10 Writing Tips from George R. R. Martin on how he wrote Game of Thrones
Submit your Feature Screenplay here: writers.coverfly.com/competit...
George R R Martin is an American novelist and short story writer, screenwriter, and television producer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones (2011-2019).
01 - The human heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about. You need characters to question who, and what, they are and how they fit within the world around them. This is key for character development.
02 - Write for yourself. Following trends, or pleasing your audience in spite of your own plans, harms good storytelling. Listening to critique is good, but inevitably you must be entertained and feel your way through the writing process.
03 - Anyone can die, and death is a key part of any story with conflict. Don't give your characters any special treatment, have them play by the same rules you set upon your world. Not only does it add constant tension, but it also creates a realistic atmosphere.
04 - Sometimes an idea can just come to you. If so, do not disregard it, instead follow the idea as a writer and write it! It could either lead into an interesting project or serve as useful practice.
05 - Show don’t tell. Immersion is essential to any story. Only through visuals and vivid descriptions of your world, can your audience even start to imagine themselves in your world.
06 - Allow yourself to discover in the process of writing. While you need to know the major outcomes of the story, and character arcs, allow yourself to enjoy and be aware of your sixth sense on your way through the story.
07 - When writing a script, dialogue should never be too long. Other than a few monologues, or moments, keep it short and sweet. Also, read the dialogue aloud by yourself or with the cast, this is a simple effective way to see if it works.
08 - When adapting a novel, you’ll always lose some content. However, a good adaptation rides the fine line between cutting side content and keeping smaller meaningful moments that enrich the story.
09 - Being a writer is not a career for those who wish to be stable. It is a massive risk in every way. A true writer, even during the lows of their career, will never stop storytelling. It is essential to whom they are. So, from a beginner to a bestseller, never stop writing.
10 - The ending to an act is fundamental to keeping the audience engaged with your story. Leaving it on a cliff-hanger, or teasing the audience with a different outcome can be the best way to break up converging storylines and finished acts.
Follow us on our main Instagram: / outstanding.screenplays
Follow us on our video Instagram: / outstandingscreenplays
Follow us on Twitter: / outscreenplays
Follow us on Facebook: / outstandingscreenplays
Support us on Patreon: / outstandingscreenplays
#GeorgeRRMartin #GameOfThrones #Writing #screenwriting #screenwriter #screenplay #screenwritingtips
In Hollywood, they always stress that writers have to write for an audience, like a golden rule. And I was always thought this was silly, because the whole concept of an "audience" is nebulous to begin with. Write something good and the audience will come.
“We don’t try to figure out what they like-we _dictate_ what they like.” Jerry Bruckheimer
But movies are for the audience tho, you have to respect the audience because they are the ones that feel and digest the work, no writer would write anything without thinking of the audience if they love their work or their audience.
@@nganheep3570 But who is the audience? The audience is not that one group of the same people who watch every movie and must be pleased, but are the ones who are interested in that that one movie. The audience is different from movie to movie and can be build from the ground, like it was when asoiaf arrived in the public eyes. If you write something and it's good a group of people will like it and will become your audience. Don't wrire a story just to please others, just write something good and others will be pleased.
Putting the audience on ice for 11 years... now THAT's serious writing!
Probably applies to all forms of art. But the audience does not come necessarily. Especially if you write something non-standard, like some uncommon writing style or just bad writing, at least according to public perception, audience might not come.
Best tip I ever heard...write the story you would want/like to read yourself,write what you enjoy. It got easy for me when I first heard this as a teen
I needed to see this right now......
Tip 11: Take a 10 year break in-between books to keep yourself fresh.
12: Just write 1 sentence a month.
@@theeditor3 Woah Woah, slow down Stephen King!
R u sure?
NAILED IT
I hear the same joke over and over again. And I die over and over again XD
As he said, killing main characters creates that tension throughout the show, making you nervous everytime a conflict occurs. Stakes get really high. In mainstream stories, we kinda know the main characters are never gonna die.
I prefer that. I'm an escapist reader. Life itself has high stakes and constant conflict. I don't need that in my readings too, to be honest, so it depends on the person.
Unless Sean Bean portrays the character.
