Jeff: Weirdly, Rowley is really easy for me to write in his voice. I wrote Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, and then I thought, Oh, this is kind of easy for me. I wrote a few more of those books, and Spooky Stories 2, which just came out. I didn’t even look at the other books to make sure I could match a cadence. I just knew that voice. He’s the easiest for me to write.
I don’t know why the Wimpy Kid books are so difficult. I go through something like 23 official drafts. I have to read through it repeatedly, and then it finally falls into rhythm at the very end. Even on the last day, I may make hundreds of changes to the manuscript to make sure it hits a particular cadence.
I often don’t understand the work until very late. In Fight or Flight, the breakthrough for me was that storytelling requires a transformation. If the character on page one says, “I’m a coward. My worst nightmare is to get in a fight,” that’s setting off Chekhov’s gun. That guarantees that the character has to transform and get into a fight.
I thought that was satisfying, but it wasn’t satisfying enough. I realized there were further-out brackets that were bigger and more thematically interesting.
I didn’t crack that until the end of the writing process — but you’ll have to read to find out what happens!
