For a pair who makes what they do look so easy, Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson can’t help but lament about having to write season 2 of Yellowjackets, Showtime’s pulpy drama that’s on the Emmy short list for a Best Drama nomination.“I think the hardest part of being a writer is the writing,” quips Nickerson. “I hate the scene in movies where the writer is just typing away like they are in this tremendous state of outpouring.
My experience of writing, and everyone I’ve ever talked to about their process, is that you sit and worry and Google stuff. Then you get an idea for two sentences.
And then it’s, like, back to the anxiety.”“I think it was Hemingway who said writing is easy,” adds Lyle. “All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”If that’s what it takes to get more juicy stories about a group of female soccer players and how they survived a plane crash, then so be it.
Here, Lyle and Nickerson — who just this week received the Showrunner of the Year Award (with Jonathan Lisco) at the Banff World Media Festival — discuss their writing process and what inspired them to name their show after a predatory wasp.DEADLINE Before we discuss Yellowjackets, I really want to get your origin story.
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