Dash_Riprock
Member
I still can't believe GRRM apparently doesn't write at all during football season...
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*UNMARKED SPOILERS ALL BOOKS* Game of Thrones |OT| - Season 6 Offseason Thread
- Thread starter Cornballer
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http://grrm.livejournal.com/2006/10/17/
Date of the following blog post: Oct 17, 2006
Release date of Dance With Dragons: July 12, 2011
GRRM's words are wind.
He always believes he's close to finishing. Even if he's actually 5 years away from finishing!
If the next two books are as incredible as the first five, I don't care how long it takes him to finish.
Yoda
Member
I'm not taking issue to what she's doing, I'm taking issue to how Emilia Clarke is presenting it. In that scene she is about to execute horde of people in a very brutal fashion. In prior scenes you see her anger at how the slaves are treated as cattle. Now she's getting revenge for all of them, but her tone is no different than asking if she had asked you to pass the salt at a dinner table?
Cesare Borgia
Banned
That's not true. He doesn't write on most Sundays during football season.
Dash_Riprock
Member
FTFY
truth.
thequickandthedead
Member
Doesn't this guy have publishers to answer to? How do they tolerate something like this
Yoda
Member
Book four and five took so long to write because of Mereen. The series was originally 5 books. With a time jump to allow Deany to age up. He viewed this as a cop-out and decided to extend the series organically. I'm not convinced he'll be able to pull off a Storm of Swords again, but I'd hope after much reflection he'd be able to at least best AFFC and ADWD.
What exactly do you think they are going to do? Force him to finish it?
When authors become this successful they don't really have to listen to anyone.
Dash_Riprock
Member
That ended he moment the show took off. Man now has Stephen King-level of freedom.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Wasn't it originally supposed to be 3 books?
thequickandthedead
Member
I'm just surprised his Publisher didn't drop him. AFFC must've been a hit.
60 million across 5 books and one of the most popular shows on television. If Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch can go for 5 years without releasing a book there is no way it would even be considered for Martin.
Which is completely normal.
*Looks at Miura and raises fist in anger
I'm not worried about TWOW, I'm worried about ADOS. One because it will be another 5-6 years until he finishes that one, and two because I'm not entirely sure he will be able to wrap everything up in two books. If he needs two books after TWOW then we will never see the end of the saga (as harsh as it sounds).
Basileus777
Member
Publishers don't hold any sway over famous and wealthy authors. GRRM doesn't need to finish the book for a pay day.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
that's what people keep saying, but considering how long it is taking to write winds, i don't really believe that anymore.
not that it matters; the dude is probably writing just as fast as he can, and that is all anyone can ask.
Basileus777
Member
It's not even accurate, Meereen wasn't responsible for the delays around book 4, and it's not to blame for book 6 taking 5 years either. There was no single issue responsible for all of it, which is why anyone expecting him to change the pace of his writing after 15 years of doing it like this have no basis for it.
I don't remember all the details, but didn't he write the first three books incredibly fast (for his current standards)? Like Abercrombie levels fast.
It was after 3 that he reached the writer's block due to a number of factors, mainly his intention of writing a timeskip that his editor was against (in retrospective the editor was right) and after writing a lot of material deciding to split book four into two. Then he got tired of writing, he was invited to conventions a lot, he got famous... it's all understandable, really.
Imo, he made many mistakes with book 4 and 5, one of the biggest ones was adding many new PoV characters that thusfar hadn't been "major players". And adding completely new players on the board. After 4000 pages, it doesn't do your story any good to add so many new characters and players.
Speaking of Abercrombie, that's something he did so well with the First Law, he told the story he wanted to tell, about the characters you already knew over 3 books. And when he was done, he wrote 3 separate stand alone books about other characters, and other parts of the world.
Dash_Riprock
Member
GRRM's problems remind me of the guy who wrote Bleach, who admitted in an interview that he would create new characters anytime he got stuck writing the plot. Feels like GRRM did the same thing for books 4 and 5.
Abercrombie is all kinds of awesome and I love to death his 6 First law books, and he said he was going write more!
Shattered sea was good, too.
Man how I wished they made a game or a series of those books.
Don't insult poor George like that, comparing him to that Tite hack ;(
Shattered sea was good, too.
Man how I wished they made a game or a series of those books.
Don't insult poor George like that, comparing him to that Tite hack ;(
Abercrombie is easily my favorite contemporary fantasy writer. He's got a shortstory collection coming up in a few months, all set in the First Law world (called Sharp Ends), after which he'll start work on a new trilogy in that world.
Got the limited edition signed copy of the shortstory collection pre-ordered, can't wait!
Rin Tohsaka
Banned
I hope we get my favourite quote from the books this season:
"I will not sit on the Iron Throne. The Iron Throne will sit on me" -Kelly C
"I will not sit on the Iron Throne. The Iron Throne will sit on me" -Kelly C
When has Martin done that? The only thing that feels a bit ass pulled is Aegon and even that kind of fits with all the Blackfyre lore we got in other books.
edit: I don't understand the Abercrombie love. I've read The Blade Itself and Best Served Cold and have nothing nice to say.
You need to read the trilogy before BSC. BSC is a fantastic tale on itself, though, but maybe is not your cup of tea.
Well, I pretty much dislike all contemporary fantasy and science fiction, so that is probably the case.
Very much so. His writing prose is very good too. In my opinion the first book, The Blade Itself, is probably his weakest book but there on out, the rest of the trilogy and the standalone novels to come out of the same setting, are all great.
