In an interview with Google back in 2011, acclaimed author George R.R. Martin revealed his approach to cutting scenes from his books. Martin admitted that he may use some of the discarded material in future works.
Despite this, he remains uncertain about making it public. However, there is one particularly intriguing Tyrion Lannister chapter that may be published in the future.
George R.R. Martin on unused material from the books
Back in 2011, George R.R. Martin came to Google for a live-streamed interview where he answered some fan questions. One of the interesting questions was:
“You mentioned you had trouble cutting down some of the Arya chapters for a Dance with Dragons. Would you ever post the unused material on your website?”
“No, probably not. I do save everything when I cut material. I do save it because I may find a place for it later, and there are things that, you know, I cut out a second book that I find a place where in the fourth book and that sort of thing is constantly going on.
But I’m still carrying forward material that I cut from the first book, some of it as short as a single pithy sentence that I particularly liked but no longer fit and others half chapters of that I took out, and maybe I’ll find a place for that, but I have a feeling that much of that and more will still be in my files when the whole series is done. But I don’t know if I ever want it getting out there, you know, it’s taken out for a reason.”
A Tyrion chapter Martin may publish
Martin continued, talking about a compelling unpublished chapter that we may get along the line:
“There’s one chapter from the new book, Dance with Dragons, that does go beyond Game of Thrones, but I’ll be vague. There’s this Tyrion chapter that drove me crazy all through the decade that seemed that I worked on Dance with Dragons and its precursor Feast for Crows, where I kept putting it in and then taking it out and then putting it in and then taking it out and then I put it in as a dream sequence, and then I took it out.
Then I made it a series of recurring dreams, each one going slightly further, so I put it in seven chapters, and then I took it out of those seven chapters.
It’s one of those chapters that I think is by itself a terrific chapter. I like the way it came together. It’s vivid, it’s kind of spooky, it’s got some really great visual imagery in it, and it leads me absolutely down a dead end where if I take that path, I’m kind of stuck on a detour, and so I had to take it out.
That chapter I may publish at some point down the road but not most of the other material.”
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