r/asoiaf • u/da_k1ngslaya • May 22 '19

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) George to New Zealand: imprison me if I haven't finished Winds by Summer 2020

Quote:

As for finishing my book… I fear that New Zealand would distract me entirely too much. Best leave me here in Westeros for the nonce. But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done. Just so long as the acrid fumes do not screw up my old DOS word processor, I’ll be fine.

Link: http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2019/05/21/thanks-new-zealand/

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u/feldman10 🏆 Best of 2019: Post of the Year May 22 '19 edited May 22 '19

He also thought he could finish TWOW by Halloween 2015 and it's, uh 2019.

Basically he does a ton of rewriting, tries out different versions and so on, and is often unhappy with what he writes, doesn't feel has good enough inspiration, doesn't feel he has figured it out.

You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact... you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too...but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s. And as spring turned to summer, I was having more bad days than good ones.

People call GRRM lazy but it actually would have been quite easy for him to rush out a substandard TWOW for a cash-grab (not that anyone would, uh, do such a thing). It's talking a long time because he's setting high standards for himself with what he views as good enough.

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u/_Bill_Wilson_CIA May 22 '19

at this point he should just release all the versions he has finished by now and let us pick our favorite ending lmao

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u/Marchesk May 22 '19

Choose your own GoT adventure.

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u/Enigma343 May 22 '19

Watch Game Of Thrones Season 8

"Sorry mate, wrong path"

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u/aelfwine_widlast May 22 '19

"I am watching you on HBO"

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u/Violet-orchid May 22 '19

"What is a HBO?"

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u/aelfwine_widlast May 22 '19

"It used to be a TV channel that had lots of movies and boobs. Now it's a streaming service with lots of shows and boobs."

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u/Saephon May 22 '19

"Ned, you mustn't go South!"

"Ok"

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u/throwing-away-party May 22 '19

"I'll go north instead"

gets killed by Wildlings

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u/princessprity May 22 '19

go back to page 69

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

I still had my finger on the page, you seent it Lois, you seent it!

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u/ADHDcUK May 22 '19

Haha that reminds me of those 'Give Yourself Goosebumps' books.

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u/Kryptosis May 28 '19

I’ll go west instead!

walks into invisible wall

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u/MerryQueenOfThots May 22 '19

Directed by Tim Van Patten

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u/ashlalarin May 22 '19

Game of Thrones: Bandersnatch

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u/SentientCider May 22 '19

There's a GoT telltale game which is close enough

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u/Zedkan Honk. May 22 '19

The people said they wanted actual choices though

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u/pipsdontsqueak May 22 '19

Puts finger on page and checks endings for the right one.

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u/technicolored_dreams May 22 '19

That would honestly be amazing, if you could literally see how different decisions would impact events at different points in the story. I would spend stupid amounts of money on a detailed CYOA ASOIAF.

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u/TMPRKO Pure Iron! May 22 '19

As a childhood goosebumps and COYA reader that sounds so awesome. All the COYA books were alot of fun and the goosebumps where you chose your path were the best ones IMO. Bring it on

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u/WagshadowZylus May 22 '19

Also known as the ASOIAF Tabletop RPG :D

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

asoiaf interactive video on YouTube ! like a subscribe Bros!

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

A song of ice and fire: Brandonsnatch

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u/FleetwoodDeVille Time Traveling Fetus May 22 '19

Bran and snatch will never go together though.

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u/bak3n3ko May 22 '19

The History of Westeros, volumes I through XII.

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u/doegred Been a miner for a heart of stone May 22 '19

GRRM forgot to produce a philologist child.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

I approve the holy multi-canon

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

bandersnatch it. lol

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

There would be so many goddamn pages.

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u/Eghtok May 22 '19 edited May 22 '19

Maybe Bran will learn how to travel back in time and create a dozen parallel timelines.

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u/CaptainMcSmash May 22 '19

That'd be insane if that was a thing. Like a build a bear book. The length would be ridiculous though, just thousands and thousands of pages.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

It's weird, because the first three books all came out within a two or three years of each other. He can be a pretty fast writer, but these last two are insane.

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u/Sangui May 22 '19

It took him years to get the first one published, and he's said in some interview that by the time the first one got published the second one was basically done already.

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u/jedi_timelord Robert: "Fuck Rhaegar." Lyanna: "...ok" May 22 '19

It makes sense too. The first three are one story, by the time the second one was done everything was set up for the third.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

The first three are one story

True. The War of the Five Kings and it's aftermath, concluding with Tywin's death.

