George R. R. Martin's writing pace?

[Captain]

Martin has said that he thinks the final two books will be at least 1500 manuscript pages and thinks he can write 500 pages per year if he is writing at a good pace.

'A Game of Thrones' was released in August 1996.

'A Clash of Kings' was released in November 1998 or 26 months after 'A Game of Thrones', the hardcover was 768 pages.

He stated that 'A Storm of Swords' was 1500 manuscript pages, although the hardcover was 968 pages, and it was released in August 2000 or 22 months after 'A Clash of Kings'.

It appears to me that GRRM is capable of writing 1500 manuscript pages in less than 2 years. In fact, the first two sequels to 'A Game of Thrones' were released within 4 years of the original.

What happened to GRRM's writing pace? ASOS was complete in roughly 1.5 years (factoring the time that it had to go to editors, and print, before it's release) but now he projects it will take him at least twice as long to finish one edition?

[Pinkie Baelish]

It's hard thinking of different dishes to write about in your novels

[King Tyrion VIII]

500 MS pages a year is nothing. Until you consider he works on many other projects as well.

[The Mountain That Posts]

You have to think, he started in 1991. From what I can tell, the first two books and first half of third book(up to Red Wedding) were his original plans for the first of three books.

Pretty sure it wasn't an exact start on ACoK when AGoT was published, start on ASoS when ACoK was published, etc.

I'm sure he worked all around on those first three books from 1991-2001, just with his priorities on the first book, then the second, etc.

Then you have to think, the fourth book was supposed to be after a longass time gap before he completely scrapped the idea and threw away an entire book(pretty sure he'd completely finished the fourth book, but then upon rereading and editting it realized how terrible it was due to a VAST overabudance of flashbacks and half-assed explanations of things gone by) - so that explains why it took till later 2004 for AFfC.

[The Dragon has three heads]

This pops up all the time.

we HAVE to assume he wants it done before HBO catch up, which is why seasons 3/4/5/6 will most likely put us and the end of DWD.

[Stannis Iron Baratheon]

Well you have to factor in his increasing age and popularity and the show itself. He may be writing slower due to age, ideas dont come as well (pure speculation), he is also now strained by the show and his consulting of that and with his heightened fame he is doing more interviews and public apearances which had to have at least doubled after the release of the show.

[Sour Billy Tipton]

500 MS pages a year is nothing. Until you consider he works on many other projects as well.

George has said he has written 500 pages of manuscript pages before. But he considers those good years and he can't do that every year especially when he has to help with the show, look after his merchandising product development, work on his 7 other projects, and go to different events around the world.

[The Mountain That Posts]

He also has a family now, whereas he didn't in the 90's, right? I could be wrong about that, but i'd imagine that'd explain a lot as well.

By the way, what happened to the like feature? O.o

[Lord Bronn Stokeworth]

Well, he restructured the story after dropping the 5 year time skip. That's the major reason Feast and Dance were so delayed from my understanding.

[Gar Weg Wun Sygerrik]

As the body of published work increases the amount of fact checking and continuity checking increases as well. The world as gotten so huge I imagine keeping all those balls in the air is a really difficult process. I've heard him talk in his blog about having written and then scrapping multiple versions of the same chapter as well.

[Free Northman]

I think that the only real snag in his pace was due to the disaster that was the 5 year gap removal.

Now that this has been resolved, I suspect that the books will be coming out at a reasonable pace again.

[Pinkie Baelish]

I think that the only real snag in his pace was due to the disaster that was the 5 year gap removal.

Now that this has been resolved, I suspect that the books will be coming out at a reasonable pace again.

I agree. Also, I think he kind of lost focus after Storm, hence the increased number of plots in Feast and Dragons. The first three were tight, well-structured with proper climaxes. The last two, not so much. Still good, but a bit disappointing IMO

[Free Northman]

I agree. Also, I think he kind of lost focus after Storm, hence the increased number of plots in Feast and Dragons. The first three were tight, well-structured with proper climaxes. The last two, not so much. Still good, but a bit disappointing IMO

The POV's will decrease in the next book. Things will start moving forward faster again.

But despite this, I still have no doubt that there will be 3 more books, not 2.

[Minstral]

His writing pace and age do make me a bit worries at times.

[Black Wolf Smith]

500 MS pages a year is nothing. Until you consider he works on many other projects as well.

Yes I agree. He has had 2 or 3 big things "off his back" as of late. So we can hope he can spend more time on WoW.

You also have to understand how GRRM writes. He writes chapters, and then if he changes something, he rewrites the same chapter to reflect how it effects things further in the story. With the Meereen knot, he had to write, and rewrite 4 or 5 POV's, over and over again dependeding on when a POV got to Where.

[King.In.Yellow]

I think we should all donate some $$$ and give it to GRRM. It should be enough to cover his income from his other projects and all the merchandising so he can focus on writing ASOIAF. Problem is, fans of other projects might try the same schtick, or GRRM realizes he gets free money for life if he takes forever to write ASOIAF....

Nah, bad idea.

[Pinkie Baelish]

The POV's will decrease in the next book. Things will start moving forward faster again.

But despite this, I still have no doubt that there will be 3 more books, not 2.

I'm 50/50 on it.

He really shouldn't have introduced Aegon IMO. It just clutters an already overcrowded playing field. It would be lame if the Others invaded and were vanquished all in one book. If Aegon IS a Blackfyre, then they could have finished the series, and had a new Blackfyre rebellion as the eight book. From the looks of it, it doesn't seem that all the civil wars are going to be sorted out in TWOW. It might have been, if Aegon wasn't introduced.

One of the best things JK Rowling did was put the return of Voldemort in the fourth book, right in the middle of the series. That leaves Harry dealing with the ultimate villain for half the series, which makes his eventual victory all the more sweeter. If the Others invade and are defeated all in the space of one book, what's the point of reading a 7 book series that talks about how dangerous they are? That's why I'm hoping that they invade a third or halfway into TWOW, and are only defeated right at the end of ADOS.

[mormont]

Speculating about GRRM's writing pace is pointless. He's said many times that not even he can possibly guess how quickly he can write, or how many rewrites he'll need (which was a major part of the delay with ADWD). The books will be done when they're done.