![]() ![]() So I really put a priority on humor in the books and not on plot, because I’m really trying to get maybe two laughs a page. And then what I do is I look at the jokes and see if there’s a theme, and then I start working on the theme, and then I try to string the jokes together into a plot. So what I do is come up with a pile of jokes. What I do is I spend about six months just writing jokes, and they’re disassociated with everything-they’re not even connected to one another. I think it’s because authors can be really precious about their work, and I’ve really had to try to figure out a way to fit in and to have some influence over the films while accepting that I don’t really have control over the outcome.Ĭan you talk a little bit about your writing process? What comes first, the story or the illustrations?Īctually, I do everything upside down. There’s not a role for the author, and it’s for good reason. The movie business has been around for a long time, and all the roles are really clearly defined. In Hollywood, as an author especially, you really need to figure out where you fit in. My real aspiration, now, is to screenwrite as well, because I think it’ll be really exciting to be in that seat and to work with film as much as possible. It’s really probably as involved as an author can be. I was on set for about half the time and helped with casting and marketing and merchandising. I was an executive producer on all three films, and I worked with the producers and the writers on the story from the beginning in each film. It’s really exciting and unnerving at the same time to have your work adapted. What is it like to see your work taken and put up on the big screen? How much of a say do you have in how that translates? I think it’s very impractical-it’s not very likely that I’ll end up on a road trip with my family with me in the driver's seat. But on the book tour I’ve really gotten to see a lot of the country in busses and I’ve realized that it’s nice to have a driver. I’ve always had road trip fantasies, and I’d love to rent an RV, a really souped-up RV, and go cross country with my family. So I really had a different hat on when I was writing this book. I was writing it with a movie in mind-this is the first book that I’ve written in three acts and with cinematic set pieces. There’s very little of what I went through in this book. I long ago tapped out my own childhood experience. Is that the case in this book? Do you have a crazy road trip with your family that you were drawing from? Some of your childhood experiences inspired the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. "I’m actually really excited about it, because I think it’s the best one by a mile." We talked to the author and illustrator about his writing process, where he finds his inspiration, and the key to penning a good book. "It's a classic road trip story where Greg Heffley and his family head out on the open road and then everything turns sour and then there’s sort of a descent into hell," he says. This month, Jeff Kinney releases The Long Haul, the ninth book in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. ![]()
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