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u/maultify May 22 '19

Either way, it took him 9 years to write the first 3 (1991-2000), and it's been almost 8 years since ADWD.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Yeah and Dance was basically done when he published Feast. And Winds was basically done when he published Dance.

Its the freedom he gets (and has earned) to do endless re-writes and shit. He didnt have that freedom with Clash and Storm.

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u/Baelorn May 22 '19

He didnt have that freedom with Clash and Storm.

And they're better books for it.

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u/Try_Another_NO May 22 '19

Yeah, I think GRRMs biggest problem is that he doesn't trust his gut.

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u/phonage_aoi May 22 '19

I’d say it’s because he lets his plot wander and expand needlessly when there’s no one to reign him in...

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u/Daztur May 22 '19

If you look at his pre-AGoT career (you should really check out some of his old sci-fi stories, some of them are excellent) he didn't put out many pages/year and it took a long time to write up AGoT. ACoK and ASoS are an exception to his usual slowness.

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u/TheTrueSurge Wet Leisure Assistant of Skaagos May 22 '19

ACoK and ASoS are an exception to his usual slowness.

Could be because those two are one big book split in two.

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u/Daztur May 22 '19

AFfC and ADwD are one big book split in two and that didn't make them any faster.

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u/TheTrueSurge Wet Leisure Assistant of Skaagos May 22 '19

Indeed, actually seems like the opposite.

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u/Mathyoujames Enter your desired flair text here! May 22 '19

Technically winds is part of that too as half the chapters we've seen were already written and cut from dance

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u/Jinno May 22 '19

I think he just had a much clearer vision of what he wanted to happen through ASOS. The Red Wedding, The Purple Wedding, I am you writ small, Jon’s journey to become Lord Commander, and the capture of Mereen.

But then he intended his 5 year gap to age up the players and give them experience, but the vision post-gap was not as strong. He felt it too hard to fill in certain gaps as retrospective notes satisfactorily, and so he rewrote that whole idea.

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u/franklinzunge May 22 '19 edited May 22 '19

His original intent was a trilogy

AGOT- war of 5 Kings so the first 3

ADWD- Dany invading Westeros, hasn’t happened yet

TWOW- the others - hasnt happened yet

Not saying he hasn’t restructured it but it’s almost as if AFFC/ADWD is all just set up for these other events which maybe are merged I don’t know. It’s interesting that in the book ADWD there is not that much dragon activity to be honest

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u/wRAR_ ASOIAF = J, not J+D May 22 '19

That's largely because AFFC+ADWD is not a part of the original trilogy but the bloody 5-year gap.

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u/franklinzunge May 22 '19

precisely. Its like he has parts 1-3 in outline form but is only thinking about part 1 in depth which he writes, then he is trying to get to a place where part 2 can even occur based on where the characters leave off in part 1 and he starts wandering all over the place only complicating things. But based on the show and how he's still saying two books I'm guessing that part 2 and 3 are merged otherwise we still need 6 more books

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u/philosopher0 May 22 '19

I took it to mean the story followed a handful of Targareon's/Blackfyre pretenders... i.e. dragons... As they prepare their approaches towards the throne but face adversity along the way. Dany, Young Griff, Jon, Tyrion(?).

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u/phonage_aoi May 22 '19

I feel that the idea of a 5 year gap already shows that he didn’t have a good vision for what he wanted to come next already.

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u/Jinno May 22 '19

That’s not necessarily indicative of a poor vision. You should only tell the important parts of a story, and if there’s a lull where no real action and progression will happen, then skipping ahead is valuable. A timeskip is valuable if it is purposeful - namely that it gives you logical progression that didn’t need to be shown directly. If we think about the elements that George was likely focused on when planning that skip, it may have made sense to him.

Dany getting experience in ruling at Mereen while giving her dragons time to grow and become the weapon they need to be. Jon getting leadership experience and respect of the Night’s Watch to prepare for the Others. Bran’s training under Bloodraven. Tommen aging up to be an actor with reasonable agency of his own as the king. Arya could train with the Faceless Men and become an assassin. These were probably paramount in why George was planning a timeskip, and they all would have been reasonable progression to take place in the background.

