WoW Progress, By the Numbers

[John Suburbs]

We should all give George a "break" on "Winds". Har!

http://winteriscoming.net/2016/01/13/graph-provides-perspective-on-the-winds-of-winter-delay/

 

[Lord Ravenstark]

I don't really like when people harass him. I mean, it takes time write a book. Specially one of ASOIAF magnitude.

[King Viserys Targaryen IV]

I would like to see this graph with Stephen King included. King would bury him

 

[Clegane'sPup]

Back in 2006 when we first inked the contract. Those are the opening words of the video. This is PR for TWOIAF.

[bent branch]

The only thing that makes me a little sad about this is that in 2023 I'll be the same age my mother was when she died. Actually this thought makes me a lot sad.

[FuzzyJAM]

This is a totally nonsensical comparison.  

Firstly, the graph itself is a gross manipulation.  It makes no sense to start everyone at 0 in terms of years based on first publication, but include the pages of that publication: this is plainly intended to benefit the guy who has the longest first book, i.e. George.  

Secondly, let's look at the actual comparisons: The Hobbit was not written with a sequel in mind.  Tolkien never intended for it to have a follow up, nor did he promise his readership a follow up, nor does the story of The Hobbit need one.  And, of course, Tolkien's job was not as a writer, nor was the vast majority of work he did on Arda intended for a readership.  This is not a reasonable comparison in the slightest.  

The Chronicles of Narnia's publication was utterly unrelated to how fast they were written, it was simply decided to have them released yearly.  Lewis had actually written four of the books by the time the first one was published, and could have released them all at once.  This is what really proves that the creator of this graph was either totally ignorant or deliberately misleading because even a minute's research can tell you this.  

Harry Potter is faster even if you allow for the graph's cheating.  Even if we allow for the graph's nonsense, Rowling supposedly would have published WoW in 2010 and DoS in 2013.  That's kind of a big jump from 2017 and 2023, no?   

The other competition is a guy who first published age 15 whose work is widely mocked.

 

Writers work at different paces, produce different works, have different ways of writing, plan or don't plan their series to different degrees.  I do think an author owes it to their audience to do their best to finish their works in a semi-reasonable time, but I don't know whether George is just a slow writer or he's not trying hard enough, and nor does anyone else.  I'm not going to criticise him.  What I do know is that the sort of apologetics in this graph is at best accidentally misleading based on ignorance, at worst deliberate misinformation.

 

[Bonkers]

The more time he takes, the more layers he creates, and the more amazing the experience is. 

Part of the thrill of these books is the fact that no one knows how it will end, if the books were already written, forums such as this and all the talk about it, well, it wouldn't exist and THAT is what adds to it being sooooo compelling!, we are alive during this time of it's birth, brilliant!!! 

[mediterraneo]

Taking a look at the contents of the books, and I could be taking a wild tangent on this, it seems to me that we have a worse problem.
I mean, according to the letter with the plans of the trilogy ASOIAF was to be back in the nineties, we see that Martin changed his plans and grew in a wider narrative with more characters, more places and spanning more years. He got excited with it, followed his instincts on that, wrote a lot about the War of the Five Kings and decided to ditch the original plan, add dragons and characters and stories and the five years hiatus.
Then he started writing on the "second trilogy". He found he had lots of things to tell about the five years of the hiatus. He followed hi instincts, and widened the focus of ASOIAF a second time, into those five years. He wrote lots of pages on the existing characters, and he added more and more ones. The whole of the Iron ISlands and Dornish plots.
The series's plan became a seven book affair, and he went on to follow his characters in new places, something he loves to write and we love to read. It took more pages than thought, and brought in more character, more time, more stimuli to follow, something he finds very difficult to resist. I do so, when reading his work, lol.
It appears to me that he is finding psicologically or technically difficult to bring the lines back to a merge, to a grand, totalizing, concluding final that ties all of the knots and gives a grand conclusion to his most famous work.

With this in mind: how many of you would find it so bad if his stories went on with smaller books, more than seven?
I mean smaller in the sense of less extense in time, space, in-story political and historical meaning, focusing on giving an follow up and maybe some ("local") endings to  the stories of some of the characters we love?
I mean, I loved the "ending" given to Bronn's character in the books, even if it wasn't the end of all, even if it didn't reveal that Bloodraven is animating the Wights and the Craster's sons just to fight Illyrio and the other sons of Bittersteel.

