Thirteen Reasons Why (32 page)

 

S.L.O.W. FOR CHILDREN

(my critique group)
for being so critical . . . in a good way.

 

LIN OLIVER & STEPHEN MOOSER AT SCBWI

for years of professional support and encouragement
(the Work-In-Progress grant was nice, too).

 

ROXYANNE YOUNG AT SMART WRITERS.COM

for believing in this book from the beginning
(the Grand Prize designation was nice, too).

 

KATHLEEN DUEY

for mentoring me through the early stages of this creative
pursuit.

 

CHRIS CRUTCHER

for writing Stotan!, the first teen novel I ever read.
and for encouraging me to finish this, the first teen novel
I ever wrote.

 

KATE O'SULLIVAN

Your excitement about this novel kept me excited
about this novel.

 

THE LIBRARIANS & BOOKSELLERS OF SHERIDAN,
WYOMING & SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA

Not just co-workers, but friends.

 

NANCY HURD

The reason I wrote my first book . . . thirteen years ago.

 

It happened kind of backward, with the idea for the unusual format coming before the subject matter. So I'll tell you how both ideas came about, and then how they came together.

Regarding the format: Years before I began working on this book, I took a self-guided audiotour at a museum where each visitor received a Walkman with a cassette tape inside. Standing in front of each display, you pressed ‘play,' and the narrator described what you were looking at. Then you hit ‘stop' and moved on to the next display . . . all at your own pace. I've always been drawn to books with unique formats and kept the audiotour idea in the back of my mind. But for the longest time, I was only interested in writing humorous books, and I couldn't find a funny story that needed to be told in that format.

Regarding the subject matter: A close relative of mine attempted suicide when she was the same age as Hannah. Thankfully (and luckily), she survived. Over the years, we discussed the events and emotions that led her to make that decision. But she could never talk about one specific circumstance without telling me what preceded it or what followed. That idea that everything affects everything, as Hannah says in the book, intrigued me.

Both ideas came colliding together when I wasn't really looking for a new book idea. A few weeks after getting married, my wife and I moved from California's sunny central coast to Sheridan, Wyoming for six months. I'd never driven in snow before, but there was snow on the ground the entire time we were there, which made me tense while driving. Once, while driving on an extremely dark road slicked with ice—the perfect conditions to inspire a suspense novel—the entire premise came to me: Hannah, Clay, the suicide, the shoebox full of cassettes, the back and forth narration. I pulled into the nearest gas station and sat there (with the heater running full blast!), scribbling ideas in a spiral notebook. By the time I went to bed that night I'd written the introduction and part of Cassette 1: Side A.

 

Initially, I tried writing the book straight through. I'd give Hannah a few lines of dialogue, then get a response from Clay to break things up. But at that stage, I wasn't entirely sure where Hannah's story was going . . . and I had absolutely no idea where Clay came in. So a lot of his reactions were pointless, and I ended up deleting them.

I went back to the beginning and wrote Hannah's story all the way through, from the first reason all the way through the thirteenth. That process took longer than expected, and—for a very brief moment—I considered calling it finished and submitting the manuscript purely as Hannah's story. But I felt the dual narration was the only way to do it honestly. To let the readers understand her point of view in the way I intended, they needed to hear Clay's reactions immediately, and not in a subsequent chapter, as most books with multiple first-person points of view do.

 

Early on, my main female character was named Anna Baker. But I discovered several other novels dealing with suicidal characters named Anna, so I thought I'd give girls named Anna a break. When it came time to decide how many stories Ms. Baker was going to tell, it seemed obvious (because I love puns). A baker's dozen is thirteen, so there would be thirteen reasons. When I sold the book its title was
Baker's Dozen: The Autobiography of Hannah Baker
.

 

When I began writing, I knew about ten of Hannah's reasons, but none of them contained a character suitable to be the “eyes and ears” of the reader throughout the novel. On a road trip with my friend Robin, we brainstormed Clay's character . . . and what he did to wind up on the tapes. Then I altered some of the other stories so that his tape happened at what I considered an appropriate spot in the novel.

 

I first quizzed my wife and my female writing partners about what high school was like for them. We spoke about experiences that, at the time, they didn't think they'd ever get over—as well as some they never have gotten over. But I also had my own teen years to draw from. Most of the real life scenarios (either mine or those of my friends and relatives) are unrecognizable in the book because I was primarily inspired by the emotions of those scenes rather than the details.

 

 

Mostly the embarrassing ones!

When Clay first meets Hannah at the going-away party (where it's freezing outside and his shoe comes untied), that's exactly what happened when I met the girl I went on my first date with. When Zach and his friend slip on wet grass and tumble over each other while trying to impress Kat and Hannah, that also happened to me. And while Hannah's first kiss tasted like chilidogs, mine tasted like hot dogs and mayonnaise, but my editor thought that was just a little too gross to be believable, even though it was true.

