This is one advantage of A Song of Ice and Fire (a.k.a. Game of Thrones). At the rate the books are being written the series will never finish in our lifetimes. I can only hope we perfect cyberbrain technology soon so George R. R. Martin can finish the work, typing out a single line per day or so.
Do you think, perhaps, if he switched to some modern novel writing software, with character and plot tracking, that he might actually finish the "Song of Ice and Fire" series in this lifetime?
I just realised that all of the Expanse books (9 + a bunch of novellas) AND the full 6 season TV show were written and released during the time GRRM has tried to write one damn book.
And now that the GoT series went down the hill so fast that it's used as an example of something disappearing from the zeitgeist surprisingly fast, people don't even care about the books anymore - because the chance of getting the whole series finished is nearing 0.
This rationale has completely convinced me that we will never see any new ASOIAF books from George Martin: even this very productive tool didn't help him finish new book in over a decade.
George R. R. Martin is the author of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series, otherwise known as Game of Thrones--the title of the first book and the HBO adaptation.
He has gone as long as six years between book releases in the series.
I'm not exactly sure the GRRM point hold true. He might write on Wordstar, but the distraction free writing environment hasn't exactly helped him finish books in a decade.
To be fair, respect for talent .
When you can create a tv show the caliber of game of throne 5 years after the 1st book is release catch-up and over take the books. It makes you wonder if there is difficultly to completing epic, wheel of time dragged out, king killer and game of thrones. On the other hand Malazan seems to be fine thou it’s loosely bound, and the book writing AI brandon sanderson works 25 hours a day
Okay, let's talk about a theoretical figure, called the "1000x novelist", a very productive author who uses advanced AI to write novels really fast. Clearly super productive, because novels get written so very fast.
Now, here is a question:
George R.R. Martin has been writing on the 6th book of "Game of Thrones", titled "The Winds of Winter" (TWoW) for over 10 years. It still isn't finished.
What do you think, which will sell more copies: TWoW, or all novels of the 1000x novelist combined?
George R. R. Martin. Wrote the Game of Thrones novel series. He's known for taking his time with writing his novels and instead focuses on other things, like ranting about the NY Jets. His last book, "A Dance of Dragons" took about 5+ years to finish and get to publication. It was published in 2011, the last novel before that was published in 2005.
I hope so. I worry Rothfuss has gone full-GRRM; got too successful before the series concluded and now it's up in air if it will conclude.
The only real hope I have is that it feels like Rothfuss wouldn't let his series be finished by TV in the way GoT has for ASOIF. Also Rothfuss claimed to have a 'finished manuscript' in 2014, so there is hope.
George R.R. Martin uses Wordstar 4.0 on DOS to write the Game of Thrones novels, he saves his work on floppy disks. Of course, he has a second computer for email and web browsing.
The start is only valuable if there is an end, especially for a novel built on mystery and intrigue. When George RR Martin will, sadly, die without having finished A Song of Ice and Fire, all its parts will be forgotten by history (except, perhaps, A Game of Thrones), as they only work as scaffolding for a future ending (save a few extraordinary moments here and there, like the Red Wedding). But if by some miracle he finishes them (and it would be a miracle by this point, given he has spent more than a decade writing the next book, with no end in sight), and if the finale holds up to the quality of the mysteries he has built up, then it may be remembered right next to Lord of the Rings as one of fantasy writing's greatest masterpieces.
I had given up on the series since he started publishing prequels like Fire and Blood, but now, I am hopeful that he'll finish the book.
He had been busy with the TV series and other things. With the pandemic raging, I don't think he'll be super busy with Hollywood.
Also, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I am grateful that he did not complete his series. Hear me out first!
When I first read The Game of Thrones, it was an ebook. I immediately bought the paperback set, only to realise a few months later that the series is not complete. (yes, I never google because ages ago, I was reading a Dan Brown book, and I accidentally ruined it for me by reading out what happens in the end).
After finishing the last book, I was stunned. No, I have read LoTR, but ASOIAF was unlike anything I have ever read, including the Mahabharata (which, is much more complex and originally written as Sanskrit verses).
But, that gave me motivation to finally start writing novels. I am not a famous author just yet. I have been writing consistently for the last six years, and I have published only one short story on Kindle a few weeks ago.
I find that GRRM has encouraged a lot of writers to write. The first thing I did when I started to write was to read his advice for new authors and it was great. His #1 advice is 'stop writing in my universe or Star wars universe of JRR's universe. Creating characters and world building is a significant part of story telling and you will not be an author until you do so. otherwise you are just writing fan fiction'
That month, I wrote my first short story. Then my first short film script which won the silver script award in India Film Project 2007.
Since then, I have written four full length novels. I am currently working on my fifth novel.
And all this has been because GoT's next book isn't coming out and I was so frustrated about that, that I started writing my own novels. (I know it does not sound logic, but that's how I felt. Damn it, I'm writing my own novels!)
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