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Surprise, surprise, the books not done.
"no one could possibly be more disappointed than me." GRRM from the link.
If He was going to be disappointed then He should have done more to try and finish.
Since He said it was going to be a series, IMO He is expected to put these out at a decent pace. He told the public he was coming out with a number of books, its all on Him. I know all about Neil Gaiman saying GGRM isn't our b*%~~. But its one thing to to say you are coming out with one book. Its another to say you are doing a number of books.
That's why I prefer Jim Butcher. he always delivers when expected. I waited 5 years for Feast for crows and what 6-7 years for dance, as much as I hoped for a 2016 winds I knew it wasn't likely.
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I think people ought to get off his case. Seriously. I admire the man because he can write, and does. There are many scenes in what I have read of ASoIaF that were magnificent. If he rewrites, well, that is the price you have to pay for the books he writes matching his vision - which is what I want to see, all things considered. I read the first three books in 2005. I read Feast in 2006. I started reading Dance when it came out, but faltered because I didn't remember enough from earlier. At this point, I can survive with or without the rest. Either way, I will be reading it all when he is dead, or when he is done.
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Here are some other writers' perspectives on writing long series fantasy fiction:
Zeno's mountains and How to write a long fantasy series.
I don't know that GRRM has the specific problems that Tolkien or Robert Jordan had (each writer has his own individual style, structure and plot problems to overcome) but I get the sense he's struggling with the same sort of problems inherent to long series ficition, and that's why he's taking his time.
Hopefully Tyrion and Varys will have a few episodes being awesome and snarky together.
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I can't help but wonder if they jumped the gun a bit on the TV series. Meaning, they maybe should have waited a bit longer before bringing it to the small screen. Martin says in his post that, when it started, he didn't think the show would catch up, that he would have plenty of time to write. That the show has been such a huge success, and opened the series to a wider audience, may have put a lot more pressure on Martin.
That being said, he should have expected some (partially justified) blowback when he failed to meet a deadline he agreed upon. I have to wonder if there will be some kind of financial repercussions for him.
here's what he is doing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lle4t4o8EDk
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"no one could possibly be more disappointed than me." GRRM from the link.
If He was going to be disappointed then He should have done more to try and finish.
Since He said it was going to be a series, IMO He is expected to put these out at a decent pace. He told the public he was coming out with a number of books, its all on Him. I know all about Neil Gaiman saying GGRM isn't our b~+**. But its one thing to to say you are coming out with one book. Its another to say you are doing a number of books.
Erm. Are you saying that GRRM is God? I'm a bit puzzled as to the capitalisation of "Him" otherwise.
It depends by what you mean as "decent pace." So far in this series, Books 1, 4, 5 and (apparently) 6 will have each taken 5-6 years to release. So this is a fairly consistent pace. Books 2 and 3 were much faster, but there were various reasons for that (in actuality Books 1-3 were supposed to be one volume but it spun monstrously out of control).
I can't help but wonder if they jumped the gun a bit on the TV series. Meaning, they maybe should have waited a bit longer before bringing it to the small screen.
In the ideal universe, yes. But a writer's maxim is that if a TV or movie studio offers you the money for the film or TV rights, you sell there and then and take the money and run and keep running.
Martin actually turned down a number of offers because they only wanted to make a film about Daenerys, or a film about Jon Snow. He always lamented these offers, saying that the only way to make the series was to get HBO on board to make an adaptation of one book per season. So when David Benioff and Dan Weiss came to him to say they wanted to make a TV show with HBO then yes, he had to make the deal. If he'd waited another ten years (literally, Weiss and Benioff made their first pitch to Martin at a restaurant in Los Angeles in February 2006) then they'd have long since moved onto something else with zero guarantee that anyone else would be interested.
Martin says in his post that, when it started, he didn't think the show would catch up, that he would have plenty of time to write. That the show has been such a huge success, and opened the series to a wider audience, may have put a lot more pressure on Martin.
