Well, one reason he hasn't written the next book is because he spent a good part of last year campaigning for the witch.
Posted on 05/12/2017 11:26:48 AM PDT by NRx
George RR Martin is, as Neil Gaiman famously once opined, not your bitch.
It is eight years to the day since Gaiman wrote this to a fan on his website who had asked whether it was fair to feel that Martin was “letting him down” by taking so long to publish the later volumes in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. That was in 2009, meaning that that fan had another two long years ahead before he’d get his hands on the fifth book, A Dance With Dragons. If that chap was feeling let down then his disappointment must be through the roof now, six years later, still waiting for the next book, The Winds of Winter.
Still, writing books isn’t digging ditches. The creative spark cannot be harnessed and utilised like electricity, always available at the flick of a switch. George RR Martin is not your bitch.
But.
While Gaiman’s comment still holds, won’t somebody think of the fans? The culture of entitlement, where fans expect writers to be chained to their desks is one thing. On the other hand, six years is a hell of a long wait between series books.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
You can get a “Get a life”. That’s the most I can muster over fiction when there is so much more in life to enjoy.
Who? What?
Does anyone actually care?
Given his current age, weight, and writing pace, the likely resolution of this series is another Robert Jordan...
I have seen that happen ... the author is drawing a blank on ideas, so he just bangs out a dull and formulaic story. It can destroy a series. Better to have no book, that to have a really bad one.
RR Martin’s never going to finish the book.
There are plenty of better books out there. Why wpould you want to read a book by someone from New Jersey?
Well, one reason he hasn't written the next book is because he spent a good part of last year campaigning for the witch.
The funny thing is that in letting the TV series surpass his books, Martin has lost audience for his books by making them somewhat irrelevant. Instead of getting a reaction of, “the tv show really is a departure from the books” the opposite will be true. When the cliff notes are available, especially in video format, the cliff notes win.
He’s writing technique is called gardening. He waits to see what grows out of each idea. One can only imagine how that process is being complicated because he knows show writers are making up the next events without him. I think this is causing him to be bored with the idea of working on his own story.
I really like the books I really like the show, from a personal Viewpoint I want him to finish. I guess the frustration with him taking forever and possibly dying before he finishes just makes it one of those interesting little things in our lives which can’t be controlled.
How about an, ahem...
His story goes nowhere and if it weren’t for the HBO series, which is cinematically terrific, would be just inane.
I read them because I wanted to see where the series would go but it was pablum.
I tried watching the TV adaptation of Gaiman’s book American Gods. Unbelievably uninteresting, getting a filling would be more entertaining how anyone can argue that this guy is a SciFi or fantasy genius is beyond me! No interest in reading his books, walking past his books, standing next to his books or being in the same city as his books, though I don’t know how I would “police” that.
Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice books have sold more than 60 million copies in 47 languages while Game of Thrones is HBO's most popular series ever.
So, yes, people do actually care.
He’s incredibly successful.
Refuse to have HBO in my house. But south parks take on it with this guys predilection for happily presenting penises on the ‘game of scones’ makes me glad it’s not on my TV.
Popularity does not make something good. No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
I’m an author in the zombie genre but I’m an independent writer. I would KILL to have two years to write my next book, and have people waiting for it. That’s the advantage of getting paid in advance by a proper publishing house. Plus, he’s obviously a great writer.
To cut it as an indie author you do have to crank out books in much shorter periods of time. Readers forget about you for good if you wait 2 months, much less two years. That’s just the way it is in the trenches of Amazon.
I get a chuckle over statements like “it ain’t like digging ditches.” That’s a pantload. Just like the ditch digger can’t say “aw hell, I’m just not feeling it today. I’m not going in,” a professional author can’t say “I don’t feel creative, so I’m going to skip today.” That’s the very definition of a professional author. You write even when you don’t feel it. AND you write the equivalent of a good ditch. You can’t make it too shallow or too narrow or the audience is going to bail. In most cases big time authors get paid in advance to write books, on deadline, and even though they’re bored of their world they have to phone in a book because they have a legal obligation to do so. That’s why later books in a series can suck.
Charlie Mike. This thread just caught my interest.
The “Winds of Winter”...less chili, more Bean-O.
I never cease to be amazed at the talent of great writers, be they novelists or songwriters. It would be one thing to be a great writer of non-fiction, as Winston Churchill was. But to create the entire story (or musical work) from nothing, and to do it regularly seems quite miraculous to me.
That image of Hitlery has a very communist propganda look to it. They just can’t help themselves, can they?
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