Jeff Kinney, author of 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid,' talks to LI kids

We met “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” author Jeff Kinney when he was in Manhattan recently. While we were talking to him, he made personalized illustrations for us!

What inspired you to start writing the “Diary of Wimpy Kid” books?

What inspired me was that I couldn’t become what I really wanted to do, which was to be a newspaper cartoonist. I worked on that for a few years, and I couldn’t break in, and then eventually decided to do this really different thing, and that was to take my cartoons and turn them into books.

Who is your favorite author?

I'm going to say Dav Pilkey. Have you read the “Dog Man” books? He is also the author who wrote “Captain Underpants,” and he is a good friend of mine. He is a really good guy.

Did you help write and direct the “Wimpy Kid” movies?

I did help write the movies. I was involved in the first three. I contributed jokes and help shape the plot. The last movie I actually wrote the first two drafts of the movie. I didn’t direct them, but I was on the set for a portion of each movie.

For you, what comes first: the story or the illustrations?

For me it is always the jokes. I come up with the jokes and I have an idea for an illustration in my mind, but I do save the illustrations as the very last thing.

When did you first write the first “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book?

That is a good question. I finished writing it eight years after I started it. I started it in 1998 and then finished it eight years later, and then got it published a year after that.

Who is your favorite character in your books?

Can you guess? I like Rowley. I think he is really interesting because he is a kid who likes being a kid, and I think that is kind of rare. A lot of kids just want to grow up and get older, and I really like that Rowley is a real kid.

Do you like being recognized in public?

It doesn’t happen that often. It happened with you upstairs! It is pretty cool, actually. As a cartoonist, artist and writer, I don’t have a famous face. I get to lead a supernormal life, and every so often I get recognized, and that is special.

Do you have a favorite place to write, and do you ever get distracted when you are writing?

I get really distracted. I have attention deficit disorder, which means I have trouble paying attention. So it is really hard for me to sit down and write. I am about to have a really tough month because I have to write, but I am also moving. I am moving to another house, so that is going to be really hard for me because there is going to be a lot of activity when I should be writing. It is going to be hard to concentrate on the new book.

Which book is your favorite?

It is always the one that I am working on, but I like the first one because it is really special, because it was the first one. You guys are 11, and this book is just exactly as old as you are.

What is your new book, “The Meltdown,” going to be about?

It is going to be about 217 pages. It is going to be about lots of things: climate change, kind of a war book, the neighborhood turns into a battle zone, snowball fights and things like that. It is going to be different, that is for sure.

What was harder to do, turn in your first manuscript or act in your movie?

Act in the movie. I am terrible at that. You put a camera on me, and I am the worst.

Do you ever put your friends’ names as characters in your books?

Not really, actually. Sometimes I do use names of people I have met along the way. Names that are lodged in my memory.

Why did you decide to let Greg have a dog?

I think it is good for kids to have pets.

Did you have dogs growing up?

I had two dogs, and they were miniature schnauzers, and now I have a Portuguese water dog. We also have a rabbit.

What is your favorite type of dog?

A hot dog.

Did you appear in your own books?

I appear as Greg. He is sort of my alter ego. In that way, yes.

Jennifer Guerriero’s fifth-grade class, St. Patrick School, Smithtown