The original deal was made in 2006, when the writing times per book had been a bit more optimistic. Book 1 had taken five years, but Books 2 and 3 had taken two to three (depending on how you count them) and Book 4 had also taken three-and-a-half years to write (if five to *publish*). So at that point Martin was envisaging Book 5 in 2007/08, Book 6 in 2010/11 and Book 7 circa 2015. So he was probably thinking that it'd be close for the final season (remembering that the TV show was originally supposed to debut in 2009, but the recession and the 2008 writer's strike both delayed things by two years) but otherwise it'd be okay. Clearly, he was wrong. If he'd fully accepted that it was going to be 5-6 years per book from that point, maybe he'd have made another decision. But probably not (see my point above).
Here are some other writers' perspectives on writing long series fantasy fiction:
Zeno's mountains and How to write a long fantasy series.
I don't know that GRRM has the specific problems that Tolkien or Robert Jordan had (each writer has his own individual style, structure and plot problems to overcome) but I get the sense he's struggling with the same sort of problems inherent to long series ficition, and that's why he's taking his time.
Yes. This is the "gardener/architect" problem which Martin and Sanderson and many other writers have written about before. Namely, that writers fall very broadly into two camps:
1) Writers who create an outline and plan where the story is going in some detail before they actually start writing the story itself. These stories are architects. Brandon Sanderson is probably the most well-known modern example. Possibly Patrick Rothfuss, although he's in a different boat having completely written and completed his trilogy 10-15 years ago and has since rewritten it pretty much from scratch, but still following his initial plan.
2) Writers who sit down, write Chapter 1 off the top of their heads, then Chapter 2, then Chapter 3 etc. Martin, Jordan, Tolkien and Stephen King fall into this category.
There are some degrees inbetween, most notably those authors who have a rough plan in mind but also retain the freedom to go off-piste and explore subplots and other characters that show up along the way. Rowling had her seven-book plan in mind, but certainly not every subplot and character pre-invented. Steven Erikson also falls into that category: he had ten books in mind, each one with its own story and theme, but he often didn't finalise characters or plot points until deep in the writing process.
Martin's issue is certainly that he knows by now where the story ends and how to get there, but that he needs to move his characters there in a way which is timely but also natural but which also rewards the (in some cases very elaborate) foreshadowing established previously. He also needs to craft reasonable story arcs for each POV character, which I think is actually a big part of the problem.
The two articles linked both feature some interesting analysis on the problems but they both massively neglect to mention that the gardener series, the ones that sprawled, are also the most financially successful and the ones that resonated much more with massive audiences (to the tunes of millions and tens of millions of readers apiece). Both articles in fact are in danger of saying, "Turn in a smart, tightly-written, finely-edited trilogy that will get some good reviews but almost no-one will hear of or read."
That being said, he should have expected some (partially justified) blowback when he failed to meet a deadline he agreed upon. I have to wonder if there will be some kind of financial repercussions for him.
I suspect whatever minor financial penalties his publishers might impose (beyond not getting money when the book came out) may have been dwarfed by the decision to sell to HBO resulting in the books selling approximately ten times what they had one prior to the TV deal.
"I suspect whatever minor financial penalties his publishers might impose (beyond not getting money when the book came out) may have been dwarfed by the decision to sell to HBO resulting in the books selling approximately ten times what they had one prior to the TV deal"
Absolutely true! I remember reading GOT in 1998 and no one was talking about it. Only after clash of kings came out did the series have any kind of internet awareness, and only after storm of swords did the internet actually start asking when the next book would come out. But even then, the crowd that got upset at the long wait for feast of crows was still a small subset of the geekverse (i.e. geeks who like fantasy vs scifi etc). It was only after the first season of GOT aired that I noticed my non geek friends and associates would talk about it, and yes, I admit I was one of those obnoxious people who felt superior over the TV crowd because I knew what would happen..until now.
But absolutely, we all know people who decided to read the series after watching the show..hell, if I hadn't already read them I would have. Its a great adaption for the most part and it helped sell more of the books. I would guess the publishers are disappointed but the flip side is that is that they know as long as the books get done before the Tv show is over or soon after they will still sell well.