‘Game of Thrones’ Was Written on a DOS Machine
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George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Ice and Fire may have inspired one of the most high-tech and expensive shows currently on television (HBO’s Game of Thrones, for which Martin also occasionally writes) but the books have a rather primitive origin.
“I have a computer I browse the Internet with and I get my email on and I do my taxes on,” Martin told Conan last night. “And then I have my writing computer, which is a DOS machine not connected to the Internet…I use WordStar 4.0 as my word processing system.”
An unconventional approach, perhaps — “did you make this computer out of wood”?” Conan asks — but Martin has his reasons.
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“It does everything I want a word-processing program to do, and it doesn’t do anything else,” he said. “I don’t want any help. I don’t like some of these modern systems where you type a lowercase letter and it becomes a capital. I don’t want a capital. If I had wanted a capital, I would have typed a capital. I know how to work the shift key.”
Apparently spellcheck can be a headache when writing about a made-up realm full of made-up places and people. “I hate spellcheck,” Martin confirmed to Conan.
While he didn’t go into the benefits of writing on a device not connected to the internet, it must boost his productivity, right? Think about it: How much time do you waste on the internet?
So to all the , thank his DOS machine. Without it, we’d probably be even further away from the release of The Winds of Winter.
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George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Ice and Fire may have inspired one of the most high-tech and expensive shows currently on television (HBO’s Game of Thrones, for which Martin also occasionally writes) but the books have a rather primitive origin.
“I have a computer I browse the Internet with and I get my email on and I do my taxes on,” Martin told Conan last night. “And then I have my writing computer, which is a DOS machine not connected to the Internet…I use WordStar 4.0 as my word processing system.”
An unconventional approach, perhaps — “did you make this computer out of wood”?” Conan asks — but Martin has his reasons.
