How Hillary Clinton, David Carr and a journalist inspired ‘Girls on the Bus’

After spending nearly a decade covering Hillary Clinton, including both of her presidential campaigns, former New York Times White House correspondent Amy Chozick felt she had another story to tell: her own.

After spending nearly a decade covering Hillary Clinton, including both of her presidential campaigns, former New York Times White House correspondent Amy Chozick felt she had another story to tell: her own. When she began to write her memoir “Chasing Hillary,” which chronicled her years on the road with the Clinton campaign, Chozick said she struggled at first to write about her personal experiences and perspectives after her time chronicling news events. Chozick credits her mentor, the late legendary Times columnist and editor David Carr, for helping her find her voice. “You have to go to a magical place where writers live, you have to put newspaper writing out of your head,” Carr advised, according to Chozick, who spoke to CNN in a recent interview about the new Max series “The Girls on the Bus,” which debuted Thursday and is based on Chozick’s memoir. (Max and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Bros. Media.) “You have to go to a magical place where writers live, you have to put newspaper writing out of your head,” Chozick, who spoke to CNN in a recent interview, remembers Carr advising. The new Max series “The Girls on the Bus,” which debuted Thursday, is based on Chozick’s memoir. (Max and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.) With Carr’s advice in mind, the words that would become the series’ source material began to flow. Chozick said her story is about how “a woman trying to become the first woman president took over the formative years of my 20s and 30s.” After it published in 2018, “Chasing Hillary” caught the attention of veteran TV producers Greg Berlanti, Julie Plec and Rina Mimoun, who went on to partner with Chozick and Max to adapt the project for television, inspired mostly by one particular chapter that nodded to Tim Crouse’s 1973 book, “The Boys On The Bus.”