That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

As I revised, I realized the story was lacking something, and I knew I wanted to tie in the victims more. The obituaries actually came in a while later. Eventually, I returned to writing the last remaining letter, then wrapped up Lee’s narration. I kept careful track of my outline to make sure I was staying focused. The next day I’d be back near the beginning. One day I’d write a section near the end of the book. When I went back to Lee’s narrative, I wrote it completely out of order. I decided to hold off a while on the last letter, knowing I wanted a bit more of the narrative nailed down before I tackled it.

Ashley’s came next, and then I wrote Miles’s – which was the most challenging, I found. I wrote Denny’s letter first, followed by Eden’s. So I sat Lee’s narrative aside and began writing the letters from each of her friends. I had notes on what their letters would include, but I knew writing the letters in full would really help me understand their characters more. However, at that point, I realized I couldn’t go any farther until I understood the other survivors – Lee’s friends – a bit better. Once I knew where the story was going and how it would be structured – and once I had all my research (which took several months) completed – I began writing the first twenty pages or so of Lee’s narrative. From there, I began researching, taking extensive notes, and creating an outline. I penned those first couple of pages before I’d done anything else. I’d been walking my dog one night when almost all of that section just sort of flooded into my head, giving me the idea for the book as a whole. The very first thing I wrote of That’s Not What Happened was the opening “Dear Reader” section from Lee. And since the book has such a different structure from my others, I thought it might be an interesting question to answer. Since the book has been published, I’ve actually gotten a few questions about what I wrote first. That’s Not What Happened is not only written with multiple timelines – with one going forwards and the other working backwards – but it also incorporates multiple additional pieces: letters from the survivors and short, unofficial obituaries of those lost in the school shooting Lee writes about.įiguring out how to tackle all of this in a way that kept me on track was a challenge. That was so hard.”įast forward a few months, and I found myself staring at an outline, thinking, “Well…crap.” “I’m not writing anything non-linear again – at least not for a while. “I’m not doing this again,” I told myself after finishing my last book, Run. Kody Keplinger, author of The Duff and That’s Not What Happened tells us why she chose to write her latest book in the way she did!

That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger