In 1975, Martin met Dune author Frank Herbert at a book convention and they shared a drink. The meeting was “near the end of Herbert’s life,” Martin says. Herbert had written many acclaimed novels, but all fans seemed to want was more Dune. Herbert’s publisher had just offered him a modest advance for a story he wanted to write, or six times that number for another Dune novel.

“He didn’t like Dune anymore and he didn’t want to write any more Dune books,” Martin says. “But he felt locked in by the success of Dune, so he kept writing them.”

Martin finishes … and waits.

I ask: Do you relate to how Herbert felt?

“I’m not necessarily tired of the world [of Ice and Fire],” he says. “I love the world and the world-building. But, yes, I do.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (5 children)

"I was going to have Sansa die, but she’s been so appealing in the show, maybe I’ll let her live …”

If anyone needs proof he's just making this all up as he goes along and has no real plan...

[–] tankplanker@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

He had to contractually hand over the plan to the show runners when they ran out of finished books, what you see in the final seasons is what he wanted. Granted it has almost certainly been hamfistedly handled by the show runners but it was his ending.

I am still a big believer that the vitriol of the ending by the fans has played its part into George not finishing the books, and how hes slowly started talking about changing the ending. Personally idgaf if he does change it, he probably does as he will have to admit to changing it as Benioff and Weiss will certainly call him on it if he doesn't as it massively impacted their careers.

Couple this with his slow pace of writing, huge number of distractions available to him, I am not surprised if he isn't just running the clock down.

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

Pretty sure all authors are just making things up.

[–] Catma@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

He may just be saying shit at this point. He cannot believe he will finish the story and wants to have as many seeds out there so if someone else finishes it, their bases are covered saying it was all his plan from the start.

Also I remember reading all of these multiple times and my thought throughout was if anyone survives it all it was going to be Sansa.

Not because she was the most sinister or most coniving but because she was always going to be a pawn and would stab the last man/woman standing. It was going to be pure dumb luck she lived through it all.

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Lots of authors make it up as they go along. Don't say that like it's automatically a bad thing.

[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago

In this particular case it's still a bit extreme level of indecisiveness. He doesn't know if central characters will live or die even after 20 years of writing the story, and can change his mind based on the character being appealing in the adaptation.

[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago

Tbh it's not like he's been hiding it for the last 15 years at minimum. Called it "gardener" style of writing as opposed to "architect" style. (He evidently has a very messy garden.)