Plotter and Panderer
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Thanks for the awesome show.
In the deep dive, you mention writers and how they tend to be a plotter or a panderer. You mention that GRRM is a panderer.
As a big fan of the podcast, I have to disagree on this one.
You define a plotter as a writer that has all the main points and then fills it in. It’s a very planned out story. GRRM is exactly this. He created this world knowing how every character will end and reach their arch in the ’90s. He’s known all along that Dany would go crazy and that Jon Snow in book 1 would be the true heir to the throne.
In fact, I would argue that D&D is the panderers. You define it has knowing the character and writing their circumstances (almost moving the plot). D&D has GRRM’s literal plotter writing notes and pandered all the content in between up to the end (specifically seasons passing the books).
However, I would agree that GRRM could seem like a panderer with his twisting storylines and rabbit hole character journeys. But isn’t that the whole purpose of the plot? Couldn’t that be part of a plotter? The Heroes Journey we see with Odysseus in The Odyssey? Those are journeys necessary for the plot and character arc. Even characters that die in the middle of it, much like a Rob Stark, the legacy still moves forward in others and symbols like “The North Remembers”. It’s never wasted.
John
Palm Beach
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I disagree. While I agree GRRM knew the end point for a select few Main Characters. He has no idea where it essentially ends. It’s valid argument you have, but it’s just more complicated than that. He has to know WHEN WHERE WHY WHO HOW WHAT for every main character…. that’s something he doesn’t know. That’s a plotter. It’s the answering of all the essential questions. And in books it’s more, writers are both some percentage. It’s just a really complicated thing and Gene was painting in broad strokes to facilitate the likelihood of the audience majority never hearing these terms.