George RR Martin still writing?

[Darth Shoju]

Meh. I`d rather he take his time and do it right. From what he posts on his `Not a Blog`, he seems to be working on it regularly. It seems he wrote himself into something of a corner, and is trying to get out of it without screwing it all up. I can appreciate that.

Sure the delay is very frustrating, but to claim he doesn`t care and has no intention of ever finishing seems unfair and presumptuous to me.

And those `fans` who set up a website dedicated to complaining loudly whenever he does anything but write ASoIaF are the picture of deluded self-entitlement.

 

[Felon]

Sure the delay is very frustrating, but to claim he doesn`t care and has no intention of ever finishing seems unfair and presumptuous to me.

Is a teacher unfair and presumptuous because she simply assumes "the dog ate my homework" is an excuse? Fairness dictates that you are obliged tp take everyone on their word unless you have direct evidence to the contrary?

It is not presumptuous to place a finite limit on benefit of the doubt. Reason dictates that credibility eventually gets used up. That's perfectly fair.

Now, has Martin enjoyed sufficient time to produce, or does he still have some benefit of the doubt to burn? That's where opinions vary.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Writing is hard.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Writing is hard.

Nonsense. Writing is easy. Self-editing is hard.

I can type all day and generate pages upon pages of material. The first problem is that most of it is trash. The second problem is that I'm too close to it to have a consistently good idea of which parts are trash and which aren't. When you talk to good writers, most of them will tell you that falling in love with your own prose and/or being unable to slash and burn your own prose are the toughest things to deal with.

This is one of the purposes of editors, to control the author's ego and prevent story bloat. The fifth time GRRM took a hard left into uncharted narrative territory that had nothing to do with wrapping anything up while simultaneously introducing 2 new characters, his editor should have picked up the phone and said, "This is insane. If you want to do this, you need to justify this. I need a roadmap here."

 

[Remus Lupin]

Writing is not typing. Nor is it editing.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I'm equally capable of writing longhand in the notepad I carry at all times for that purpose. Most of it is still crap, even if not typed.

If editing wasn't part of the writing process, we'd never end up with anything readable by an audience besides the author. Or do your first drafts come out as epic poetry fit for the ages?

In any case, you've established that the physical act of putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard is not writing. And you've established that the subsequent parsing of text is not writing. Definition by exclusion is a fairly empty exercise.

So, what is writing?

 

[Remus Lupin]

My point is the writing -- the creative expression of ideas in a written form -- is distinct from either typing or editing. And creatively expressing ideas in written form is hard, whether typed or longhand, long before you ever get to the point of editing.

 

[Desdichado]

Did you read Gaiman's note before you responded, out of curiosity? Seems like he addresses your exact complaints just fine. We can rehash it, of course.

Just because Gaiman said it doesn't mean it's true. Gaiman's blog post came off as pretty self-serving, if you ask me. He's resisting the paradigm shift that writers are having to undergo right now.

I just read recently a report from an editor who attended a sci fi fiction writing Expo. One of his big take-aways is that in today's market, writers do a most of their own marketing. By maintaining blogs, twitter accounts, facebook accounts, webpages, what-have-you, they are interfacing directly with their customers.

The end result of that is that customers develop expectations based on the things that you say. If you announce a book, yeah, people are going to expect it to appear.

Gaiman is correct in that there's no legal obligation for a writer to deliver on his promises. He is completely incorrect in implying that there isn't a compelling business reason to deliver on them. Making promises and then dilly-dallying is how you lose customers.

 

[A Passing Maniac]

The end result of that is that customers develop expectations based on the things that you say. If you announce a book, yeah, people are going to expect it to appear.

This is the worst thing about the situation, for me. I can understand and empathize with personal issues or writer's block or other projects or simple procrastination or whatever causing delays in the writing process. But promising multiple times that "The book is pretty much done, this is it, for real, the book is coming later this year! Sorry, did I say later this year? I meant next year. Well, no, the next next year..." is extremely frustrating.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

My point is the writing -- the creative expression of ideas in a written form -- is distinct from either typing or editing. And creatively expressing ideas in written form is hard, whether typed or longhand, long before you ever get to the point of editing.

We shall have to agree to disagree on at least two points, then.