Map bk, world bk, Dunk & Egg, but but but!

[Coragem]

I can't overestimate my love of GRRM's work, nor my respect for him as a person. I met him in April, and he is such a great guy.

Also, it really angers me when people criticise George for being a slow writer or for having time off. To write at his stella standard he needs to go slow and he needs time off, okay!!??

However, I keep hearing about the forthcoming ice and fire map book, the world book, the new Dunk & Egg novella. Am I on my own in wishing that we could get TWoW and DoS first? These other ancillary works will be nice as an appendix to the series, but to me they're not quite priorities. And honestly, while I trust that George will be with us and entertaining us for a long, long, long time, I'm not going to be able to breath easy until I see the series wrapped up.

Coragem.

 

[Culhwch]

My understanding is that the map book and the encyclopedia are being done by other people, and George is having very little input in them (at least as far as workload - I'm sure he is approving everything).

As for Dunk and Egg, I'm more than happy for him to work on these. I'd rather see a new novella in the aSoIaF universe in the short-term to tide me over for the next novel in the long-term, than to just have to wait for the next novel, which I doubt would arrive any sooner than it would if he hadn't written the novella...

 

[Coragem]

My understanding is that the map book and the encyclopedia are being done by other people, and George is having very little input in them (at least as far as workload - I'm sure he is approving everything).

The impression I get from George's Not A Blog is that he is doing a lot of work for the map book and world book. The other day he said that the history pieces he's putting into the worldbook are close to turning into mini-novellas.

It's all good stuff, I'm sure, but as I say, I'm not going to rest easy until I see the series-proper completed. That's what everything else rests on, after all. That's what's going to ensure that ASOIAF goes down as perhaps the greatest fantasy series ever.

For me personally, all of the rest (the series, the merchandising, the people other than George out to cash-in) comes a distant second.

Coragem.

 

[Ursa major]

The other day he said that the history pieces he's putting into the worldbook are close to turning into mini-novellas.

GRRM feels a need to write these and the novellas, and perhaps uses them to capture the wider world and history of A Song of Ice and Fire (for himself** as much as for us). I suspect that without the outlet of the novellas, the stories would still appear in print, but in ASoIaF, where they would be a distraction to the reader.



** - When we write, we're often told to leave the irrelevant parts of our world building out of the final book, mostly because it would distort the book (and not only the pacing). We're less frequently told to stop the world building itself (unless it's a substitute for starting the novel, i.e. it's being used to avoid the inevitable question: "Can I make a novel out of this?"). Pretty obviously, GRRM has no such problem, merely a huge tale, with many strands, that has to be handled carefully in case it's diverted down any number of dead ends.

 

[The Imp]

It's hard to be critical of GRRM's process when it has enabled him to create what IMO is the finest fiction I have ever read. He apparently isn't the type to work exclusively on one project, and I think he needs his diversions in order to be able to write the long books of aSoIaF.

 

[Werthead]

In general, GRRM has several irons in the fire at once because working exclusively on one project or world for a long period causes him to get bored. This is why he tos and fros between ASoIaF, WILD CARDS and editing work.

However, as he has said several times recently, after the long, long haul on ADWD he went a little bit overboard in the number of side-projects he took on, to the point where he may have lost more time than gained on TWoW by recharging his batteries on other projects. That's why he's prioritised getting some other works completed and done so he can have a long, hard go at TWoW without other obligations coming up. Plus his publishers, knowing we're going to be 3-4 years minimum before another ASoIaF book comes out, are keen to have at least a couple of other volumes they can put out to help minimise the gap.

THE LANDS OF ICE AND FIRE required fairly minimal work from him, aside from a re-drawing of the lands east of Lhazar (so the map book in October will feature a somewhat different version of Essos compared to that which can be seen on the HBO website, which was based on a much earlier draft). THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE is actually something he and the Westeros.org team have been working at, on and off, since 2006. There's a lot of work been put into it and GRRM is currently putting in some revisions of material. He's done a lot more work on that compared to LANDS, for certain.

As for Dunk 'n' Egg, I know that the latest story was partially completed in late 2009 and he's spent only short periods working on it here and there since then. However, I also know he wants to accelerate these coming out otherwise he's never going to get through them (he's suggested 12 stories in total, which is going to be tough given he's only done 4 in 15 years).

Despite all of this, it's also worth noting that TWoW is up to 400 manuscript pages (200 finished and 200 draft), almost a quarter of the book already (though including some material left over from ADWD).