As it ended up happening in GoT ironically. In the show at least. Watch Vikings for a show that truly will kill off protagonists before a season is even finished (and will commit to it) if you want a medieval type show where no character is safe.
@@happinesss2 We all read stories for different reasons and engage with them in different ways, I appreciate your point of view. But, if a series is sprawling enough and hops between multiple characters, someone has to die to suspend some sort of disbelief and keep the stakes high. When I read R.R. Martin, for me, It avoids thick plot armor and also keeps room for new doors to open in the story.
But do it too often, and the audience might switch off to the story entirely, especially when there is no satisfying payback for time invested.
It’s interesting how any writer watching this knows exactly what GRRM’s talking about, the craft of telling a story, taking it to the next level, make it real and true, raising the stakes etc, while the interviewer just goes He, he! You love death! He he! You want your readers to feel fear!
You do disregard the fact that these silly comments make him explain himself more detailed though. "So you want your readers to fear?" is both entertaining and makes him explain that he really wants them to fear - when the situation is scary and stakes are high. I think it's a great interview. It becomes a problem when his answers are being bombarded with trash-comedy, but he always gets to explain himself and the full video is quite enjoyable.
@@Gloriankithsanus I totally agree. You point out something I never even thought about before, in these cases the interviewer shouldn’t ask “intelligent” questions. I feel that he’s playing dumb so Martin will explain things very thoroughly for us members of the audience who don’t know what he’s talking about. If it is intentional, it’s somewhat noble to make yourself look a little stupid for the audience’s benefit.
That interviewer in particular was absolutely obnoxious. I’m not a writer myself, just an avid GRRM reader, but I couldn’t bring myself to watch the whole interview. It’s like George was talking to the wall there, neither the audience nor the interviewer truly listening to what he was saying.
8:00 He' right about that. Sometimes, killing a single character is enough to make you believe anyone could die. It's best, when it's even believable that the main characters would die. It's done well in some shows I recently watched, like Arcane, Madoka Magica and Made in Abyss.
A single character dying is never enough to convince the reader that anyone could die at any moment, which is what he's saying he wants to instill. A single character can die in a Pixar film, it's empty and meaningless most of the time and doesn't at all convince the reader that some other character could suddenly die next. Killing off characters repeatedly is the only way to actually make the reader realize death could be coming for anyone at any point in the future books.
@@NottherealLucifer I've recently even seen Osama Ranking, where basically nobody dies. In the beginning the King technically dies (he gets resurrected soon, and it's believable that nobody else will get resurrected). But I still was under the impression that anyone could die any moment. Maybe not the main character/duo, but everyone else. Many characters were close to death multiple times, but as far as I remember, nobody died. In the beginning I hated almost everyone and in the end I was happy everything went out well, when it didn't seem possible anymore.
Arcane was incredible.
What surprises me is that GRRM has a reputation for killing off characters. Meanwhile, the only POV characters he's actually killed off are Ned and Catelyn, the parents! Even Disney movies kill off the protagonists' parents! There were several times where Davos seemed dead but then he just has another chapter afterwards. I challenge anyone to read Davos' last chapter in Clash and tell me how he survived. For an author obsessed with realism, Theon should have died of an infection from Ramsay's torture 50 times over.
Santa is such a great writer, who would have known.
this made me cackle. thank u
😂 I never realised that he looks like Santa Claus 😂😂😅 maybe that’s why he seems so loveable😂😂😂❤
Really love what he says about Faulkner. I know people usually skip Faulkner, and I understand why, but I find what he says to be so perfect, specially in contrast to all literature today, and old: "The human heart in conflict with itself", damn!. I think more people would learn a lot from Faulkner.
"Anyone can die", that's really catch and hook in writing
GRRM is my inspiration on possibly my biggest writing project yet in my amateur writing career.
As annoying as it is that he still hasn't finished the last book(s) for Game of Thrones these writing tips are solid. He's a good writer.
@Jake Stockton you made me do a quick news check on that one. LOL
I think the book is in its first draft. With such a complex story, so many characters ect & then the fact that he’s less of an outliner I can imagine he makes a lot of rewrites before he ever gets them close to editor’s & then print.