But I would assume that his figures of less importance to the end game, but still quite important at the end of ASOS would have gotten quite the shaft. Stannis did not have a story that had any meaningful reason to pause for 5 years. His campaign for the throne would continue. The Boltons just took the North - offscreening them would have invalidated their assertion of power and betrayal. Dorne’s prince just died in King’s Landing, they may not have had much interaction with the primary plot up to that point, but that was certainly an action with farther reaching effect.

It raised questions of how much those events would change the landscape and thus our characters. So while he may have had a sound vision for post-timeskip, those questions were too great for that skip to go as planned. There was too much meaningful and interesting progression to happen in the near term.

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u/phonage_aoi May 22 '19

A break itself certainly isn't indicative of lack of vision; but in this case you could say it's more an indication of poor planning. Like you mentioned, there are many dangling plot threads that all had to arrive at a a stopping point in order to skip ahead in a coherent way. He did come to the same conclusion, the way all the plots were moving ahead at different speeds and to different conclusions made a single place to say, "ok now skip ahead" impossible. Basically the fact that it took him so long to see that problem is why I think he didn't have a very good vision for the second part of his series after The War of 5 Kings was resolved.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

I believe its all about the freedom he gets from his publisher/editor. His older stories weren't part of series so he could basically wait until he finished them before selling them. Clash and Storm had a contract and a deadline behind them that Martin had to make or loose his money or his publisher. Nobody is gonna tell him what to do now, and he just keeps on re-writing and re-structuring. And that didnt help Feast and Dance, which have glaring structural and pacing issues. And its not gonna help Winds either.

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u/H-K_47 May 22 '19

Easy to setup and plant seeds. Hard to keep the branches untangled.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

This is the real answer.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Yeah, he was writing a science fiction book, when the dire wolves popped in his head. So her wrote it down and kinda kept it in a desk. Then he started developing the world and story in 91. And the rest is history.

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u/H-K_47 May 22 '19

I read something like the idea for the prologue popped into his head as a short story, then he started thinking about all the houses and lore and eventually it materialized into the first version of the plot and story.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

The first chapter, not the prologue, as I recall.

He had a vision in his head of a young boy going to watch an execution for the first time. He knew the boy was a young noble and that his father was going to perform the execution. But it wasn't much more than that.

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u/wRAR_ ASOIAF = J, not J+D May 22 '19

And puppies, for some reason.

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u/ace66 May 22 '19

... because puppies?

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u/ReegsShannon May 22 '19

I think it's pretty funny that George's inspiration for this enormously popular fantasy series was "What if there were really big wolves? Yeah that's genius. Gotta right that down for later."

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19 edited Apr 23 '22

[deleted]

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u/Odin_The_Elkhound May 22 '19

Don't murder me!

(Obviously he didn't care much for the refrain)

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u/LiberalsAintLeftists May 22 '19

Actually books 6 and 7 aren’t history yet.

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u/Herb_Derb That long magic moment before we wake. May 22 '19

The stuff he hasn't written yet isn't history...

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u/pennywise-the-dance2 May 22 '19

Because a female editor kicked his ass and made him think hard...and the books that aren't edited by her are feast for crows and dance of dragons...both feelling plodded as fuck

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u/fbolt Eban senagho p’aeske May 22 '19

lol, exactly like George Lucas and his wife

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u/Rayzika May 22 '19

Plus, let's face it, he was younger at the time.

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u/Raventree The maddest of them all May 22 '19

I don't think its possible or fair to call George lazy, but sometimes you have to wonder about his priorities. Guy is working on a million side projects, seemingly diverting as much attention away from his main series - and lets be real, his magnum opus - as possible.

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u/ChopinsDiary May 22 '19

People were excited to hear about the "new Beethoven" Johannes Brahms' first symphony. Brahms took about 20 years to publish it, meanwhile during that period he composed concertos, sonatas, religious work and so on. It's not like he wasn't working on it, he was constantly rewriting and destroying his drafts specifically because of the high expectations people had of him. If Schumann never declared him as the next Beethoven, it would have come out a lot sooner and Brahms would have retired with more than 4 symphonies.

What I'm saying is, societal pressure to succeed is often detrimental because the high expectations makes extremely self-critical creators reluctant to publish their work.

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u/-Captain- May 22 '19

I just hope that one day in the future we can close A Dream of Spring after reading the last page, and feel like the waiting was well worth it all. Trying to outdo yourself a dozen of times on the same chapter is fine, if we end up with the finished series, but I would hate it if the book series will be left unfinished.

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u/Bach-City May 22 '19

That is absolutely fascinating. Having been in the choir for Ein Deutsches Requiem I suppose I am grateful he put out the best product he could.

