Blogflog - George R. R. Martin is a Steely-Eyed Hard Ass, or I’m a Wimp

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: George R. R. Martin is a Steely-Eyed Hard Ass, or I’m a Wimp
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.
Mod note: LKH.org is currently down, so here's a cached link.

George R. R. Martin seems to kill characters willy-nilly and seems not to suffer overly much from those deaths, or if he does then he is a masochist of highest order, because I killed a character today, and I feel like shit. I figured out that the death was coming earlier today and knew exactly why my page count had slowed to a crawl, it always does just before I have to lose someone on paper. I walked around in dread for most of the day, and then finally sat down to write. I wrote, then a few tears, and then I finished the scene. I wept, no exaggeration, I freaking sat at my desk and wept, and then I realized it wasn’t done. The death wasn’t enough, there had to be the grief, the reaction of those left behind and that made me cry harder. I wrote in near hysterics, and even now the reaction of everyone isn’t finished, because this death will haunt and effect the rest of the book, and any book that comes after it in the series for that matter.

I found the Kleenex box, and used several, then I printed the pages off for my husband, Jon to read, since he’s the only one that’s read the book besides me, at this point. My dogs decided to be amazingly cute at that moment, because they seemed to know I needed it. They made me laugh, then we all left my office and went to the main part of the house, and then I did something that I’ve never done after writing anything. I got a hard cider from the fridge, opened it, and took a swig. I hardly ever drink, I don’t like the taste of most of it, and don’t need anything to lower my inhibitions, thanks, but today I made an exception. It was the most my husband had ever seen me drink at one time, and I still didn’t finish the bottle. I got to that warm, tingly, rush point and stopped. I wasn’t sure it helped, but it didn’t hurt.

Cupcakes next, because almost everything is better with cupcakes. One a piece for everyone in the household. Got something for dinner I hadn’t had in months, maybe a year – Domino’s pan pizza just cheese. It’s been one of my comfort foods for years. I don’t usually give into food cravings, because it totally kills all the effort at the gym, but tonight I indulged in the pizza. My cupcake remains untouched, the pizza seems to have filled me up. Now watching the musical, 1776, with my family, because it’s been a feel good movie for us for years.

I’m feeling more peaceful, not happy, but calmer. But if I killed off characters the way George does, apparently I’d be an alcoholic, and weigh about three hundred pounds. Good thing I don’t write too many death scenes of major and beloved characters.

Comments

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

This made me laugh like nothing else has been able to in ages.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

I love that Laurell thinks *not* finishing a bottle of cider constitutes drinking. That's adorable. And that she doesn't drink because she doesn't need help lowering her inhibitions...and that she never eats junk food because of her Spartanesque gym routine...and...well. Oh Laurell.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I love that this completely misses the point of why GRRM kills off characters.

Also the last time we had this kind of wailing and shirt-rending was when she killed Haven, which had like zero emotional impact on any of the characters (it'd probably help if her characters had emotions to start with instead of just telling us "I feel bad about X") and then everyone swooped in to reassure Anita that what she did was the right thing, for the greater good, and that Haven was Smirky McEvilbad anyway. So what are the odds that this will repeat itself here with some character nobody really cares about?

(Also I made the mistake of scrolling through comments on her FB page and I really, really do not understand the folks who are like "I hate killing off my characters/doing bad things to them! I had to undo it immediately it was so bad!" When I was 15, I was upset about my character possibly dying in an RPG and sobbed like a baby, but my then-arch nemesis gave me a pep talk and I haven't looked back since. I am a great and terrible god to my characters; I will put them through hell - sometimes literally- if they want a happy ending. They need to fight for it. They'll get broken and rebuild, they'll quit and go do something else, but ultimately it's better for them and the plot. It probably doesn't help that I'm currently writing "Terrible People: The Illustrated Story of Bad Life Choices.")

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

Wait, isn't deciding on a character death and its aftermath sort of a large deal as far as how it works in plot? And isn't the manuscript supposed to be done by the end of January? Which is, what, tomorrow? I know she always turns them in late, but sheesh- at least try to look like you're almost done or something.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

Stop writing, LKH.

I don't say this to be mean.