Just a poor human; spent all 2020 writing for the moneyed side projects
Which lends itself to the theory I belive as to why he can't come up with a conclusion: he's created such a nihilistic vision that no end is satisfying.
@@KittSpiken doubt it. he's been planning "A Dream of Spring" for how long now? He's always said the ending won't be nihilistic but bittersweet
Love watching these every time they come out, thanks so much!!
❤️ George R R Martin , ❤️💜 From India.
The channel makes me feel that great writers only give generic tips so they can keep the best to themselves
Oh great i was waiting for this. George's ASoIF books are so great and nothing short of masterpieces, probably the best in the fanrasy genre.
Yes finaly, requested this so many times. Keep up the good work, your video's are helpfull.
Thank you. Martin is an inspired storyteller!
With my own writing I like to think of myself as a Gardner architect. I plan out my garden then let it grow.
Tip 11: If you never write anything, it keeps things fresh.
Hope George can find some use from these Tips
I like this man
please do a video about denis villeneuve
@5:42 "I don't think I'd be lined up to buy that fantasy about plate tectonics" NK Jemisin: "Hold my beer."
No. More like " hold the three Hugo awards I won for each book in the trilogy"
Rule 1: Don't procrastinate, or you'll never write anything, period.
I didn't study literature and I barely read at all any more. I write because I enjoy it. I write only for me and have no intention of ever releasing anything I write but I like having this little world of mine in my head I can explore that nobody else knows about :)
I love Martin BUT Tolkien is still better at creating a more in depth world. I’d have to say I compare things to either lotr or got in the sense that one is about the world and how EPIC it can be in scale, while another work of art or story is focused on dramatic experiences and stakes with the characters. In a few words: Tolkien writes a better universe, Martin writes better characters.
I'm just thankful we have them both.
The reason why you think tolkein has more depth is because he just states everything that happens in his world directly. GRRM likes to hide everything from his world like a mystry so people think it doesnt have depth, but if you really dig deep then his world is actually crazy. Also most people havent read his books and only watched his shows. But yes GRRM is a master of characters
George is exactly what i imagine Santa Claus to look and act like. He just seems so happy and jolly all of the time!
Put your characters in crisis. Make them question who they are, what their place in their world and it's meaning. Take them through the journey of their dark soul. The human heart is worth writing to. Jamie losing his hand which defines who he is. Tyrion's wanted his father's love and admiration but at the end he lost everything. The Lannister name, the gold. Treat war honestly. It does bring the beast of men and any man can die.
° Know when the story ends ° Where you're going ° The fate of your principal characters
Tip 1 - Don't let D&D adapt your notes. Only fully written stuff.
Not even that
I would like to hear his words without background music. Can someone link the separate interviews?
He wrote a scene in like three days he acted like that’s fast no wonder it takes him a decade to put out a book.
That is fast. If it takes you less than that then you can be guaranteed it will be bad.
9:33 thats how you know you have a good idea
I wonder if he still likes David and Dan so much that he wouldn't ask 13 episodes per season. I feel like they had a Christopher Lee-Peter Jackson moment 🙃🙃
Wow there’s actually 10 tips here, I was only expecting 6
7:11 Wow. He would be very really irritated from the fight with the white walkers. Night king comes in with his whole army and they kill...... Reek.. Everyone else survives even though they were smashed by zombies..
Anyone have any tips for him on how to finish it?
N.K. Jemisin watching this: "wow, plaque tectonics, I got something"
Do you like killing characters? George: no Me: spews out soda pop.
@Timothy A Schuler you, me and George. I killed a lot of people off in my first book too. More are going to die in the next two of the trilogy. But it’s just part of writing dark fantasy full of tragedy, horror, war and pure messy, soul crushing realism. I’ve been very attracted to the darker side of storytelling, so long as it maintains it’s own redeeming quality of course. But yeah, when the time came for one certain character to die…it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t hard either. It was just impactful and sad.
@Timothy A Schuler well said. I think that will be the most upsetting thing to do, is kill off characters that you’ve been with since the beginning. I mean, it wasn’t that hard for me to decide who’s going to live that who’s going to die. As you’re writing it just comes to you, the choices. Getting there is another challenge as well.
