In a new article, George R.R. Martin talks to Entertainment Weekly about the pressures of creating A Song of Ice and Fire with millions of fans obsessing over the series, and the hotly debated Game of Thrones finale hanging over his head.
The authors owns up to feeling tempted to change his plans based on fans making correct predictions, especially now that we’re pooling our thoughts in the age of the internet, but he’s staying the course. He tells EW:
“…there is a temptation to then change it [in the upcoming books] — ‘Oh my god, it’s screwed up, I have to come up with something different.’ But that’s wrong. Because you’ve been planning for a certain ending and if you suddenly change direction just because somebody figured it out, or because they don’t like it, then it screws up the whole structure. So no, I don’t read the fan sites. I want to write the book I’ve always intended to write all along. And when it comes out they can like it or they can not like it.”
And will the conclusion match the show’s? Eh…maybe? “Yes, I told [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] a number of things years ago. And some of them they did do. But at the same time, it’s different. I have very fixed ideas in my head as I’m writing The Winds of Winter and beyond that in terms of where things are going. It’s like two alternate realities existing side by side. I have to double down and do my version of it which is what I’ve been doing.”
The author discusses his plans for The Winds of Winter and dedication to completing the book, despite the enormous pressure and missed deadlines. But as always, he’s vague on the delivery. He says, “I don’t only want to finish it, I want to make it as good as I possibly can. […] The show is over. I’m writing the book. It will be done when it’s done.”
So it sounds like GRRM will keep on truckin’, but he’s teasing the idea that Benioff and Weiss didn’t use everything he gave them since they only did “some of them.” Intriguing, yes?
