Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve at least heard of HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is based on the book series by George R. R. Martin. As writers, we are always interested in what makes authors like Martin tick.
I’ve compiled several quotes from the famous, if not fast, writer that might motivate you in your own writing career.
“When I am writing best, I really am lost in my world. I lose track of the outside world. I have a difficult time balancing between my real world and the artificial world.”
I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel so much better that I’m not the only one who gets lost in my books, worlds, and characters. It seems eating, breathing, sleeping, and drinking your fiction is the way to successful authorship.
This next one highlights the function of both truth and lies in fiction.
“Fiction is lies; we’re writing about people who never existed and events that never happened when we write fiction, whether its science fiction or fantasy or western mystery stories or so-called literary stories. All those things are essentially untrue. But it has to have a truth at the core of it.”
Exactly. The worlds and characters and their experiences are often contrived, but if their pain, sorrow, and joy weren’t based in real, true human emotions, the stories would fall flat. And nobody likes flat stories!
George R.R. Martin: Is he the ultimate genre bender?
“Over the years, more than one reviewer has described my fantasy series, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, as historical fiction about history that never happened, flavoured with a dash of sorcery and spiced with dragons. I take that as a compliment.”
I just love his attitude. Mash the genres. Do what you want with your characters and your story world. And then revel in your creation.
“I have an instinctual distrust of conventional happy endings.”
This might be my favorite quote from our beloved George. In my own personal writings, I detest happy endings. At least classically happy endings. Probably why writing romances does not come naturally to me. When I know the two main characters are going to end up together, I find myself bored with the story. There should at least be a possibility that the love birds will go the way of Bonnie and Clyde. Or Bridges of Madison County.
“I wrote six pilots, none of which ever got picked up. When you stop trying, it then it falls in your lap.”
And then there’s that bit of hope for those authors who haven’t reached the stratosphere of success yet. Just keep working. Eventually your hard work will catch up with you!
Keep Calm and Write On!
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