Leave George Alone!
The topic of George RR Martin (GRRM) and his ever-behind schedule Song of Ice and Fire is one that brings surprising passion from both fan and professional alike in the SF publishing world. It’s a topic I’ve discussed with friends and coworkers, people I meet at conventions and industry gatherings, my agent and editor, and everyone in between. Like abortion or Britney Spears, it seems everyone’s got an opinion, and theirs is the only right one.
For those who are unfamiliar, the short version of the argument is this. A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the most popular and talked about fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings, and I don’t know anyone that has taken the time to read it that hasn’t been totally floored by how amazing and intricate it is. I’ve recommended it to (and bought the first book as a gift for) dozens of people myself.
However, each successive book has seemingly taken longer to come out than the last, and despite the promises of Amazon.com, the publisher, and Mr. Martin himself, the books stubbornly refuse to come out on time. Because of this, a faction of the fans of the series (including a great many industry professionals) have grown… surly. They bombard the author, the publisher, and the internet with complaints that often forego basic civility, and make assumptions about the author’s character and how he spends his time that are unfair at best for anyone not actively hiding behind the curtains and watching the man go about his life.
Now, to be fair, some of these complaints are legitimate. Others, less so. These issues have been spelled out in great detail in some excellent articles written this week, and I have no desire to revisit them. If you are interested in the history and specifics, I point you to Shawn Speakman’s In Defense of George article on Suvudu andAdam Whitehead’s two part “Defence of Dragons” posting on his blog the Wertzone. Part 1 and Part 2. You can also check out Aidan Moher’s comments about the topic on his blog, A Dribble of Ink.
What I would like to discuss instead is my personal experience with writing, and how I feel it relates to the situation, and perhaps gives me a different perspective than many people. Please understand that it’s not my intention to put myself, a relatively unknown author, on equal level with GRRM or any of the other authors referenced below, all of whom have far more experience than I do, and have earned their success. I’m just trying to put myself in GRRM’s shoes by exploring my own situation.
I started writing The Painted Man (AKA The Warded Man) sometime in 1999. I wasn’t fully dedicated to it, as I was also working full time and writing other books, but it was a project that I began plugging away at when I had time, and a couple of years later I put aside my other projects and started focusing hard on it. After several drafts (wherein I threw out a good 60% of the original story), I finished the sale manuscript at the end of 2006, approximately seven years after starting it.
Admittedly, that new 60% of the final manuscript was pretty much written entirely in 2006, while I was working full time, but I was writing with a very heightened focus at the time, because I’d had many long years to turn over pieces of the puzzle and put together the border. By the time I started filling it in, I knew exactly what I was doing and was moving decisively.
When I sold the book in 2007, the publisher bought two sequels as well, and asked me how long I expected it to take for me to write them. I had just given notice at my job to shift to writing full time, and told them that I was already well into writing The Desert Spear (true), and that it would take about 9 months to finish it, meaning I would have it done in May/June of 2008. The third book, I said, should be ready about a year after that.
That was a very naïve thing to say, but I had been a professional writer for all of 5 minutes, and was very naïve. Now here we are in January 2009, and I still have two chapters left to write, not to mention several rounds of expected rewrites, all of which I believe are absolutely necessary to get the book up to my own standards, much less anyone else’s.
But I didn’t just pull that 9 month estimate out of my ass. Instead, I arrived at it by a faulty equation.
While I was writing in my spare time, I had a quota of about 1,000 words a day, or 7,000 a week. Sometimes I wrote less, sometimes more, but that was always my goal, and when I look at my word count spreadsheet (yes, I am that anal), I kept to it on average.
So when I considered how long it would take to write the next book, I said to myself, “Well, if I can write 1,000 words a day in my spare time, surely I can write three times as much in a full work day when I am doing nothing else.” I decided to be a little conservative and call it 2,500 words a day. Still, I thought, that’s over 900,000 words a year. Since The Painted Man was around 160,000 words, I figured nine months gave me PLENTY of room to write, even if I threw out some crap chapters (inevitable) and spent a lot of time editing (which I do).
But, as any professional writer can tell you, it doesn’t work that way.
First off, “writing full time” doesn’t mean you can spend your whole day actually writing. There are contracts to read and sign, ongoing negotiations for international sales, itemized taxes, international tax paperwork, promotion, marketing, website building and maintenance, editor consultation, agent consultation, interviews, appearances, networking, conventions, blogging, and a million other aspects of a writing career less publicized but every bit as important as the actual writing if you want to pay your bills and support your family. I was also completely unprepared for how much having a child would eat into my writing time since I work from home and my baby is fricken’ adorable.
But all that aside, even if I had a PA to handle all the above grunt work and no baby, there is still no way in hell I would be averaging 2,500 words a day, unless half of those words were utter crap, or on an unrelated subject. Even being the meticulous outliner I am, I constantly revise my story, changing direction as new ideas come to me, or my characters refuse to do what my outline demands, telling me it is not in their nature. Also, while I never wrote during my day job, it was a job that never challenged me much mentally, and thus left me plenty of mental RAM to work out plot problems, mentally craft bits of prose, and ponder overall story structure. The need to do spend hours each day pondering the story without actually writing anything down didn’t go away when I started writing full time. Without the roadmap that consideration gives, I find my writing can take me off on tangents that, while interesting, do not advance the story as a whole.
So when I said I could finish The Desert Spear in 9 months it was a guess, but one I thought at the time was educated, though in retrospect it was not.
My bad.
Part of me feels really guilty over the fact that The Desert Spear is off schedule, though I have been very transparent to my publishers about why, and they have been very understanding (mainly because they knew I was talking out my ass and scheduled the actual publication accordingly. Once bitten, twice shy, I guess). I still feel like a bad person for making promises I couldn’t keep, and berate myself daily for it.
But what can I do? Especially since The Painted Man has had such success, I feel I owe it to the publishers, my readers, and most of all myself to deliver the best book I can, even if it takes longer than I expected.
I had 7 years to write the Painted Man. It looks like I will write The Desert Spear in about 2.5, including editing. Coming up is The Daylight War. I know in broad strokes what I want to happen in that book, but I haven’t even outlined it yet. I can guess at how long it will take, and it won’t be quite as naïve a guess as the last time, but it will still be just that.
There are many writers who work much faster. My JABberwocky nemesis, Brandon Sanderson, writes like the wind (Damn you, Sandersoooonnnn!), as do authors like Naomi Novik and RA Salvatore. Piers Anthony and Stephen King churn out a book every five minutes. But every writer has their own process, and if you as a reader enjoy their work, then I think it’s part of the reader/writer contract to give them that.
So I’m glad to see people coming out in defense of GRRM. I really hate the casual way people seem to disparage him, as if it’s become generally acceptable, like disparaging George Bush. I’m seeing it a lot with Patrick Rothfuss, too, where he can’t seem to write anything on his blog without people giving him shit about his next book being late. People even talked about JK Rowling in less than respectful terms when she didn’t deliver on time. I realize that some fans see this sort of behavior as a compliment, showing that they love the work and are passionately awaiting its continuance, and it is in a way, but there are certain nuances of tone that are lost in text, and certain manners of giving people shit that are best left to friends and loved ones rather than strangers. If those authors are anything like me, I expect they are feeling tremendous pressure to produce something exceptional, and I think they are both doing their best to write a book that lives up to their own standard first and foremost, so that they do not disappoint their readers as so many authors do, slumping after a strong start.
I have nightmares about that.
Discarded blog entry titles:
A Clash of Fans
A Song of Deadlines and Flames
A Game of Deadlines
A Defense of Dragons
A Feast of Flamewars
It’s always nice to know that there are other resonable people out there (I saw you post on Aidan’s blog where I wrote a response as well) and it’s just as nice to get an insight into an authors writing routine (especially if you vastly enjoyed reading his work).
I don’t think you remember me, but I’ve asked for an ARC of “The Painted Man” before it came out and you were more than kind enough to provide it. I feel bad about not reviewing the book more promptly, but I had other obligations in the meanwhile (namely writing my college diploma) and you seemed to do well without our endorsment/promotion. The review will be up on our blog in next couple of days. I’ll send you an email on the day it goes up as well.
All best,
thrinidir
I can’t stand the people who act like they are OWED something by creative people who produce the content they love.
I am a huge GRRM fan and want the next book 2 years ago like everyone else but sheesh. Berating and insulting the man isn’t going to get it done. It will come out when its done, and because he took the time to do it right, I am sure it will be as great as all the other books in the series.
The people who whine the loudest are the first that would chuck him under the bus if he just spit out something sloppy in order to get it done fast instead of RIGHT.