But there is one serious moment that made it into the book. In high school, when I was in Peer Communications we had an almost identical suicidal note left in our teacher's paper bag. It was also anonymous, and the class responded just like in the book. And we never found out who wrote it.

 

The town in
Thirteen Reasons Why
is a composite of the two cities where I grew up. I never liked long description of what a place looks like . . . usually one or two small details make a setting more real than a ton of details. Setting scenes in actual locations (at least, they're set there in my mind) helps me pick out those one or two telling details.

For example, there still is an Eisenhower Park in Arcadia, California, though the rocket slide has been gone for many years. Rosie's Diner was inspired by Rosie's Ice Cream (which is no longer there), though I never went inside because it had a reputation just like in the book. And Blue Spot Liquor (also no longer there), which I went into many times to load up on candy.

The layout of the high school mimics that of my high school in San Luis, California. The public library is also the same. The art-deco Crestmont theater looks just like the Fremont theater. And Monet's Garden Café . . . where I wrote a huge chunk of
Thirteen Reasons Why
. They even have scribble books there!

 

A lot of authors answer “no” to that question, or at least say the book should speak for itself. And I can understand that, but I did have something I wanted to say; and because so many readers seem to understand it, I feel no reason to shy away from that question.

Basically, even though Hannah admits that the decision to take her life was entirely her own, it's also important to be aware of how we treat others. Even though someone appears to shrug off a sideways comment or to not be affected by a rumor, it's impossible to know everything else going on in that person's life, and how we might be adding to his/her pain. People do have an impact on the lives of others; that's undeniable. My favorite quote came from a girl who said
Thirteen Reasons Why
made her want to “be wonderful.” How awesome is that!

 

The first person a concerned friend should talk to is the person they're concerned about. Suicide has such a stigma attached to it that we feel we're going offend that person by bringing it up. But I'd rather err on the side of offending them than losing them to suicide. That person needs to know they can talk to you, and that you won't downplay their feelings. But then you need to assist that person by finding the avenues of help that are available. Don't let them brush it off as something they'll take care of if things get worse. Instead, give them the phone numbers and contacts they need; or, better yet, initiate those contacts for them.

 

They absolutely must talk to someone about their feelings. Unfortunately, because of that stigma I mentioned earlier, so many people are embarrassed to admit when they're depressed. The important thing to know is, even when it feels like you don't have anyone to talk to, you do. There's a national phone number and Web site (1-800-SUICIDE and
www.hopeline.com
) available 24/7 for teens—or anyone who might need someone to talk to. And they can put you in contact with local people for more help.

One of the most amazing things I've witnessed because of this book is hearing from teens who recognized some of Hannah's feelings as their own. They also recognized the mistakes Hannah made in not fully reaching out for help (she simply hinted at her problems). So they then took it upon themselves to get the help Hannah never received, which has been extremely inspiring to me.

 

Definitely. And that's why I focused on writing this as a suspense novel. One, it makes the reader keep turning the pages. And two, there are a lot of people out there who—for a variety of reasons—have a hard time stepping beyond their own ideas about certain subjects to explore the lives of others. So I wanted the readers to focus on the characters caught in the middle, rather than the issues themselves. Some people, primarily adults, would rather there be no books dealing with controversial subjects, even if those books help start a dialogue between teens and adults. Thankfully, I've heard from a lot of parents and teachers and librarians who are using this book for that very reason.

 

I do. And that's one of the reasons I used them. With technology changing so fast, it's impossible for a present-day novel to stay current if your characters use the most up-to-date material. So rather than have Hannah post her reasons online—in which case, the terminology could change overnight and the characters in the book wouldn't know it—I used an even older form of recording and made the characters acknowledge it. When something is out-of-date but the characters know it, the book is suddenly up-to-date.

Don't worry, the answer almost made my brain melt, too.

As another example, Tony's car is an old Mustang, and he acknowledges that. Rather than use an extremely modern car that will probably date the book within a year, he drives a classic. Problem solved!

But I also liked the tangible element of Clay wandering through town with his backpack loaded with cassette tapes and popping them in and out of his Walkman. It gave his story some interesting details to work with, such as needing to figure out how to listen to the tapes.

 

No, not while I'm actually writing. I'm too easily distracted. But I do listen to music before I write to inspire a certain mood. With this book, I mostly listed to the soundtrack of the TV show
My So-Called Life
and the band Buffalo Tom. I discovered them because they have a song on the
MSCL
soundtrack. For the very last scene in my book, I listened to Buffalo Tom's “Larry” over and over. The atmosphere of that song, as well as the lyrics, matched that scene beautifully.