How many of you would sign a "Martin, give us some endings in some local context, and take your time to tie all the knots you need to tie for the grand ending!" manifesto and appeal?

[Curled Finger]

I would like to see this graph with Stephen King included. King would bury him

 

I thought the same thing until I actually looked it up, here goes...

Gunslinger             1982

Drawing of the 3     1987

Wastelands            1991

Wizards & Glass     1997

Wolves of Calla       2003

Song of Suzannah  2004

The Dark Tower     2004

He took his sweet time, but he also got hit by a car and the series ended like lightening.   What are the odds we can get Winds and ADOS in the same year? 

[redtree]

I just want him to be done with the series and start to write Fire and Blood. Somehow the past is more interesting than the future Westeros

And he's a slow writer

[King Viserys Targaryen IV]

On 1/17/2016 at 9:36 PM, Curled Finger said:

I thought the same thing until I actually looked it up, here goes...

Gunslinger             1982

Drawing of the 3     1987

Wastelands            1991

Wizards & Glass     1997

Wolves of Calla       2003

Song of Suzannah  2004

The Dark Tower     2004

He took his sweet time, but he also got hit by a car and the series ended like lightening.   What are the odds we can get Winds and ADOS in the same year? 

That is only if you count the official books in the Dark Tower series, but King puts out a book a year almost like clockwork. And 75% aree connected to the Dark Tower in some fashion or another.

[SevasTra82]

31 minutes ago, King Viserys Targaryen IV said:

That is only if you count the official books in the Dark Tower series, but King puts out a book a year almost like clockwork. And 75% aree connected to the Dark Tower in some fashion or another.

Stephen King has writing down to a science.  Every year, without fail, he has a new book released (sometimes, has 2 in the same year).  The guy is a machine.

I read an interview with him last year where they asked him how he does this.  He said he spends 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, writing.  He does not outline, nor does he work on more then one book at a time, usually.  He said he doesn't feel like he put in a full days worth of hard work unless he works a "working mans" type of schedule.  On top of that, you almost *never* see Stephen King leave Maine.  He does not book tour much (if ever).  He does not take illustrious vacations.  He just works, grinding away every day.

One of the reasons why King took his time on THE DARK TOWER series was because he viewed it as almost a "side project", as the stories tale was directed more towards a niche' audience and not something that he normally writes (almost has a fantasy feel, where he makes his money in Horror, mainly).  So it was always considered his fun little series he did on the side.  It wasn't until recently that THE DARK TOWER started to get notoriety again, (probably due to all the LOTR movies etc) that he decided to re-release the original books.  Now the series picked up steam and is being made into a TV show, so King seems to have decided to start dabbling in THE DARK TOWER'S world again.

Writers can learn a lot from King.  The guy is a workers-class kind of author.

[SevasTra82]

31 minutes ago, King Viserys Targaryen IV said:

That is only if you count the official books in the Dark Tower series, but King puts out a book a year almost like clockwork. And 75% aree connected to the Dark Tower in some fashion or another.

Stephen King has writing down to a science.  Every year, without fail, he has a new book released (sometimes, has 2 in the same year).  The guy is a machine.

I read an interview with him last year where they asked him how he does this.  He said he spends 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, writing.  He does not outline, nor does he work on more then one book at a time, usually.  He said he doesn't feel like he put in a full days worth of hard work unless he works a "working mans" type of schedule.  On top of that, you almost *never* see Stephen King leave Maine.  He does not book tour much (if ever).  He does not take illustrious vacations.  He just works, grinding away every day.

One of the reasons why King took his time on THE DARK TOWER series was because he viewed it as almost a "side project", as the stories tale was directed more towards a niche' audience and not something that he normally writes (almost has a fantasy feel, where he makes his money in Horror, mainly).  So it was always considered his fun little series he did on the side.  It wasn't until recently that THE DARK TOWER started to get notoriety again, (probably due to all the LOTR movies etc) that he decided to re-release the original books.  Now the series picked up steam and is being made into a TV show, so King seems to have decided to start dabbling in THE DARK TOWER'S world again.

Writers can learn a lot from King.  The guy is a workers-class kind of author.