Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have opened up about their writing process for the hit HBO show.
Not only did Weiss recently admit to Japanese radio station Block.fm, via Fansided, that the pair hadn’t written much together before starting on Game Of Thrones, he revealed that after trying to write the pilot alongside each other they immediately had to change their process because it just took too long.
“So we just decided one of us would take the first half of the script, one of us would take the second half of the script and we would work separately on our own. Then we would trade halves and he would rewrite my work and I would rewrite his work, and we would pass them back and forth until we got to a place where we forgot who wrote what, and it seemed like it was ready.”
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Weiss’ above comments then provoked Benioff to joke, “Which is why one half of every episode is amazing, and one half is terrible. Because Dan wrote the good parts.”
Benioff also revealed that the pair occasionally disagreed about the writing, too. “Yeah sometimes, but fewer than you might think, considering how many episodes we’ve written together.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 22: (L-R) David Benioff and D.B. Weiss attend HBO’s Official 2019 Emmy After Party on September 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO)
“And we do a pretty detailed outline beforehand, so by the time we get to the actual script part, any of the big issues have generally been decided. We’ve definitely had some arguments about shots and editing things, and some score stuff, but few writing fights.”
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During the interview Weiss and Benioff also revealed that they have avoided online reaction to Game Of Thrones since season two, which is probably a good thing considering the divisive reaction to its final episodes.
“Normally I try to avoid it, because you just go crazy and you start to have arguments in your head with people on the internet which is not a good way for mental peace,” remarked Benioff, before Weiss added, “There’s so much work to be done for us and for everyone involved in making this show … it really wasn’t in the best interests of the show either, it would have made it worse.”