I say this because if it does this to you, stop. Or switch genres. Just start a new series that is a happy fluffy domestic tone where it would be out of place for anyone to ever die no matter how minor a character they were.

[pryzmkess.livejournal.com]

I recently killed off a secondary character I liked in my space opera. I wrote the scene through the eyes of his son, who is a major character I really like. I didn't wail and gnash my teeth. I didn't compare myself to GRRM. I didn't treat myself to pizza or gather my family around me to console me. I think I started on the next chapter.

I just have no clue how someone can invest so much emotion into this process. Or how an author can realize this morning that she was going to kill a "major and beloved" character in a story she's been working on for weeks. I know when my major characters are going to die for books I haven't started yet. I'm just.... GAH!

I don't mean to rant. This just... enrages me.

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Read this blog and LOL'd. I'm just getting into GoT and seriously, GRRM kills main characters left, right and center. He has no remorse in doing bad things to his characters. As a result, he's sold more books than...well, you know. I get that writers get attached to characters. Dude, she's got like a cast of thousands! Time to trim the fat. Actually, if she killed everyone except JC, Asher, Edward and maybe Richard, I'd start reading the books again. What was the last book you remember having a plot? I'm thinking Bloody Bones.

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

Now that she's broken the seal on character deaths let's have a wholesale culling of Anita's honeys! :) The books would be the better for her doing so much more of this. Some real tension, 'danger' might mean something.

Also her melodrama is always fun, dang she's amused me more this week than in years. First with her quotes and now this.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Umm... She makes it sound like she knows what's what in the literary world, but she's pretty darn clueless and doesn't actually keep up with authors at all.

GRRM has gone on record talking about how wrenching it was to write something like The Red Wedding (for those no on ASOIAF, a LOT of people died quite horribly). But he did it anyway because it was what had to happen. It served dramatic purpose in his story, and while all the consequences have yet to be played out, it was more than shock value: it changed the entire political landscape of the story and set a couple of the main characters on a different path.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Good god woman, get over yourself.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Not a cast of thousands. Probably a few dozen at best. It just FEELS like thousands because she's as FORGETFUL as someone who had a cast of thousands. :\

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Whoo-hoo! Blood for the blood god! Dongs for the dong throne!

...I did not want to imagine what Anita would do with a throne of disembodied dongs. Brain bleach.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I can't stand George R. R. Martin's writing, and that he kills off so many characters is part of that. I also understand being upset when a character you wrote dies. (Which I think I remember reading Martin is.) But LKH is completely ridiculous.

I figured out that the death was coming earlier today and knew exactly why my page count had slowed to a crawl, it always does just before I have to lose someone on paper.

It's your story. If you don't want to kill someone, don't do it. As much as your cast desperately needs to be thinned, killing someone isn't the only way. If it upsets you so much, send them off to Australia instead. Or *gasp* have them dump your main character. That said, in your genre, and with the rules you've set up, characters should logically die on occasion. Make it a grand and glorious moment for them and make it matter deeply, like Spock's death at the end of Wrath of Khan. Maybe the reason you get so upset is that when you kill off a character, it doesn't matter at all. Remember Noel?

I wept, no exaggeration, I freaking sat at my desk and wept

Just like Anita, she doesn't "cry," she "weeps." Also, big deal. I cried when I killed off a character who'd had one previous scene. I think that if the writer isn't extremely emotional at a character death, there's little chance of the audience feeling anything.

The death wasn’t enough, there had to be the grief, the reaction of those left behind and that made me cry harder.

She hates writing anyone being hurt emotionally, and that's the core of why her books are such crap. No one suffers any consequences for anything.

I wrote in near hysterics

If this is true, she needs help, but I think she's exaggerating and/or using the wrong word, as she so often does.

this death will haunt and effect the rest of the book

When it's a verb, it's AFFECT. English, do you speak it? Also, if this happens, then the book will be much better for it. I don't think it will happen.

I found the Kleenex box, and used several

No, see, you're supposed to use the Kleenex inside the box, not the box itself. I can tell what she means, but the writing is muddy, and this is another problem with her books. Also, the commas in that sentence hurt me.

