George R.R. Martin's Writing Strategy Doesn't Involve Outlining

Look, the only thing that matters to writers in any medium is that they finish things. It is really the only thing that matters.

If you have a way to do things and it leads to finished work that is good, then keep doing that. There are no rules.

And for George R.R. Martin, his way is not to outline. He likes to dive in and find the spontaneity of a scene. It's what's made Game of Thrones feel so exciting and lived in. We can knock him for not finishing some of the least books, but we can't knock the journey that got us here.

In a revealing interview, Martin shared why he avoids formal outlines and how he manages the monumental task of keeping Westeros straight in his head.

Let's dive in.

No Formal Outline for George R.R. Martin

Writing is about the joy of discovery. When you solve a problem on the page, you get these chills to keep the pages churning out and to move the story forward.

For George R.R. Martin, the primary grievance with outlining is that it kills the joy of discovery. He compares the process of writing from an outline to "retelling" a story rather than "telling" it for the first time.

I can see what he means by it. Once you have a detailed outline, it can feel like you should be finished with the story, but instead, it's when you have to write it again.

That loss of passion affects some people, and Martin mentioned how, in Hollywood, he had to do that, and he hated it. I am just so used to having to do it in Hollywood that it never quite bothers me.

But for Martin, writing a book based on a pre-set plan feels like living your life over with all your memories intact; the terror of having to "re-write" the same scenes exactly as planned can be paralyzing.

So he does it all without a map.

Foreshadowing Without a Map

As a strict outliner, I am fascinated by how Martin can keep his complex worlds in his head. He's well known for his maaing foreshadowing.

In the clip, he says he approaches writing with a sense of freedom that allows the story to evolve naturally. He knows the major "landmarks" he needs to hit, and he just explores around them.

This allows the characters to breathe and the world to react in ways even he didn't initially expect.

When asked how he keeps track of hundreds of subplots and thousands of characters, his answer is simple: he keeps it in his head.

That seems so daunting to me.

He joked that he needs a "big hat" to hold all those plot lines and added a cautionary note for his fans: "I better not get hit by a bus," as the majority of the world's secrets exist only in his memory.

Summing It All Up

Picking apart other people's processes is fascinating to me. While I don't think I could keep it all in my head like him, I admire him for finding what works and sticking to it.

I know the universal knock on him is that we get books slowly, but when we do, they're epic. So something is working for him.

Let me know what you think in the comments.