George R.R. Martin explains why he writes his massive books on a DOS machine

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

George R.R. Martin explains why he writes his massive books on a DOS machine
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

It only makes sense that a man who writes about Targaryens, Westeros, and Valyrian steel would hate spell check. On Conan Tuesday night, author George R.R. Martin shared that he writes his epic tomes (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, etc.) not on the latest iMac, but rather on a DOS machine, using WordStar 4.0. "It does everything I want a word processing program to do, and it doesn't do anything else," he said. "I don't want any help. I hate some of these modern systems where you type a lowercase letter and it becomes a capital. I don't want a capital... I know how to work the shift key!" Watch the clip below. --Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.