Why George R.R. Martin Uses an Ancient Word Processor

George R.R. Martin, author of the acclaimed series-turned HBO show A Song of Ice and Fire, has written a lot of words — around 1.7 million, to be exact — and you'll never guess what program he uses to compose them. At last year's season three premiere, we learned that George drafts his thousand-page stories on an ancient DOS ("disk operating system") computer. Last night on Conan, the author explained why he's decided to stick to the old program (watch it below!).

Source: Wikimedia Commons

"I don't need any help," George said. "I hate these newer programs that turn lowercase letters into uppercase letters. If I wanted a capital, I would've typed a capital! I know how to use a shift key."

Remember Windows 95? That was a partially DOS-based operating system. The vintage machines were extremely popular from the early to mid-1980s, which makes George the ultimate hipster.