George R.R. Martin is not my bitch, but I now have less confidence in his skill as a writer.
Wait, let me start over, since I’ve been percolating on this blog post for almost a month.
A few weeks ago, Neil Gaiman answered a fan email on his blog. The fan asked, basically, if Martin was “letting him down” by taking so long to finish the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Gaiman said “no”; that Martin has no obligation to his readers. Martin writes stories; ultimately he’s responsible to the stories and must do what it takes to get those stories done at the time the story dictates. Good stories are better than rushed stories, churned out because of deadlines. The reader, therefore, has no right to criticize an author for not getting the stories out. They come when they come.
I, too, am a follower of A Song of Ice and Fire. I, too, am dissapointed that the next book hasn’t come out yet, even though it’s been promised for something like two years. I also waited six years between books for Steven King to finish The Dark Tower, so I know what’s going on here.
The thing is, I agree with Gaiman. Martin, or anyone else, doesn’t really owe me anything. He’s not working for me. I have no problem with that.
What bothers me isn’t the fact that it’s taking so long, it’s the fact that Martin seems to be in constant renegotiation with the story. That renegotiation has resulted in a delay. It’s resulted in the series growing from four to six to seven books. It’s resulted in book four becoming books four and five, with five not yet out. That worries me and gives me less confidence in the story as a whole. I can get behind the idea that the story comes when it comes. I can also get behind the idea that sometimes it comes in torrents and that the story grows in the telling. But isn’t it the author’s responsibility to prune that growth? Choice matters — word choice, character choice, plot threads to follow, etc. Every character doesn’t need their own chapter. Every meal does not need to be described. Choices, hard choices, have to be made by the author.
Stephen King talked about how he had trouble finishing The Dark Tower not because he didn’t know how it was supposed to end, but because he was afraid of ending it (and, while I loved the actual ending of The Dark Tower, the narrative road to get there took some unnecessary turns). Michael Douglass’ character in Wonder Boys has the same issue. His unfinished novel is unfinished because he’s afraid of making choices, so everything gets written. I think the same thing is happening to Martin, which is going to result in a story that’s less that what it could of been because there is more actual story.
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