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DSilvermint's profile
Daniel Silvermint
Daniel Silvermint
Daniel Silvermint
@DSilvermint

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Daniel Silvermint

@DSilvermint

Former professor of philosophy and women’s studies. Left academia for love, and to follow my dream of being a SFF author. Living my second chance. [he/him]

Seattle, WA
dsilvermint.philosophy.uconn.edu
Joined March 2018

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    Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
    • Report Tweet

    Want to know why Game of Thrones *feels* so different now? I think I can explain. Without spoilers. /1 #GameofThrones #GoT #WritingCommunity

    1:13 PM - 7 May 2019
    • 16,991 Retweets
    • 36,862 Likes
    • Antoine Stark Peter Varnicrast Matt Messina Emily Walker 🇵🇸 heatherbee Leandro Xavier Folarin Diana Yeboah
    754 replies 16,991 retweets 36,862 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
        • Report Tweet

        It has to do with the behind-the-scenes process of plotters vs. pantsers. If you’re not familiar with the distinction, plotters create a fairly detailed outline before they commit a single word to the page. /2

        11 replies 132 retweets 2,747 likes
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      3. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Pantsers discover the story as they write it, often treating the first draft like one big elaborate outline. Neither approach is ‘right’ - it’s just a way to characterize the writing process. But the two approaches do tend to have different advantages. /3

        3 replies 101 retweets 2,377 likes
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      4. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Because they have the whole story in mind, it’s usually easier for plotters to deliver tighter stories and stick the landing when it comes to endings, but their characters can sometimes feel stiff, like they’re just plot devices. /4

        6 replies 97 retweets 2,406 likes
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      5. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Pantsers have an easier time writing realistic characters, because they generate the plot by asking themselves what this fully-realized person would do or think next in the dramatic situation the writer has dropped them in. /5

        2 replies 109 retweets 2,575 likes
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      6. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        But because pantsers are making it up as they go along (hence the name: they’re flying by the seat of their pants), they’re prone to meandering plots and can struggle to bring everything together in a satisfying conclusion. /6

        10 replies 97 retweets 2,456 likes
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      7. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        That’s why a lot of writers plot their stories but pants their characters, and use the second draft to reconcile conflicts between the two. What does this have to do with Game of Thrones? /7

        5 replies 116 retweets 2,706 likes
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      8. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Well, GRRM is one of the most epic pantsers around. He talks about writing like cultivating a garden. He plants character seeds and carefully lets them grow and grow. /8

        8 replies 164 retweets 3,440 likes
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      9. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        That’s why every plot point and fair-in-hindsight surprise landed with such devastating weight: everything that happened to these characters happened because of their past choices. But it’s also the reason why the narrative momentum of the books slowed over time. /9

        4 replies 125 retweets 3,146 likes
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      10. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        After the first big plot arc, book four was originally going to skip ahead five years. But GRRM didn’t know how to make the gap in action feel true to the characters or the world, so he eventually decided to just write his way through those five years instead. /10

        5 replies 91 retweets 2,470 likes
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      11. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Which meant planting more seeds, and watching those grow. And suddenly his garden was overgrown, and hard to prune without abrupt or forced resolutions. He had no choice but to follow each and every one of those plot threads, even when they didn’t really matter to the story. /11

        8 replies 83 retweets 2,840 likes
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      12. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        And now that the plants were fully in control, he struggled to get some of the characters that had grown one way to go where they needed to be for the story. (Dany getting stuck in Meereen is the example he frequently cites.) /12

        4 replies 83 retweets 2,886 likes
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      13. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        And because he had all this story to cover and pay off, some of which was growing in the wrong directions and needed enough narrative space to come back around, he started increasing the number of books he thought it would take him to complete the series. And, well. /13

        2 replies 60 retweets 2,206 likes
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      14. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        So the books the showrunners were adapting ran out. What now? People assume the show suffered because they didn’t have GRRM’s rich material to draw on anymore, as if the problem was that he’s simply better at generating new plots than they are. But that’s not what happened. /14

        6 replies 183 retweets 2,742 likes
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      15. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        For a season or two, the showrunners actually tried to take over management of GRRM’s sprawling garden, with understandably mixed results. When that didn’t work, they shifted their focus to trying to bring this huge beast in for a landing. /15

