Interview
Not a fan of fanfiction, says George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin is definitely a great writer, and there is no doubt that he will go down in history as one of the most notable popular writers in the English language. The author recently discussed a few things about his life as a writer, and apparently he’s not a fan of fanfiction. Read on!
George recently accepted the Carl Sandburg Literary Award at an annual gala sponsored by the Chicago Public Library Foundation, where he gave a speech. The full speech is 40 minutes long. Check the video out, below:
Winter is Coming did a roundup of the most important bits from the interview. Starting off, George talked about finishing The Winds of Winter:
“It’s very important to me to finish A Song of Ice and Fire,[…] and I want to finish it strong, so people look at it and say, ‘This entire thing is an important work, not a half-finished or broken work.’ I know some of the more cynical people out there don’t believe that, but it is true.”
He also discussed his writing process, and said that he needs a distraction free chunk of time:
“When I’m really in a writing groove, my real life falls to pieces.”
He also talked about how there’s a pressure to finish the books, especially from some impatient fans. He then discussed violence in his works:
“If you’re gonna write about violence and killing, I think you should present it honestly. Just because you include dragons doesn’t mean that the whole thing should be removed from our human experience that we know about.”
He then said that he didn’t like fanfiction, and talked about why he didn’t:
“I don’t think it’s a good way to train to be a professional writer when you’re borrowing everybody else’s world and characters. That’s like riding a bike with training wheels. And then when I took the training wheels off, I fell over a lot, but at some point you have to take the training wheels off here. You have to invent your own characters, you have to do your own world-building, you can’t just borrow from Gene Roddenberry or George Lucas or me or whoever.
The other thing is there are all sorts of copyright issues when you’re using other people’s work…My understanding of the law is that if I knew about I would have to try to stop it, so just don’t tell me about it and do what you want there.
It’s not for me. I don’t wanna read it and I would not encourage people to write it.”
Well, he makes some great points. What do you guys think? Talk to us in the comments below!
Interview
John Bradley says playing Samwell Tarly gave him a stammer
John Bradley played the character of Samwell Tarly in Game of Thrones for eight seasons, nearly a decade. In a show full of mavericks, geniuses, warriors and dragons, Samwell’s character was perhaps one of the sanest on the show.
Recently while speaking with Giles Paley-Phillips and comedian Jim Daly on the Blank Podcast, he shed some light about his portrayal of Samwell. Bradley said:
“I got into this trap with Sam, I set myself traps, because he had a traumatic childhood and suffered a lot – and it manifested through a stammer and a twitch sometimes”.
Bradley also spoke about how the character of Samwell began affecting his performances outside of Thrones. He added:
“Towards the end of that journey, that stammer would turn up in non-Sam acting and I’d do auditions when I’d stammer because it just seemed like the default place that I went to when I acted”.
Bradley found himself so much into the character that, at times his co-stars had to politely push him to speak quicker. He recalled an incident with Kit Harington:
“In one scene I came in first with Kit Harington and in the nicest way he said to me “can you come in a bit quicker?” so I can react a bit quicker and I was like “I can’t, I just can’t.
As lovely as the crew were, they assumed it was because I had forgotten my lines. It took me a while to get out of it and it went away over time.”
Well, John Bradley sure seems like a perfectionist doesn’t he? It almost seems fitting that he played the most studious character of them all in a show full of larger than life characters.
What’s your view on John Bradley’s revelation? Write to us in the comments below!
Interview
Emilia Clarke reveals she had a hard time with Daenerys’ final Dothraki speech
Game of Thrones behind the scenes bits have been floating around on the Internet these days, since the disc sets for the full series hit the shelves. A new bit now has Emilia Clarke discussing how her final speech in Dothraki was “hell”. Read on!
Entertainment Tonight recently reported about the “Duty is the Death of Love” featurette from disc sets, and Emilia discussed her last speech as Daenerys:
“I knew that speech was going to be really important, and I spent a huge amount of time learning it. And for the first time in my whole Game of Thrones career, I got that word perfect.”
She continued to talk about how it was difficult to remember the language:
“I’m being so brutally honest here — I was in hell learning that speech. This pretend language was literally eating me up. I couldn’t do it. And then, magic happened. I woke up in the morning, went on, and it all came out. I was probably fighting not what I was fighting, but what Dany was doing.”
Well, it definitely must have been hard, watching her character give everything up that quick. What do you guys think? Talk to us in the comments, down below!
Interview
Kristofer Hivju wants a Tormund and Brienne spin-off
Game of Thrones has had a lot good on screen pairings through the run of the show, but there have also been a few ships that never became pairs. One of them was Tormund and Brienne, the subject of many a memes, but sadly we didn’t see enough of it on the show. Kristofer Hivju, however, is all for a Tormund-Brienne spin-off. Read on!
Hivju, who played Tormund, was recently at the UK disc set release event in London, and did a Q&A session, reports Fandom. When asked what he thinks about a Tormund-Brienne spin-off, he replied:
“I’m up for it.”
He added that he would like it to be a rom-com set at Castle Black, with the pair:
“…trying to run it together; it’s 19 minutes per episode.”
He’s clearly thought it through. Now that he’s said it, it honestly wouldn’t be the worst thing to follow up the timeline of the show. He then talked about how Khal Drogo was his favourite character:
“[My favourite scene] was Jason Momoa’s speech in the tent before he kills Daenerys’s brother. He’s just ranting and he’s going all the way.”
Well, we would definitely love that spin-off, and we bet it would fly well with the fans. What do you guys think? Talk to us in the comments, down below!
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Well said, Martin. People can get inspiration from other people’s works, but they DO need to make up their own story, their own characters and events. I love your work, I am just finishing writing my Literature PhD thesis on “A Song of Ice and Fire” and the TV show “Game of Thrones”.I really admire you. I hope you be well, I wish you all the best. Thanks for writing fantasy so well.