{"id":7723,"date":"2022-07-08T10:53:51","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T16:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/?p=7723"},"modified":"2022-07-11T17:02:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T23:02:24","slug":"a-winter-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2022\/07\/08\/a-winter-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"A Winter Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have done a lot of interviews over the years, more than even I can possibly keep track of.\u00a0\u00a0 Inevitably, a lot of them touch on the same subjects.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the things I have been asked about most is my writing process.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have seen any of those interviews, you have probably heard me talking about the two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners.\u00a0\u00a0 I have given that same spiel numerous times.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s one of the most thorough explanations:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"George RR Martin on the Two Types of Writers\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qkCDevjQISw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Another question that I get a lot, especially since the end of GAME OF THRONES on HBO, is whether A SONG OF ICE &amp; FIRE, will end the same way.\u00a0 An architect would be able to give a short, concise, simple answer to that, but I am much more of a gardener.\u00a0\u00a0 My stories grow and evolve and change as I write them.\u00a0 I generally know where I am going, sure&#8230; the final destinations, the big set pieces, they have been my head for years&#8230; for decades, in the case of A SONG OF ICE &amp; FIRE.\u00a0\u00a0 There are lots of devils in the details, though, and sometimes the ground changes under my feet as the words pour forth.<\/p>\n<p>(Another question fans and interviewers alike ask a lot if &#8220;Where do you get your ideas?&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 Honestly, I wish I knew.\u00a0\u00a0 When confronted with the same question, Harlan Ellison used to say, &#8220;Schenectady.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 The ancient Greeks spoke of the muses.\u00a0\u00a0 Freud talked of the conscious and subconscious minds, the id, the ego, the superego.\u00a0 More recently, we hear about the right brain and the left brain, one analytic and rational, the other imaginative and creative.\u00a0\u00a0 I am pretty sure the answer is not Schenectady, but aside from that&#8230; hell, I don&#8217;t know.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, there are some instances where I know the seed from which something in my garden sprang.\u00a0 The Wall sprang from my visit to Hadrian&#8217;s Wall in 1981.\u00a0\u00a0 The Wars of the Roses inspired much of GAME OF THRONES.\u00a0\u00a0 The Red Wedding was a mash up of the Glencoe Massacre and the Black Dinner from Scottish history, turned up way past eleven.\u00a0\u00a0 But for every instance like that, there are a hundred for which I have to say, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know.\u00a0\u00a0 One day the thought just came to me.\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t there, and then it was.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 If that was the work of a muse, may she keep on musing).<\/p>\n<p>Which brings me to THE WINDS OF WINTER.<\/p>\n<p>Most of you know by now that I do not like to give detailed updates on WINDS.\u00a0\u00a0 I am working on it, I have been working on it, I will continue to work on it.\u00a0\u00a0 (Yes, I work on other things as well).\u00a0\u00a0 I love nothing more than to surprise my readers with twists and turns they did not see coming, and I risk losing those moments if I go into too much detail.\u00a0\u00a0 Spoilers, you know.\u00a0\u00a0 Even saying that I am working on a Tyrion chapter, as I did last week, gives away the fact that Tyrion is not dead.\u00a0\u00a0 Reading sample chapters at cons, or posting them on line, which I did for years, gives away even more.\u00a0\u00a0 I actually quite enjoyed doing that, until the day came that I realized I had read and\/or posted the first couple of hundred pages of WINDS, or thereabouts.\u00a0 If I had kept on with the readings, half the book might be out by now.<\/p>\n<p>So I am not going to give you all any kind of detailed report on the book, but&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I will say this.<\/p>\n<p>I have been at work in my winter garden.\u00a0\u00a0 Things are growing&#8230; and changing, as does happen with us gardeners.\u00a0\u00a0 Things twist, things change, new ideas come to me (thank you, muse), old ideas prove unworkable, I write, I rewrite, I restructure, I rip everything apart and rewrite again, I go through doors that lead nowhere, and doors that open on marvels.<\/p>\n<p>Sounds mad, I know.\u00a0\u00a0 But it&#8217;s how I write.\u00a0\u00a0 Always has been.\u00a0\u00a0 Always will be.\u00a0\u00a0 For good or ill.<\/p>\n<p>What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in GAME OF THRONES you will also see in THE WINDS OF WINTER (though maybe not in quite the same ways)&#8230; but much of the rest will be quite different.<\/p>\n<p>And really, when you think about it, this was inevitable.\u00a0\u00a0 The novels are much bigger and much much more complex than the series.\u00a0\u00a0 Certain things that happened on HBO will not happen in the books.\u00a0\u00a0 And vice versa.\u00a0\u00a0 I have viewpoint characters in the books never seen on the show: Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Areo Hotah, Jon Connington, Aeron Damphair \u00a0 They will all have chapters, and the things they do and say will impact the story and the major characters who were on the show.\u00a0\u00a0 I have legions of secondary characters, not POVs but nonetheless important to the plot, who also figure in the story: Lady Stoneheart, Young Griff,\u00a0 the Tattered Prince, Penny, Brown Ben Plumm, the Shavepate, Marwyn the Mage, Darkstar, Jeyne Westerling.\u00a0 Some characters you saw in the show are quite different than the versions in the novels.\u00a0\u00a0 Yarra Greyjoy is not Asha Greyjoy, and HBO&#8217;s Euron Greyjoy is way, way, way, way different from mine.\u00a0\u00a0 Quaithe still has a part to play.\u00a0 So does Rickon Stark.\u00a0\u00a0 And poor Jeyne Poole.\u00a0\u00a0 And&#8230; well, the list is long.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (And all this is part of why WINDS is taking so long.\u00a0\u00a0 This is <em><strong>hard<\/strong><\/em>, guys).<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and there will be new characters as well.\u00a0\u00a0 No new viewpoints, I promise you that, but with all these journeys and battles and scheming to come, inevitably our major players will be encountering new people in lands far and near.<\/p>\n<p>One thing I can say,\u00a0 in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything:\u00a0 not all of the characters who survived until the end of GAME OF THRONES will survive until the end of A SONG OF ICE &amp; FIRE, and not all of the characters who died on GAME OF THRONES will die in A SONG OF ICE &amp; FIRE. \u00a0 (Some will, sure.\u00a0 Of course. \u00a0 Maybe most. \u00a0 But definitely not all) \u00a0 ((Of course, I could change my mind again next week, with the next chapter I write. \u00a0 That&#8217;s gardening)).<\/p>\n<p>And the ending?\u00a0\u00a0 You will need to wait until I get there.\u00a0\u00a0 Some things will be the same.\u00a0\u00a0 A lot will not.<\/p>\n<p>No doubt, once I am done, there will be huge debate about which version of the story is better.\u00a0\u00a0 Some people will like my book, others will prefer the television show.\u00a0\u00a0 And that&#8217;s fine, you pays your money and your makes your choice.\u00a0\u00a0 (I do fear that a certain proportion of fans are so angry about how long WINDS has taken me that they are prepared to hate the book, unread.\u00a0\u00a0 That saddens me, but there nothing I can do about it, but write the best book that I can, and hope that when it comes out most fans will read it with clean hands and an open mind).<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s all I can tell you right now.\u00a0 I need to get back to the garden.\u00a0\u00a0 Tyrion is waiting for me.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have done a lot of interviews over the years, more than even I can possibly keep track of.\u00a0\u00a0 Inevitably, a lot of them touch on the same subjects.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the things I have been asked about most is my writing process.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have seen any of those interviews, you have probably heard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[50,19],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7723"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7749,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7723\/revisions\/7749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}