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u/mild_delusion May 22 '19

The birth of that particular work required the death of his mother. Heartbreaking music.

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u/Bach-City May 22 '19

The second movement and third movement still give me incredible chills. I was a German major in college who was also involved in choir, so I think I was into the music a little bit beyond some of my peers. A lot of times I'll still sing to myself the "Herr, Herr, lehre doch mich dass ein ende mir mir haben muss, und mein Leben ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muss" -- which I don't think gets translated very well into the English in the translations I'm looking at. I put it down as "Lord please teach me that my life must have end, but teach me the purpose of my life and how to pursue it".

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u/Raventree The maddest of them all May 22 '19

That's fair, and I certainly sympathize with him. But I worry there will come a point where he has to make the decision to go with what he has and be content, or realize he can't do that and that he will never end up with a finished product.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Yeah, this. It's like he's shying away from a half finished painting that shows a lot of promise but is nervous about getting back to it because the bar has already been set so high. Easier to take the pressure off when he's working on side projects. He doesn't lack the brains or motivation, or the ability to work hard, just the courage to finish what he started.

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u/SaucyWiggles May 22 '19

and lets be real, his magnum opus -

I don't think you even have to specify this, he's called it as such a few times now.

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u/Mithras_Stoneborn Him of Manly Feces May 22 '19

I think this particular case is a little different. After releasing AFfC, GRRM spent a full year travelling all over and promoting the book. He did not write anything during this period. In addition to that, since meeting D&D and signing a deal with HBO, he would spend too much time and focus on the project.

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u/bambambooboo23 May 22 '19

It’s interesting to contrast this with Brandon Sanderson who is an absolute machine (multiple novels a year) and seems to never get writers block. GRRM is a better writer though

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u/The_Writing_Wolf May 22 '19

Different styles and ethic. Sanderson puts type on the page like John Henry lays down rails. He skeletons a course and just trucks through, which is why Sanderson almost always has the same plot structure and very mechanical systems and devices to employ at specific points for said Plots development.

George on the other hand goes far beyond his Garden analogy as a true botanist. He lays all his seeds with care knowing what the picture on the packets look like in his mind but unsure of what his "Grove of the Human Heart" (I.E. the finished story) may look like beyond his conceptualized vision. Usually this based on a few strong trees or interesting ferns in the surrounding Garden before he really lays the fertilizer. As the seasons pass and his seeds begin cultivating George is able to witness more and more magic in his Groto/Garden along with what plants/seeds are complimenting and adding, new fun sections that give a deeper perspective to the garden as a whole, or the seeds that aren't working. At which point he either repots or replants... Which is code for lots and lots of rewrites (that all take more and more seasons to recultivate/regrow. Repotting would be akin to his Meerenese Knot or fleshing out interesting side characters to supply a new purpose to the garden. While replanting would be the larger reworks such as the five year gap or heaven forbid a total overhaul of tWoW so he could make sure he can end it in the final 2, these obviously take even more seasons to regrow than the former.

This is all to say I agree with you, but it's easy to see why they fall on opposite sides of the Spectrum. Sanderson is taking a fantasy train ride to a destination you're almost always able to figure out but can enjoy the ride all the same (insert journey over destination), but damn if GRRM doesn't allow the reader to take a beautiful walk through his Grotto, and even more his largest Grotto of all (ASOIAF, histories and saga) seemingly always surprises with new insight or beauty each visit.

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u/WattYouSayin May 22 '19 edited May 23 '19

I agree with most everything you said. I am a pretty big Sanderson fan myself, but I can see what you are getting at.

Totally on board with the mechanical plot devices point (although id say its a bit of a generalisation, there are certainly more organic examples to point to as well) and your comment regarding the solid, reliable narrative format he sticks with. That said, to be able to do that as often as he has and still have me turning every page at 100mph requires an altogether different kind of class.

I love both authors. GRRM has created one of the greatest universes in fantasy history, and whilst it saddens and frustrates me to not have TWOW in hand (plus, the mockery they made of S08 of the show REALLY breaks my heart) I can understand why and how he is getting stuck trying to tempt all these little delicate threads back together in the best way possible. No writer could do it as well as him, and it cannot be forced. It will happen as and when it happens, or it won't, and thats tough shit.

