Despite Releasing 21 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Books, Jeff Kinney Reveals He Is 'Always Stuck Creatively'

Jeff Kinney, the author of the globally popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise, has been writing books for nearly three decades. Kinney penned his first book in 1998 while working as a computer programmer and game designer. Although the first generation of children who read his books are now nearly 30 years old, Kinney continues to regularly publish new material. His 21st book in the series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Fight or Flight, releases today (Oct 20). Despite maintaining this astonishing output rate, Kinney openly admits that he is "always stuck creatively."

Speaking to Business Insider, Kinney said he writes for eight to 12 hours a day. The 55-year-old said if he is illustrating, which he 'basically' does all summer, he draws from 9 am to 10 pm, every day for months. However, when he is feeling stuck, Kinney said he had devised a system.

"When I get stuck, I use something called systematic creative thinking, which helps me to produce material even if I'm not feeling creatively," Kinney said.

Kinney explained that he follows a simple deconstruction process to get his writing back on track.

"I start with the components. If I'm writing about an airplane, I'll list the parts of the plane inside and out: the wings, the pilots, the lavatory, everything," he said.

"Then I'll go through each component with a few different tools like subtraction and multiplication, and that's what gives me my raw material. I'll use my iPad or my computer, or I have this device called a Freewrite, which is a super simple word processor that's not connected to the internet."

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Kinney said he had five to six workspaces where he got his creative work done. When working on a book, he said he writes the jokes first before the manuscript takes any shape.

"When I'm working on a book, I'll write the jokes first, then the manuscript, and finally I'll illustrate. I do all the illustrations myself. I don't usually combine those activities together."

As for his routine, Kinney revealed that he wakes up before 7 am without any alarm and performs two hours of PT yoga and weightlifting before eating breakfast.

"I'm really committed to my morning physical routine of PT, PT yoga, and exercise. That's now become non-negotiable. I also do some journaling because it orients me toward the day, and it's a calming mechanism."

Kinney said the morning routine keeps him grounded, which led to his most productive years, during which he wrote two books and two screenplays.