Georgia Martin took the gauntlet from Robert Jordan/Tolken and ran with it I like Usain Bolt
It's too bad he'll never finish the series. Someone should have given him the tip that a writer should inevitably complete whatever it is that they decide to write....
❤❤❤
Well I guess I finally understand why I probably will never like his writing. I really don't agree with this statement about character development, I don't think that is the only thing worth writing about. It's not the only thing I want to read about. I will sound a bit extreme now but it's probably necessary to explain the point: Not every story needs to be about people whining. You can have interesting world development, interesting plot development, interesting symbology, satire, etc etc... not all of it needs to be about character psychology. It's just that humanized characters are easier to consume.
But not everyone of his characters whines? Maybe you meant a different word? In that case you are saying you dont like anything in history Europe because everyone here whines, as his whole world and Characters are all heavily inspired by real things.
@@stannisbaratheon6725 I was being a bit extreme :P but it does explain what I mean. For example, the first books of the Foundation series have a story that is very much worth writing about, even if it does not focus on individual character's issues at all. I can also read about the history of kingdoms in Europe or anywhere else, without focusing on the internal struggles of each individual king, knight or serf. LOTR is also a good example of this, also being a fantasy series, that is more focused on world building than character building, and it is up to each reader whether they like it or not. I just don't agree with what he said, that ONLY stories about humanized characters are worth writing about, I think there is a lot more that can be written about.
@@edumazieri Let's rephrase that then... Stories about "real" people (or characters that seem real to the reader) will interest more people across cultural boundaries than stories about things. Things are important and deserve to be written about, but the average reader will be more interested in the characters than the things in the story.
@@edumazieri most non nerds were never a fan of LOTR while GOT became the most known show across the world only because real people are always more interesting that caricatures which is the entire cast of lotr
@@mum-your if that were true, no fiction would ever be interesting, people would just get out and go see real people. nobody consumes fiction because it's real, or even close to real. that's the whole point. it would make more sense if you said that people are interested in immersion, in believing the characters act in a way that make sense for their universe and their supposed motivations. lotr was always more about world building, the universe IS the character, the story is only there as an excuse for the lens to move and show us that universe. the song of ice and fire series is the opposite. the world is only a background, and that's why I don't like it. to me it's just a soap opera with a generic low fantasy setting. what made it popular was the tv show, the excellent production, the constant violence and sex (it sells)... I enjoyed the show, just didnt find the world interesting.
14:23 statement made before the last few seasons
16:00 ditto
As a writer myself, 3 days to write one scene is...not fast. 3 hours would be more like it, if it were a substantive scene. 5 years to write one book, even a big chonking epic fantasy, is also not fast. I think the problems with Martin's writing pace were there from the beginning.
Wrong. Something as big and so detailed like the novels in A Song of Ice and Fire is far above almost every single book series out there. Like Martin has said before, he's got dozens of characters, in different storyline doing different things. He's writing several novels in one. It takes time to write something like that. Not only that, but he's also extremely busy with other things, like TV and other stories .
Tip 11: NEVER finish your most famous series
Meh, I just don’t care anymore. I got burnt out in the middle of Clash of Kings anyway. I got others stories to enjoy.
@@GreatOldOne9866 Then enjoy them bruh, who cares
@@zapstarfr I care, a lot of people out there I’ve discussed this with, they care.
On the "Show don't Tell". Good tip. But how?
It means describe dont just explain. Like this: Tell:The girl felt sick. Show: A wave of nausea hit the lady in the pit of her stomach. Beads of sweat glistened upon her forehead.
@@Reshme77 but isnt it a bit too detailed? I'm sure that'd make the reader bored
@@trikebeatstrexnodiff I’m not an experienced writer so don’t take my words as gospel, but I think it depends. Describing everything like that would probably get boring, but if this is a significant moment the details would probably help emphasize. But you don’t need to be that detailed in order to show instead of telling. You could say “She scowled,” instead of “She wasn’t happy to see him,” something like that.