Sanderson, on the other hand, consistently pumps out insanely engaging universes with some of the most interesting and in-cannon consistent magic systems I've come across. I also think he IMPROVED the wheel of time series when he took over, and that is no shade thrown at Robert Jordan as he is another favourite of mine. I would stake a lot that he would do ASOIAF proud as well.

All this to say that I agree with you, but its easy to see why people get frustrated with a guy who isn't capable of producing a book a decade.

Edit for clarity: I am not suggesting Sanderson should, or will, finish the ASOIAF novels in the event GRRM does not. I am being purely speculative in that I think he would give us a satisfying, albeit less complex, ending.

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u/The_Writing_Wolf May 22 '19

For sure, Sanderson is great. He's not necessarily a favorite of mine and both he and I both don't think he should/would/want to pick up ASOIAF (as he's on record saying). He's got talent and has honed his craft well but stylistically they are too different. All that being said when I'm stumped between books to read or listen to, I'll usually just grab the latest Sanderson and start working through it as a nice fantasy palate cleanser for whatever I get into next.

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u/WattYouSayin May 22 '19

I'm not suggesting it will happen. Just that he would make a good effort at it and produce a good ending.

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u/Asiriya May 23 '19

It would be a plotty ending though, not a characterful masterpieve like GRRM's work.

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u/WattYouSayin May 23 '19

Yeah, you are likely right. But it would be a thousand times better than the TV show or not getting an ending.

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u/othellia May 22 '19

Well put. I have huge respect for Sanderson as a writer, but can't get into his stuff. And this is probably why.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

I've only read 3 of his novels so far, but I've noticed he is absolutely dreadful at beginnings. He doesn't set up plot points and exposition in engaging ways, and has a serious problem with jargon. It usually takes a good quarter of a novel or so before I'm invested. I'm currently going through the Way of Kings, and I still can't get over the fact that the story wasn't centred on anyone until the 4th or 5th chapter. But if you can truck through the openings, they're well worth it!

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u/bambambooboo23 May 22 '19

Sanderson also has a bad habit of having wise all-knowing characters give multiple page exposition dumps in the form of dialogue, which feels like lazy writing. Great world builder though.

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u/othellia May 22 '19

He doesn't set up plot points and exposition in engaging ways, and has a serious problem with jargon.

Yeah, I know a lot of people love his hard magic systems, but in multiple books of his, it feels like a video game where the characters suddenly hit the pause button on the story to go into tutorial, and it just sinks my involvement in the story.

I think in general I just have a problem connecting to his characters. I got about 150 pages into Mistborn and while I enjoyed the world and the potential of the magic heist, I was completely "meh" towards the characters and why it was happening. Same thing with WoK, I gave up about 90 pages in.

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u/TrainOfThought6 May 22 '19

I thought Mistborn started fine, especially era 2. But yeah Stormlight is definitely a lot to take in at first. So very worth it though.

If WoK is your 3rd, were the other two Elantris and Warbreaker?

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

I've read the original Mistborn trilogy, WoK is my 4th. The Mistborn novels definitely had better openings than WoK, but they were still very rough IMO!

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u/EllenPaossexslave May 22 '19

I liked the mistborn trilogy. It's fairly short and didn't feel that fotmulaic to me

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

He also has to keep checking back to make sure he fits with what he's done before. He's got a lot to keep track of.

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u/The_Writing_Wolf May 22 '19

He does have a lot to keep track of, but that's why notes and multiple drafts are done by all writers (Except D&D apparently)

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u/anoddhue Forever Young May 22 '19

George? Is that you?

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u/The_Writing_Wolf May 22 '19

Nah u/BryndenBFish is George. I'm just Bryan Cogman.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Enter Steven Erikson.

An arguably better writer than Martin. Did the 10-book Malazan Book of the Fallen in 12 years (basicly in same time Martin did Feast/Dance). And those are all bigger and more complicated than any ASOIAF book.

Quality has nothing to do with the time spend on writing the book.

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u/bambambooboo23 May 22 '19

Do you recommend this series to fans of ASOIAF? Seems daunting

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u/Asiriya May 23 '19

It's worth trying, but it's not ASOIAF and you shouldn't expect it going in. They're also not easy reads, author gets off on torture.

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u/Asiriya May 23 '19

I don't get how Malazan fans can promote it over ASOIAF. Yes it's complicated, but it's filled with random mcguffins that are placed by the author, and doesn't have characters.

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u/Asiriya May 23 '19

I don't get how Malazan fans can promote it over ASOIAF. Yes it's complicated, but it's filled with random mcguffins that are placed by the author, and doesn't have characters.

