George R. R. Martin Hates GoT Fanfiction For an Annoyingly Valid Reason
Keep your Wattpad accounts to yourself.
Fanfiction has always been one of the first indicators of something becoming extremely popular. When someone who has seen or read something feels the urge to pick up the characters and put them in different circumstances, that is the true birth of fandom.
Although fanfiction is often looked down upon, more and more celebrities are starting to acknowledge it and even show their support for passionate fans who choose to show their appreciation in such creative ways. After all, as long as no one is harassed by it, fanfiction is perfectly harmless, right?
Well, some people disagree. You wouldn't think that the one to judge the fanfiction writers would be the writer himself, but George R. R. Martin has a pretty hard stance on fanfiction.
Back in 2019, the creator of the Game of Thrones universe visited Chicago to accept the Carl Sandburg Literary Award. During the Q&A session, the author stated that he's "not a fan of fanfiction" and gave two of the main reasons.
First of all, the author doesn't think that fanfiction does anything for creative expression. For anyone starting out in the literature field, he thinks it would be much more helpful to invent their own characters and worlds. Taking someone else's creations is like doing half the work already.
The second reason, however, is much more practical. And perhaps the one that should potentially scare Game of Thrones fanfiction writers the most:
“The other thing is there are all sorts of copyright issues when you’re using other people’s work… My understanding of the law is that if I knew about I would have to try to stop it, so just don’t tell me about it and do what you want there.”
As happy as fans are that George R. R. Martin has no intention of taking legal action against any kind of fanfiction using his characters or his world, hearing this from your favorite author must be discouraging enough to give up all creative work altogether.
Besides, if the author is that serious about fanfiction, maybe it would be better to release the story finale already, and not leave a huge group of very disappointed fans hanging for years without any answers.
Stay tuned for more news on the release of The Winds of Winter. In the meantime, you can watch the Game of Thrones TV show on MAX, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video.