Pollux
Member
I'll start the new thread if no one else wants to do it. Like my original thread, don't expect an amazing OP lol
bengraven
Member
Oh it's all character driven.
Think of it as a subtle twist on the classic fantasy tropes. It's the story of a Northern warrior, an elite aristocratic knight, an ancient wizard, a wild woman, and the twisted torturer who must prevent a country from falling into civil war. And NONE of them live up to the tropes. The true heroes are the shitheads and the ones with a smidgeon of decency are complete fuckups or have evil intentions.
But you love them for their flaws and intentions. You cheer for them in the end.
And the dialogue is soooooo damn good. When favorite characters meet it's like pure pornography.
Think of the nihilism of a Chuck Palahniuk in a Black Company like environment with characters written by Warren Ellis.
Cesare Borgia
Banned
He started writing Thrones in 1991 and it came out in 1996. In that period he wrote much of Clash and some of Storm; initially he planned that Thrones would end with the Red Wedding. So in truth he has been a slow writer for quite some time. The structural problems with Feast seemed to kill his progress though and he hasn't recovered despite claiming to have fixed the Meereen Knot.
The story is way too grand now. I get why Dorne had to be brought into the fold but the Greyjoys and a lot of Essos stuff seemed unnecessary in hindsight. It got him off track with stories many people don't care about, and now he's juggling all these characters in one book. As an example he has two Arianne chapters in Winds that have been released that feel like they could be one chapter without losing anything. Imagine that issue spanned across hundreds of pages, and how it would squeeze the page count given the POVs. Dance is dominated by three characters and suffers for it, but Winds might give us only 3-5 chapters of many of the fan favorites and suffer more.
Two excellent endorsements. I can't wait! Abercrombie himself seems to be a really cool and down to earth guy - I briefly saw him give a talk on writing last year.
Me saying he's my favorite contemporary fantasy writer apparently counts for nothing!
It's what made me ask the question in the first place!
That makes me feel so much better to know!
I disagree with that, one of the great things about this series is that you can be introduced to a minor character in one book and they get a POV the next book or a few books later. What instance did he invent characters for plot purposes without setting them up already?
Cornballer
Member
Cool. It doesn't really need too much info, and I can tweak the OP/title if necessary.
adamsappel
Member
This is why I don't understand all this frothing demand for TWOW. If it somehow came out before the premiere and you're able to not be "spoiled" by anything in this season (sarcasm because there are sure to be substantial differences), even with the show going to eight seasons, there's no possible way for GRRM (or even Stephen King) to pump out a 1000+ page book in that time, so the final ending is always going to be revealed by the show.
I adore Feast and Dragons.
I find it fascinating seeing how he's moving all these pieces between The War of the Five Kings and the return of the long night.
Pollux
Member
I'll set it up when I get off work tonight.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Including and especially their editor.
Over the course of eight years? More if you include all the production time? He pretty much already did that though with the first three books. It all comes down to his writing style which he likens to himself as a "gardener" that's probably very ill-suited for this, his schedule which includes his appearances and other projects (and I can't blame him for any of this) on top of his own idiosyncrasies and restrictions he places on himself. Twenty years ago I doubt anyone, especially George, expected that in 2016 ASOIAF would still be unfinished or that George will almost certainly be writing it in four different decades at this point (90s, 00s, 10s, 20s) before maybe it's complete.
Exterminieren
Banned
Watchers on the Walls have their "Guess the episode titles!" post up, which only reminds me of how ill-equipped we are to guess this year.
Nevertheless, my wild guesses, based off what we already have in the books and some incredibly rudimentary knowledge of the rumours about this season...
Nevertheless, my wild guesses, based off what we already have in the books and some incredibly rudimentary knowledge of the rumours about this season...
1. The Tower of Joy
2. A Thousand Eyes and One
3. The Seven-Pointed Star
4. No Godless Man
5. The Bloody Hand
6. Family, Duty, Honor
7. The Gravedigger
8. The Battle of the Bastards
9. The Winds of Winter
10. The Prince Who Was Promised
2. A Thousand Eyes and One
3. The Seven-Pointed Star
4. No Godless Man
5. The Bloody Hand
6. Family, Duty, Honor
7. The Gravedigger
8. The Battle of the Bastards
9. The Winds of Winter
10. The Prince Who Was Promised
These are really, really good choices. The only two I don't agree with are 7 and 8.
Exterminieren
Banned
Yeah, those two are weak, but we've only got so much material!
My guesses:
1)Salt and Smoke
2) End of Watch
3) Wolves and Cats
4) Empty Ocean
5) Only Faith Now
6) Blood, Flesh and Bones
7) Songs of Redemption
8) Hidden Promise, A
9) Trial of the Six
10) Ice and Fire
2) End of Watch
3) Wolves and Cats
4) Empty Ocean
5) Only Faith Now
6) Blood, Flesh and Bones
7) Songs of Redemption
8) Hidden Promise, A
9) Trial of the Six
10) Ice and Fire
bitbydeath
Member
Has anything been said on if he is writing both 'Winds of Winter' and 'A Dream of Spring' at the same time? I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case in order to make sure all the knots were tied.
Steelyuhas
Member
I don't think there's anything out there to support that he's writing both right now, he's focused on Winds (according to himself).
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Guessing episode titles is always fun, I'll take a stab at it tonight.
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