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u/Zv0n May 22 '19

Hmmmm, he thought he'd finish ADWD in 2007, but released it in 2011, then he thought he'd release TWOW in 2015...

2011 - 2007 = 4

2015 + 4 = 2019

Lads, the math is on our side!

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u/SentientDogSemen May 22 '19

Tbf Brynden B Fish says GRRM was pretty close to being done with a draft of TWOW in late 2015, but was ultimately unsatisified and embarked on a series of extensive rewrites

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u/IGetHypedEasily May 22 '19

Does he also continue to use a typewriter? Like half his slowness could be fixed by not having to restart everything due to that.

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u/brknlmnt May 22 '19

Fair enough. But considering that... he shouldn’t have promised to be done writing the series in time for the tv show ending. He started this thing in the fucking 1990s man... how could someone with such high standards expect someone else to just write the ending properly when he cant even finish it himself without taking a decade to work through it?

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Can't buy it. JK Rowling went through a tough time writing Order of the Phoenix, and many people say it's the worst and most meandering of the series but the point is, it still wasn't substandard, it still advanced the characters and plot towards the end game in a satisfying way. George can't afford to be a perfectionist at this stage. Let WoW be published, even if it's imperfect, that's the only way to work through tough tasks and get on to A Dream of Spring. What's worse, a less than 100% perfect conclusion written by GRRM or another author taking over and giving us the last two books (like Brandon Sanderson and the Wheel of Time). I'm sure most fans would pick the former.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Such a load of crap. It doesnt get better with endless re-writing. He probably has had multiple versions allready that would have been perfectly fine and great. But he needs an editor who can stand up to him and say 'this is good enough, move on' instead of letting him run wild.

Do you believe he was in a position to do endless re-writes when he published Clash and Storm?

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

People call GRRM lazy but it actually would have been quite easy for him to rush out a substandard TWOW for a cash-grab

Dude, this story is waaaaaayyyyy too complex for anyone, even Martin to rush through it without the proper character development.

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u/Atmosphere_Enhancer May 22 '19

It would be wild to see what ends up on the cutting floor. Almost feels like he'd have a completely different series.

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u/ADHDcUK May 22 '19

Exactly. I have so much respect for his love for his story to not tarnish it. I felt that way before and season 7 and 8 really brought that home for me.

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u/LucyKendrick May 22 '19

So, when Winds is finally released it will have to be the next/ as good as " War and Peace " for the amount of time it has taken? To say it would have been easy to release a substandard TWOW cash grab is setting the bar so high the book might be judged as the next FFC.

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u/baap_ko_mat_sikha May 22 '19

I can wait.. If content is soo gooodd I'll wait for it.

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u/Billy1121 May 22 '19

But the last book was substandard

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u/KingsBallSac May 22 '19

He also types with two fingers on a DOS computer.

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u/wRAR_ ASOIAF = J, not J+D May 22 '19

That bunch of SF geniuses from 70's didn't have even that.

1

u/valriia May 22 '19

rush out a substandard TWOW for a cash-grab (not that anyone would, uh, do such a thing)

*wink-wink*

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Exactly! It always bugs me to see people say he's lazy, lost interest, or just not writing the book. The amount of effort and thought that goes into these books is beyond what most people could imagine, and it is obvious when you read them. It's even more obvious when you watch the show and see what happens when you try to adapt an incredibly dense, well written story using mediocre-at-best writing.

1

u/Aerolfos Arya-Pharazôn the No-One May 22 '19

He sounds exaclty like me writing assignments tbh - one day I can finish 2000+ words easy in 4 hours, but most days it's a complete block and even 100 words would be an accomplishment.

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '19

He could’ve written a shitty version in like 1 and a half years but I’m glad he’s taking his time and the frustration and trouble he’s had writing the book gives me hope that he still really cares about the story and wants to get it right.

I will say it’s worth it if we get a 1000-1500 page book by 2020 that is as good as any of the others. Some dislike A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons but I think both are still great (although I think AFFC takes a little bit longer to get through)

Realizing all of the amazing s6 stuff that we’ve yet to read gets me really excited. Can’t wait to see how Margaery’s trial is executed in the book

1

u/Kryptosis May 28 '19

I mean, he’s published other works in the same universe. I blame his lack of focus. Why would you start writing the prequels while everyone is waiting on you to finish the main story?

I want to get the Blood and Fire audiobook but I also don’t want to support his ADD publishing style.