Now that it’s pretty clear that Winds of Winter will never come out, despite George R.R Martin’s claims (which I do not believe one bit), I thought that the “book community” should try to make the best out of this shitty situation and learn from the author’s mistakes.
Before we go on, I feel the need to say that this post is meant for constructive critcism and not for slandering Martin, because slandering wouldn’t really accomplish, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it either. Georges R.R Martin HAS FUCKED UP, he has FUCKED UP BIG TIMES, and I believe that the amount of fuck up is so great that it will eventually cost him the finish of the book, now matter how hard he tries.
I believe that he has commited the following fatal mistakes :
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Not Planning : I have personally always been skeptical about that whole “gardener thing” when I heard him talk about it roughly ten years ago. While I could picture “improvisational writing” working for say a short sotry, I could not imagine how you could ever do it for a big serie where each volumes is a worth thousand pages. And it turns out that indeed you can’t because now Martin has to find a way to arrange this forest of a garden in a way that gives a satisfying conclusion, a problem he wouldn’t have had if he had plotted and prepared more.
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Taking too much time/lack of focus : Frankly, I don’t think Martin is as lazy as others might say, but he sure is a procrastinator when a project doesn’t meet his dopamine needs. It’s only natural for such a large and complex book as Winds of Winter to take time, but taking too much time is never good when you’re making art, because let’s face it, you don’t need 12 years to write any kind of book, not even winds of winter. Martin is the worst kind of author that you could ever get for a project this long, because how many times do you think he has changed his mind about what he wants to write for the book ? The problem is not effort, but lack of focus, (a focus he would have had if he had plotted his story), and the problem will only get worse as more time goes on.
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Persisting in error : The author has failed to realize that his methodology needed to evolve in order to write the Winds of Winter. Despite the fact that so far, Winds of Winter is an utter failure and has been so for a decade, Martin did no effort to make the situation better. He has continued to pursue side projects, he has not tried to seek help in any way (be it with ghost writers or assistants). I don’t deny him his right to work on others things than a Song of Ice and fire, it’s only natural after all, but I will say that he’s not fooling anybody by claiming that “Winds of Winter is his top priority”.
So that’s about it. I believe that in general, as long as you don’t do these mistakes while writing your own big fantasy/science fiction epic you’re pretty much good to go (if you don’t forget to write a good book that is).
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What lessons should they learn? You won’t be able to please all the fans… But you can get paid millions and have your work adapted into a mammothly successful TV series.
Never trust the fans. They are a fickle and treacherous bunch.
Oh my god you people are insufferable
I understand everybody having issues with Winds of Winter is never coming out, but George RR Martin doesn’t know any of you a damn thing. If he never wants to write another book that’s his prerogative. There’s one thing I have learned in my life it is that you cannot force art, and if the dude doesn’t feel like writing the story, then the dude doesn’t feel like writing the story. Does that suck for all the fans? Sure. But once again this brings us back to the very opening point, he doesn’t owe anyone a damn thing.
Martin is far from the first author to get stuck in a series in my opinion a lot of fanboys under estimate how difficult it can be to write at times. Instead of getting upset move on there is so many Amazing books out there. My advice to authors is just keep doing what you do and outrage online is rarely representative to how most people feel.
With the way the show ended, I really don’t think he could write anything to untaint the GOT legacy.
Granting, I understand the books are very different. But I think the ship has sailed on GOT overall.
never promise fans of yours a single thing ever
How is it clear that it will never come out?
It’s easy to sit back and call one of the most successful fantasy authors of our time a fuck-up. Let me ask this, since you seem to think he should work more like you do. How many internationally acclaimed fantasy epics have you written?
It’s easy to sit back and call one of the most successful fantasy authors of our time a fuck-up.
You have proven your lack of ability to read my friend, goodbye.
I have two thoughts. The first being, it cannot fail if it doesn’t exist, so calling it a failure is wrong. The second, while I have zero issues with your criticism or anyone else’s I would ask where is your series? If you think it’s easy to accomplish then do it and if you can’t then why waste your energy criticizing others for that which you can’t do? Seems like a waste of energy and you should simply be grateful for what you have instead of resentful for what you don’t. Plenty of artists across all forms of media have never completed the grand visions and I imagine it’s probably more disappointing for them than to their fans.