George RR Martin: ‘When I began GoT I thought it might be a short story’
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Talking about the difficulties of estimation. At least he managed to publish a few books. Imagine that he waited to publish anything until the complete work is finished. Sounds familiar?
Beyond that he released a number of them in rapid succession. For a while there the ideas must have just been coming as quickly as he could jot them down. Then, for those who are in the know, he quickly ran into an issue where continuing the plot threads he had setup all came to a confluence point where decisions needed to be made before he was prepared to do so.
From what I understand extensive revisionary work was done. Entire sections and chapters of the story were rewritten to accommodate for the new trajectory for the adjusted plot lines of various involved characters. And, this is my least positive memory of all of this, he actually brought in some outside help to ensure he was capable of undoing what has been dubbed as the "Meereenese_Knot":
https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Meereenese_Knot
For a less "as far as my terrible memory can remember" version of what I explained above here is a quote:
> "The first three novels each came out within two years of each other, in 1996, 1998, and 2000 respectively. However, it took another eleven years for Martin to write the fourth and fifth books, A Feast for Crows (2005) and A Dance with Dragons (2011). Partially, this was because A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons were originally one novel, which grew so long that author George R.R. Martin later decided to split it up into two books (the events in both happen concurrently but follow separate characters)."
Three novels from 1996 to 2000. Another 11 years for the next two. Here we are, patiently waiting, for the 6th book of the series, "A Dream of Spring".
Of course the majority of people loudly banging their shields complaining about Martin's lack of shipping have probably never undertaken the task of writing a feature-length novel before. I'm sure an even more comical percentage of those have actually released a multi-art series with anywhere near the outrageous amount of characters, named placed, and other in-world lore or detail that make G.R.R.M.'s work feel so "real" and "lived-in".
I know I've never sat there while reading only to think, "Oh, there's this many more pages before it's done? This is such a boring slog." Entertainment is a word that I feel falls short of describing the type of enjoyment I get out of the Game of Thrones series.
Every time the subject comes up on Reddit, there are people who are genuinely mad at the guy like he wronged them for taking so long to end-cap the series.
It reminds me of the subset of my forum users who get out their pitchforks just because I, the creator, haven't been around for a while, like I owe them yet more of my free time. Or as if they've paid me money and I'm squandering it.
I was college when I read ASOIF, I was expecting the Winds of Winter to come out before I finished the others. It didn't. I read the Tales of Dunk and Egg to while the time expecting it to come out like he promised. It didn't.
ASOIAF is my favorite storyline ever. I adopted a puppy yesterday and named him Aegon after Aegon the Unlucky. The fifth Aegon — Maester Aemon's younger brother.
It's because I was waiting on ASOIAF that I spent a little over two years reading 21 volumes of Wild Cards (26 now), and every year he kept missing his deadlines.
It's as if when you've got your money in your hand, and the pizza guy says the restaurant will open in a few mins, but it doesn't open for weeks, and he mixes coke in his pizza and you're addicted.
I don't think I can explain my frustration to you in mere words on the internet, but it's so painful that I've stopped reading his blog or thinking about it. One day it'll come out, but until that day I won't be duped by this man's false deadlines.
Imagine if I have the most delicious cupcake in the world that I bake for you, and I tell you that it'll be ready in ten minutes. 15 mins later, you ask me and I tell you that I need ten more minutes. This happens a dozen times, until you finally get angry and tell me to be reasonable. Then imagine me telling you that it's a 'you' problem and that you have the agency of mind but to allow a mere cupcake to influence your life such that expectations about it become 'painful'.
Now imagine Martin doing this to not just me but all his fans.
At some point, stringing readers along and missing deadlines repeatedly becomes part of the problem too.
If only the cupcake weren't that damn good.
Find it surprising that he uses a typewriter. never heard of writers using typewriters in this day and age.
Why do white walkers have acceess to magic but no one else?
George Martin chose to make the story about people and the struggle for power and ideals and everything else that is human. And even with magic being barely a presence, it still is a force able to radically influence the game - but not much more than money, or armies, or human ability, which are still powerful enough to be relevant.
I think if magic was more widely available, it would either have needed to be trivial, not powerful magic, or these other resources would have suffered.
That said, it also does make possible some "cheap shot" plot devices like a certain important someone getting assassinated by a certain priestess in an unlikely way. (Details elided to avoid spoilers).
For most people in that world, magic has never existed outside of legends, and much of the knowledge on how to use it is gone or at least not available to most people (probably only in historical records at the Citadel).
The TV adaptation also downplays the magic more, either out of budgetary reasons or to keep it more accessible to a general audience.