I don’t usually give into food cravings, because it totally kills all the effort at the gym,

Bullshit. This is a common misconception, but it makes me angry every time I see it. Exercising is not only to lose weight, being thin does not mean you're healthy, and being fat does not mean you're unhealthy. Feeding yourself is a GOOD thing, not something to beat yourself up about. And she manages to beat herself up smugly. Urgh.

if I killed off characters the way George does, apparently I’d be an alcoholic, and weigh about three hundred pounds

GAH. Right, because one swig of alcohol and some pizza is soooo dangerous. Fuck you, LKH, I have an alcoholic in my family. And fuck your biology degree, because apparently it came out of a Cracker Jack box.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

At least she didn't quote herself this time.

I am going to laugh myself sick if she just ended up writing a magic goddess flashback to Essus's death. I really don't think she has the guts to kill any of Merry's babydaddies, and I can't much think of any other important characters that would JUSTIFY this reaction.

I'd feel more sorry for her if I believed she WAS an actual bleeding-heart. As is, this is the woman whose main self-insert's series is all about fetishized noncon. Her heart doesn't weep for anyone she doesn't want it to. And she didn't sob like this over Merry's beloved grandmother - but, to be petty about it, I guess that's because Merry's grandmother was female...

Also... is the rest of this book just going to be hysterical sobbing through the epilogue? Because her deadline is TOMORROW...

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Did you see the person who claimed George R. R. Martin was a sociopath for killing off his characters? I seriously dislike his books on both a moral and a "craft" level, but that's going waaaaaay too far.

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

It was the most my husband had ever seen me drink at one time, and I still didn’t finish the bottle.

Oh, honey.

Also, I'm so bothered by her food diatribe for lots of irrelevant personal reasons, because it comes off as so... ugh. I actually can't articulate exactly what it is, because she's just

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Nothing. She doesn't have any dildos who aren't attached to eyes, hair, and muscles. I don't think she even knows they exist.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

...That's a good point. I was thinking more somehow-animated disembodied cocks, but...

Urk. Okay, if the dong throne is somehow glued together with multicolored eyes, rainbow twenty-feet-long hair, and an automated phrase-speaker ("You're so tight!", "You enjoy sex more than any other woman!", "Every time I think you can't get more amazing in bed, I'm wrong!", and 20 more!), d'you think she'd have sex with it?

Perhaps if it specifically had the ability to consent so she could take that consent away from it?

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

'EWWWWWW! Those people who eat PIZZA! This is totally, like, disordered eating! And OMG those THREE-HUNDRED-POUND women, EWWWWWW, that's exactly like being an alcoholic. Because NO ONE ever gains weight like that unless they're like, totally pigs. Good I'm soooo not like that, yea!'

That it?

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

It would have to specifically have the ability to consent so she could rape it, yes.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I DID. And I'm laughing at the "he's viscous[sic] and mean!" comment. GRRM being viscous would totally explain why people had to wait so long for Dance of Dragons. Beyond that, everything I know about the books comes via fandom osmosis and the tv show, but even going by that...don't all the deaths actually serve a purpose? Like, if there's going to be an argument about unnecessary deaths, at least bring up Joss Whedon or fridging. A death as a cheap vehicle for drama is more LKH's style, much like all the tragic backstories of woe that all the dudes seem to have so their woobies can be sexed away by the heroine.

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

Pretty close. I've been 300 pounds, and abused alcohol, and I'm like LKH YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF LOOKING PAST YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE TO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND PEOPLE HOW DO YOU WRITE FOR A LIVING.

Because, seriously -- she's talking about half a hard cider and two slices of pizza? HOLY SHIT GET THE FORKLIFT GUYS.

Excuse me. I appear to have made a rage mess. >_>;

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

Also, I got so mad I burned my garlic bread. D:

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

"And, alcoholism, is because people drink when they are, sad. It has nothing to do with, like, biology."

[dwg.livejournal.com]

The thing that irks me is her comments about alcohol vs food -- she doesn't like the taste of booze, that's fine. But the "I don't need it to lower my inhibitions, thanks" is where I get rubbed wrong, because a) it sounds like she doesn't like not being in complete control, and b) it sounds like she's morally superior for not drinking. And then she spent the entire night eating her feelings. How is that better than being drunk?