        3 replies 92 retweets 2,308 likes
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      16. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        They gave themselves a fixed endpoint - 13 episodes to the finale, and no more - and set about reverse-engineering the rest of the story they wanted to tell. You see, I think the showrunners are not only plotters, they’re ending-focused plotters by design. /16

        14 replies 141 retweets 2,980 likes
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      17. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        They want to deliver an ultimately satisfying experience. So with only two seasons to work with, they started asking themselves what was left to do. What could they build with the pieces left in the box? What beats did they just have to include? /17

        5 replies 79 retweets 2,201 likes
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      18. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        What big moments did they want to deliver? Where should the characters end up? What did they think we, the audience, wanted to see on screen before the show came to an end? It was a Game of Thrones bucket list. /18

        4 replies 117 retweets 2,572 likes
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      19. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        And once they had that list, it was time to connect the dots to make it all happen. So they started maneuvering the characters into the emotional and literal places they needed to be for all those dots to connect up in the right way. /19

        4 replies 87 retweets 2,229 likes
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      20. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        That’s why Game of Thrones feels different now. A show that had been about the weight of the past became about the spectacle of the present. Characters with incredible depth and agency - all the more rope with which to hang themselves - became pieces on a giant war map. /20

        9 replies 845 retweets 6,239 likes
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      21. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Where once the characters authored their own, terrible destinies, now they were forced to take uncharacteristic actions and make uncharacteristically bad decisions so the necessary plot points could happen and the appropriate stakes could be felt. /21

        9 replies 474 retweets 4,937 likes
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      22. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Organic developments gave way to contrivance. Naturally-paced character arcs were rushed. Living plants became puppets of the plot. The characters just weren’t in charge anymore. The ending was. /22

        3 replies 295 retweets 3,839 likes
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      23. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        No one’s to blame. Keeping a million plates spinning the way GRRM did is hard. And setting those plates down without breaking too many, which the showrunners had to do, is also really hard. Creation in general is hard. /23

        15 replies 197 retweets 3,501 likes
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      24. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        There’s a reason writers have haunted eyes and always seem like they need a hug. Give everyone a break. But: the shift in approach did have consequences. /24

        3 replies 140 retweets 3,034 likes
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      25. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Is pantsing better than plotting? No. And this has nothing to do with which approach is ‘right’, anyway. It’s about the approach changing in the third act. That’s the sort of thing an audience can feel happening, even if they can’t put their finger on exactly why. /25

        10 replies 155 retweets 3,236 likes
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      26. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        The audience fell in love with one kind of show, but the ending is being imported from a different kind of show. Now, I happen to think the finale will stick the landing. It’s what the showrunners have been building toward these past two seasons, after all. /26

        13 replies 201 retweets 3,049 likes
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      27. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        But to be satisfying, it matters how we get there, too. Treating the journey as equally important is how you get endings that feel earned. And it’s how characters keep feeling real the whole way through, even though they’re completing arcs some writer has chosen for them. /27

        2 replies 203 retweets 2,914 likes
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      28. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        By placing so much emphasis on the ending, the showrunners changed the nature of the story they were telling, meaning the original story and the original characters aren’t the ones getting an ending. Their substitutes are. /28

        5 replies 316 retweets 3,307 likes
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      29. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        That’s why no amount of spectacle or fan service can make this ending as satisfying as it should be. Resolutions invite us to consider the story as a whole; where it all started, where it all ended up. And we can feel the discontinuity in this one. /29

        20 replies 261 retweets 3,727 likes
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      30. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 7 May 2019
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        Well that ended up being a long thread. So here’s a picture of a very nice dog. /30pic.twitter.com/YcJZ7COvff

        262 replies 284 retweets 12,886 likes
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      31. Daniel Silvermint‏ @DSilvermint 16 May 2019
        • Report Tweet

        Like reading about Game of Thrones, but wish you didn’t have to scroll through a thread longer than the Long Night? @WIRED has published an updated version ahead of this week’s finale:https://www.wired.com/story/game-of-thrones-plotters-vs-pantsers/?fbclid=IwAR3xbLEU4R1yP1-x-GEpg0JiHnlAHb9_v41d2nyI1cxyzdAV6p2vZrhe3AI …

        22 replies 90 retweets 423 likes
        Show this thread
      32. End of conversation

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