Script Research: Rock Star Biographies & Memoirs

I'm in the research stage for a script and want to read a few biographies and memoirs of rock stars. I'm looking for ideas, anecdotes and a glimpse into the rock star lifestyle. I reached out to my Facebook and Twitter friends and asked what they thought were the best books in this category and I got a number of great responses.

For anyone needing to do similar research, or if you're just interested in something new to read, here are the rock bios my friends gave two metal horns up. \m/

Lists number of votes received if more than one:

Right out of the gate, I want to read Just Kids, No One Here Gets Out Alive, and Motley Crüe: The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band (because who in their right mind could resist that title). I'm also pretty fascinated by Touching from a Distance because I'd never heard of Joy Division and the person who recommended that book is hella cool.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their ideas to this list.  If you have other suggestions, please add them to the comments below. Thanks!

-------

Please note: I provided links for each title so you could get more information. I tried to link to the least expensive version of the book wherever possible, which in most cases was the Kindle version. If you buy a book through one of these links, please be sure to double-check the version you're buying (e.g. Kindle vs Paperback) to be sure you get the one you want. Happy reading!

Do You Bring a Hostess Gift for a Guest Blog Post?

Several weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of meeting Jon Reiss, filmmaker and author of Think Outside the Box Office. He asked me what I was working on, and of the different projects I described, the one that really caught his attention was Scriptchat. With much enthusiasm, and the flailing hands I tend to use while talking, I told him about Scriptchat's origin, what we've accomplished as of today and our dreams for where we're heading. Jon felt there were lessons about community-building on Twitter that could be learned from our experience and that his own audience of filmmakers could benefit. He invited me to guest blog on his site and I of course jumped at the opportunity. You can find my piece "Building a Dedicated (and Rocking) Twitter Community" on Jon's site.

Please give it a read and leave your comments. Thanks!

Scriptchat in Script Mag is Script-Frakkin-Tastic!

In this same week as the Braven Films announcement, there's now fun news about one of my side projects: The fabulous Twitter Scriptchat gets a nice mention in the September/October issue of Script magazine! Thanks to my awesome #treefort pals for taking me on this crazy ride. Today, Script mag, tomorrow the world!

Yes, that's John August mentioned on the same page. Now that's script-frakkin-tastic!

P.S. All uses of the term "frak" are credited to Jane Espenson (a former scriptchat guest) and her amazing Battlestar Gallactica-writing colleagues for reviving such a great word. Cuz really, where the fuck (oh wait, frak) would we be without BSG.

If the Treefort's a Rockin'

Growing up in Manhattan, there weren’t a whole lot of tree forts. There must have been a few wealthy families who had them in their tony backyards, but I didn’t grow up with those families. I grew up with the kids who played in the West side rail yards, and while the rail yard offered its own homeless enclave meets drug den charm, it was no tree fort. I still live in Manhattan and now, well into adulthood, I finally have a tree fort, and this one is so chic it comes with a hashtag. The #treefort is a collective of the five people who founded Twitter Scriptchat, and while our fort may be virtual, our commitment to each other is as serious as a 12-year-old boy’s love for cigarettes and girlie mags.

Each week, the #treefort pals climb into our (virtual) private hideaway, and after a healthy session of gossiping and playing catch-up, we come up with a game plan for another week of #scriptchat and tequila-drinking fun.

Since #scriptchat has grown from an hourly event each week to a daily online hangout for screenwriters, we realized it was time to pull up the canvas shades and let you peek inside to meet the folks who inhabit a tree fort so big it stretches from Los Angeles to London, yet so small it holds only five people. We’re still not going to tell you what we talk about in there, because those are the secrets we pinky swore to take to our graves, but we are ready to get a little more formal and a little more public about who we are, where we came from and what we’re writing.

Check out the first official #treefort bios and meet five adults who wanted a screenwriters’ playspace so badly they broke out the hammers, nails and two-by-fours and with their bare hands built #scriptchat.

Links #Treefort Bios Scriptchat Blog

 

The #Treefort on Twitter Jeanne Veillette Bowerman ... @jeannevb Mina Zaher ... @DreamsGrafter Zac Sanford ... @zacsanford Jamie Livingston ... @yeah_write Kim Garland ... @kim_garland