1:30
I'm not sure if I'm rather the gardener or the architect. I think I have both modes, I'd call them a fantastic mode, where I immerse in some idea, as if I'd live it myself, and a logic mode, where I plan stuff, know all the relationships between events, places, characters, etc. Both modes can't be combined. As a programmer I'm mostly in logic mode. If I just start to write, because I like the idea, I don't know, where this is going and don't see any progress, so I lose interested. If I know exactly, what is meant to happen, writing isn't fun anymore, and I lose interest as well. I think, it's a good aproach to have a clear plan before starting to write. Sometimes it's useful to have outlines, but often this doesn't work. Sometimes it's just better to restart the story or a chapter. Maybe make a pause for some time, and the next time I don't look at my notes again. I already internalized most of the stuff, so just writing might lead to better results now.
You might be a plantser, or a roadmapper, which is a legit combination of both and does exist in the writing world (I lean towards that myself.) You know where you start from, you know where you're going to end, and you plan a few key 'stopover points' that you need to pass through to get to your ending -- just like planning a road trip -- but you leave enough flexibility into your route to allow for diversions if anything looks interesting enough to take a side road down. 😊 Or you might be more like Brandon Sanderson, who claims he 'architects' his stories/plots but 'gardeners' his characters. As far as I can tell (from what he says,) that means that he learns about his characters as he puts them through the paces of his predetermined plot, but if they turn out to be the 'wrong' type of character to fulfill what the plot needs them to do, he either gives that part of the plot to another character or scraps that character completely and creates another one to replace them. I think my own approach is opposite to that; I know pretty much who my characters are in great detail before I start writing the story, (which I only know at roadmapper level,) and, while I do have certain 'stopover points' I need them to hit, I know them well enough to know how to 'manipulate' them into doing what I need them to do to hit those stopover points (even if that means going full-on God Mode and throwing down betrayals and all manner of other catastrophes to blow them back on-course, bwa ha haaa..!) Anything they seem to want to do in between hitting those stopover points, I give them some space to do it and see what happens. More often than not, that actually helps me see how to steer them through the rest of the story.
Tip 12 change the title from past to present tense
20:05 I hate these act breaks. I often think "just this one chapter/episode". Even when the chapter/episode gets boring, I want to stop reading/watching, when it's finished, so it's easier to remember, where to continue.
the background music creates a feel that doesnt belong there
16:25 It should be adapted into movies... AFTER he ever completes the books. Harry Potter has 8 movies and Tolkien has 6. There's no reason an epic fantasy can't be adapted to films.
ASOIF is twenty times more complex than either LOTR or Harry Potter. Just look at the word counts. Harry Potter - 1,084,170 LOTR + The Hobbit - 576,459 The uncompleted ASOIAF- 1,770,000 Want to know how many named characters are in ASOIAF? 2102 The story is simply too vast and complex for film.
Valar Morgulish
I need some tips on how to write faster
Ask Stephen King
Tip #11 - Take your time.
Wow there are actually 10 tips. I thought it would just be 8 tips, with 9 and 10 tbd.
Tip # 11. Don't keep your readers waiting too long.
He might want to add: Finish what you started. Just sayin’
Tip 11, Relax and take your time. Don't hurry.
Well I guess if anyone needed to survive it would need to John snow .
He already brought him back to life so yeah it pretty much means his attached to join snow
Some very good writing tips, but they are quite general, how do I NOT become George RR Martin?
What's so cliche & redundant is the protagonist being shot by a weapon on the right side of their chest, blood spills out causing alarm yet always survive. Shot on their left side means death, shot on their right side means survival. Boring
Tip one never finish your work take forever and ruin got
Hm, write half a story, then lost interest in completing it after getting signed?
Tip11: write for 6 hours...toss it in the garbage.
If you are seeking a great book to read, then nothing could be better than the book “The War of Colossals.” An exciting story, filled with adventure, war, mutants, and drama.
George R. R . Martin must be the only one that likes D&D, besides their mothers.
Well while he was already fairly succesful before GoT, he was nowhere near JK Rowling/Stephen King level, from his perspective, they had faith in his story and made him a literary superstar, he may not want to throw them under the bus now. Plus he may feel guilt knowing that the trainwreck of the later seasons is partly due to the show running out of source material b/c he didn't finish the series. Though the show was already shitting up in S5/6 when it still had book material for most plots, that the showrunners increasingly strayed away from.
