BuzzFeed: Half His Age is your debut novel, but in 2022, you published your memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. What was your reaction to seeing the impact your memoir had?
Jennette McCurdy: I never imagined that I’d have the success that I do now, and I’m so grateful for it. I’m so grateful to have such a loyal readership. This has exceeded any of my wildest expectations.
I quit acting at 24 and immediately started writing. I wrote for a good five years before any of my work found the light of day. I wrote plays, teleplays, screenplays, short films, and short stories — so I knew that I wanted to write. I remember days when I would be just crying, thinking, “If I could just have one paycheck where I’m a writer, then I would know that I actually have a future here.”
It was really a scary time, not knowing where things would land or whether I could make a living from writing or support myself. Ultimately, my body knew that I had to at least try.
How long did Half His Age take to finish, from concept to completion?
I had the initial idea of Waldo and the fact that she’s in a relationship with her writing teacher, Mr. Korgy, when I was 24 on a solo trip to Japan. I was on a Shinkansen, a bullet train, and then the idea didn’t come back around for years. It was a two-year process by the time it came back around, and then finishing it nearly 20 drafts later.
Some writers only go through one draft, and I think that just speaks to completely different processes. My friend Beth Raymer has a recent book called Fireworks Every Night. It’s amazing, and I highly recommend it. She actually worked in one single draft, but she said that she’ll sit there and she’ll go back and forth on each sentence as she goes. We’re taking the same amount of time, but she’s taking that time all throughout the first draft.
In my process, I feel like I have to go back. In those early drafts, I don’t allow the inner critic part of my brain, because I would just never write a thing. I have to just get it out of my system and call them the “vomit drafts.” Then after that, I sit with it, and I go, “Holy shit. This needs a lot of work.” I just do that again, and again until I look at it and I don’t say, “Holy shit.” Then I know it’s ready.