There are plenty of other great novels out there (like yours) to read in the meantime.
Oh and btw, your kid IS adorable. Who can resist a giggling baby? As Tyrol said on BSG – being a parent SUCKS…except for the parts that don’t.
Yeah, it’s pretty unbelievable how people act like there’s nothing better to do than complain that ADWD isn’t “out” yet. I am new to GRRM fandom, having read all of the books in 2008, but it’s not like I don’t have enough in my queue waiting for my eyeballs without an enormous ASOIAF title wedging its way in. And, frankly, were I to tear through ADWD (like I know I will), what then comes next? I still have things to read, a job to do, a family to spend time with… these people need to re-examine their situation if they’re expending SO much energy into the anticipation of something that will take up so little of their actual time.
And I do agree that ASOIAF is probably the greatest fantasy I’ve read, but that does not in any way detract from the solid fact that there are other amazing books and authors out there. I refuse to believe that these flaming folks have actually read THEM ALL and are merely sitting on their thumbs or playing WOW because ADWD is the only fantasy novel they haven’t read yet.
I eagerly anticipate the coming of the next book, but I would never presume to bug someone about it.
I’m just as eager as anyone to read ADWD. In fact, it’s worse for me in some ways, because my favorite character, Arya, had her arc in AFFC, which means she may well not have one in ADWD. I may have to wait another 5 years before I find out how how she gets out of the bind she was left in when AFFC ended.
But I would rather wait and have it be what GRRM considers his best work than to have him rush something sloppy into my hands. I’ve got plenty of stuff to do in the meantime, not the least of which is writing my own damn books.
in one point,we all waiting for that book.no matter how our patience is.
why many fans,bloggers,publishers and now other writers are discussing about it?because all of them love ASOIAF.
i for myself(maybe others too )am worried about the progress speed.he started the serie bfore 18 years ago.and now it is just half written.and maybe that is an half problem too,anyway.he was 42 or 43,as he begun with ASOIAF.his work ENTHUSIASM is maybe(or surely)not the same.
after SOS we have waited 5 years to get AFFC.with the hope the other half is comming soon.but George decided to rewrite it.and it seems another five years again.
and you can see how its going.after ADWD another 5 years.that is maybe the reason of the complaints.
surely there are other books to read,i dont need anyones hint to know that.
i think in the year 1995 where ASOIF was not there.not much people knew GRRM.maybe like you now,Peter or if you want Mr.Brett
George is an Ikon,and many writers following his way as well.i hope you will try to write as good as he writes,and not how he manages to write,like no updates or false infos.
i get hints from other readers ,that never start reading half wrritting series.
maybe i should wait until you have complete your trilogy.
ps:sorry for my english,i meant no offense or anything
Thanks for the comment, Sweetmartin. It’s true that it is our mutual love of ASOIAF that makes this such a passionate topic, and I feel that love unites more people than it separates.
I understand your concerns about Martin’s age and enthusiasm, and your friends’ advice about starting to read an incomplete series. Sometimes I share them. The issue we’re all beating around the bush on is “What if he dies before the series is finished, and we never know how it ends?”
It’s a horrible thought, I know, but after the passing of Robert Jordan, it’s one that is very alive in the minds of fantasy fans the world over. I know Brandon Sanderson and trust that he will do a good job of finishing the Wheel of Time, but it won’t be the same and we all know it.
But you know what? I could fall down the steps and die tomorrow. So could ever other author writing an epic fantasy series. We are all human, and humans are fragile creatures. More than we like to admit.
So the question becomes, “Is an epic fantasy series not worth reading, if it is incomplete? Does its value only exist in its completion?”
I’m here to say NO. Even if GRRM were to get hit by a truck tomorrow, I would still be buying copies of A Game of Thrones for people. That book changed my fucking life, regardless of whether A Dance With Dragons ever comes out.
And I feel the same way with my own work. Each book I write will have a beginning, middle, and end that takes its characters through a full story arc. A book may not have your favorite characters in it, and it may be part of a larger story, but each one is meant to be read and enjoyed on its own, as well as part of a greater whole. I would be very sad if people decided not to read them until many years from now when the series is done (if I even live to finish it). My series is a journey I’m taking, and I would much rather take it with people I can share in its joys and heartaches with, even if the boat sinks in uncharted waters.