So I agree with his point on writing war honestly. But I think GRRM needs to take a step back and realize that he has often criticized Tolkien’s writing. GRRM was a draft dodger of the Vietnam war and writes completely about the depravity of men and everyone is a gray character. Tolkien fought in the trenches amidst the gore and death and wrote about evil but also the good.
Salinger was balls deep in war too but he didn't write about it, as Martin said, you don't have to limit yourself to what you personally experienced. I imagine at this age GRRM has encountered death so can use his imagination somewhat to expand upon that, there are also many accounts of war. Ive never read this Tolkien guy, but Leo Tolstoy saw war first hand and he had a pretty good grasp on it, far better than GRRM, who is a good screenplay writer. Funnily enough, I found some of his language a bit repetitive and he struggles a bit with maintaining so many unique characters, and so it feels like there is a bit of copy and pasting, that's where the actors came in, to add their personalities to it, that's what made it work on screen. But Tolstoy and Victor Hugo (Les Miserables), they really know how to write many unique characters, there is no copy and pasting. They also didnt bring half of their characters back from the dead.
Tolkein fougth in one of the worst wars of all time but he still couldnt write a single good war sequence compared to GRRM. that is because GRRM is an insane nerd when it comes to history and he knows everything there is about war, which is why all the tactics used are immaculate to the point that he even counta the ration for the masses in wars
did he actually turn down peter Jackson??
... my biggest fear of writing is allowing this complex that authors get because of celebrity status... like just right the book. thankssss....
tip 1: Never finish
I wouldnt take advice from GRRM due to his lack of completing winds of winter alone.
I like GRR’s stuff, but he creeps me out with some of it. Reading about a sex scenes involving a young Daenerys is off putting.
Who cares. You're conditioned to think that. Back in the day people got married super young and it was fine.
why WOULDN’T you kill your characters? makes characters genuinely at risk abs the story unpredictable
The irony is surreal. The man who detests writers who cover characters in plot armour... You know where I'm going with this already 🤣
He left out the tip of not bothering to finish the story you write.
I always thought ending chapters on cliffhangers was lazy. Because there needs to be something else that keeps people reading. I mostly just have questions come up during the story and some will of course not be answered before the end of the chapter, but they might not for five or ten chapters. You need to keep a balance between taking too long and taking not long enough to answer questions. Questions keep the reader interested but they shouldnÄt drag on for like six seasons *cough, cough* Pretty little liars *cough*
More of GRR Martin and less of Brandon Sanderson, please.
pro tip: don't listen with headphones if you don't like mouth noises
Learn to write? or as another commentator take a 25 year break between books?
Think george could use some tips himself its been like a decade where the fuck is winds
Music ruins this
Tip 12 Jeśli jesteś głupi nie pisz książek. Pisanie to przywilej mądrych, by uczyć głupich, nie odwrotnie. Szkoda drzew.
Tip 11: Never finish your series.
Pretty generic advice from a guy whos spent the past 13 years "writing" yet has nothing to show for it other than ruining the TV show and wasting our time with a spinoff
Bruh
bro he has the most successful show of all time + Fire and blood book (longer than lotr and hoobit) + the world of ice and fire book to show for in those 13 years. he has done more work than tolkein in these 13 years
@@mum-your "he's done more work than Tolkien in these 13 years." Funny how you have to compare RR Martin to dead authors in order to make him look productive. And the shows ending destroyed any legacy it may have had or rewatchability
9:12 George has got a very wet sounding mouth...just wanted to share
Oh yeah. Rewrite British History, The War of the Roses and The Hundred Year war, change it a little. Add a little dragons and fantasy And call it an original story. Give me a break...
Stay mad brah
@@theredhotrevival8932 Martin is just a lazy, mediocre writer that's all.
@@trevormoorctaft3906 who do you think is a great author?
better than rewriting old mythology like tolkein with garbage characters and story and then all the nerds who never read anything before think that it is the greatest fantasy of all time
ComicCom MonkeyCam 🙄