Sometimes, you need the tool that's best suited to the job in hand. And for George R. R. Martin, that means using an archaic word processor—WordStar 4.0, running on DOS, no less—to write Game of Thrones. He explained why to Conan last night.


First, it means that he has a computer dedicated to writing—obviously he doesn't check his email and browse the web on DOS, that'd be silly—which presumably allows him to concentrate better. But it seems the main reason is simplicity: a lack of frustrating spell checks and autocorrects, which is kind of what you want when writing new and strange fictional words on a daily basis. [Team Coco]