Also, on a much more practical level, if everyone refused to start reading a fantasy series until it was complete, then there would not be any fantasy series for them to read. The publishers would cancel each and every one after the first book flopped. Pretty soon, there would only be stand-alone novels, and we would lose a much-beloved staple of the fantasy genre, the multi-book epic.
I realize that in today’s internet connected world of instant gratification, the concept of having to WAIT for things is becoming foreign and intolerable to us, but there is something to be said for savoring a book over time instead of leaping into the sequel, and you may find there is even a certain joy to time spent in anticipation of the next installment.
Thanks for your insights into the issue, Peter. It falls very much in line with what many other authors seem to suggest about the writing process and the way it can suck up way more time than non-writers think.
Thanks for the link, Peter, and I hope you caught the review of The Painted Man whilst you were over there. Looking forward to the sequel!
“In fact, it’s worse for me in some ways, because my favorite character, Arya, had her arc in AFFC, which means she may well not have one in ADWD.”
You can rest easy on that score. Arya’s story indeed continues through several chapters in ADWD.
it is me again,
sorry if i disturb you at your writing process.
my point was more about his enthusiasn,and less about his age.
but i am not back therefore.no.
i think you are an kind contemporary.i will thank you too with an quotation,maybe you know it already
“Every book has an end,but reading is endless”
and in your case it may be “writing”
and keep care!!!
I feel for any author whom has to write great novels such as George RR Martin, which is epic in detail of their world. As I am another aspiring writer, I understand the cumbersome thoughts of writing full time. Thanks Peter for the little information of all the things a writer goes through once published, and we as readers just need to be patient enough for the next novel. “patience is a virtue” is a good saying which keeps me grounded as a reader and as a writer. Peter I am enjoying your novel The Painted Man.
I feel for any author whom has to write great novels such as George RR Martin, which is epic in detail of their world. As I am another aspiring writer, I understand the cumbersome thoughts of writing full time. Thanks Peter for the little information of all the things a writer goes through once published, and we as readers just need to be patient enough for the next novel. “patience is a virtue” is a good saying which keeps me grounded as a reader and as a writer. Peter I am enjoying your novel The Painted Man.
You should have gone with A Feast of Flamewars.
I’m a huge fan of Martin, and consider myself something of a disciple – at least I’ve always wanted my writing to be good in the way his is. I’m excited to read the next book, but I’m willing to wait as long as it takes – my only worry is that he’ll die before he finishes the series, which would majorly suck.
It’s never occurred to me to hold it against him for being slow, though I have seen one fan claim that he’s so slow because he “doesn’t care about us (ie. his whinier more entitled fans)”. I have no idea where they got that from.
I have to admit that I’ve found it hard to imagine writing as slowly as he does, though – mostly because I write ridiculously fast (I once finished an entire novel in less than two months). But I respect him too much to think that wingeing is going to solve anything.
My secret ambition is to meet him one day, so I can shake him by the hand and say how much reading pleasure he’s given me. I’m planning to say, “Mr Martin, one day I want to be just like you! Except faster”.
Heheh.
In 50 years, when a 16 year old picks up ASOIAF and falls in love with the series, will it matter how long it took between the publication of each book? What was the spread between LOTR? Who cares?
Apologies to those whose comments were caught in my spam filter. I will try to be more diligent in combing it for comments caught erroneously.
[…] end up writing it as fast as I thought I would.” The long answer I already gave in a previous post, and won’t go into again […]
[…] some spewing angry bile and vile insult, some strongly supportive, and others actively defensive. I’ve waded into this argument before, and frankly, I’m tired of it and have moved on to other […]
[…] I’ve talked about this before. My writing process is a very slow, meticulous one, and sometimes it requires me to stop and unravel a story knot before I can continue. Whether this method is right for everyone is debatable, but it is what works best for me to deliver a level of quality I am satisfied with. I take a lot of pride in my books, and don’t want to knock them out half-assed. I ended up delivering The Desert Spear close to a year later than originally promised, and The Daylight War has proven to be much the same. […]
I agree with YOU that there are crazy fans.I mean read something else or dont buy books that arent finished yet.
But on the other hand we already guess who are Jons parents,who is Azor Ahai and the Prince that was Promise etc….
YOU did a GREAT job whit these book but if YOU wait for more then 3 years people will guess all endings and cliffhanger at 3rd book.
If YOU ever come too Serbia dont hesitate too call 🙂