George R. R. Martin is a Good, Good Man

[Suden]

This was just an ugly situation all around. No matter which 'side' you might support, I don't think either faction came out looking very good.

 

Except for George R.R. Martin. I know most GoT fans would like it if he just stopped going around willy-nilly, having a good time and just got back to writing their beloved novels. I don't blame them really, if I had read them I'd probably feel the same. But I've got to say, I like the fact that he is enjoying his life. He spent his career producing tons of popular, award winning work, amassing a pretty substantial fortune, and now he's a happily married senior citizen who has earned the right to take some time off and enjoy what life has to offer him. And good for him for doing it, so many never do. It would be nice if he cracked open the typewriter and finished off those books for the fans though, if only so they stop complaining.

[canuckotter]

Ignoring the trainwreck portion of this thread because I don't want to be modbatted (and I still really don't want to find myself in Beekeepers)... I don't think George R. R. Martin is particularly goofing off. He writes monstrously huge books, it's hardly surprising that they take years to write, especially when you consider all the other stuff he actually does work for. A fairly major SF author (who shall remain nameless due to the risk of mention of his name sending people into fits and distracting from the point I'm trying to make about Martin) at one point went back through his own published work in the period between two of Martin's books and it was a pretty substantial list, certainly enough to justify saying he's on the prolific side for a full-time author, though certainly not extravagantly so. Then he compared the total wordcount of his published work with the wordcount of A Dance with Dragons, and it actually came out in Martin's favour - Martin had written more words. He just lumped them into one book instead of five. And had he split the story into multiple smaller books, "fans" would be screeching about how he was milking the series and just trying to take their money.

 

The point was, basically, that saying Martin is goofing off or writing slowly is pretty obviously wrong if you actually sit down and look at it.