowed me to feel at peace. I was the one who allowed that to happen. I did not make the right decisions. And you’re complicit in all that when you take that much money to make a movie.

Lots of gems and honesty in this conversation with M. Night Shyamalan on his creative process, having one foot in failure, and why you should make the best movie you can for the least amount of movie that you can.

Here’s Ira Glass on the gap.

The first couple of years when you’re making stuff, your stuff isn’t very good. But your taste is great. So what you're making is a disappointment. A lot of people at that point, they quit. But his advice: Everybody goes through it.
If you’re in that phase, it’s important to just do a huge volume of work.
That’s the only way to catch up and close that gap.

Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Love, Kara