(no subject)

[shadowkat]

For any writers out there who are beating themselves up for being stuck - this is an oddly reassuring post from GRR Martin regarding his inability to meet his latest deadline on Winds of Winter - book six of the Song of Ice and Fire series. (Although it's probably not reassuring for the readers out there who are eagerly anticipating its release. At this point, you might need to re-read the last book in the series or a plot synopsis of it in order to remember the plot prior to reading the next one.)

At any rate, I enjoyed Martin's lengthy post - made me feel better about my own writing, which is sluggish at the moment. After I self-published "Doing Time on Planet Earth" - various readers wanted to know if I was writing a sequel. (Uh, no. There is no sequel. I'm done with the characters, sorry. This by the way was amongst the many reasons I chose the self-publishing route, so I wouldn't have to deal with a pesky publisher insisting on a sequel that just isn't in me. There's another story in me, other characters that want to be heard. The characters in Doing Time have moved on and have stopped talking to me. So I let them go. Also, publishing Doing Time, freed me finally. I couldn't write a story until I got it out there, it kept pestering me. )

Martin apologizes in his post for not finishing Winds of Winter, and being unable to tell anyone (including his editors and publisher) when he will finish it - it may be next year or the year thereafter. And he really doesn't know if S6 of the HBO series will spoil readers on the books. Since the HBO series has long since diverged from the books, it's unlikely but you never know. (Also, it already spoiled me on the books, so it's hard for me to care.) Martin doesn't deal with deadlines well, and prefers to write as it comes to him. Which I can identify with -- it's why I have a day-job and do my writing on the side, because I can't write on demand. (Most of the genre writers who can write on demand and churn out sequels in their series each year without fail, I've noticed tend to drop in quality as they go...and the story starts to feel either repetitive or stretched too thin, and the characters either begin to act out of character or become inconsequential. So, I'm not sure doing this is necessarily a good thing for everyone. It's also why I'm not a huge fan of novel series.)

What a lot of readers don't understand is writing a story, an actual story with characters, isn't something you can just turn on and off. It's not the same as writing a blog post or meta or a review.
Your characters have to speak to you. You have to hear the story in your own head, see it unravel like a movie in your minds eye. If they aren't talking...it doesn't happen. Also, nothing shuts down the creative process quicker than stress, fear, and pressure. Some people work well under pressure, many don't.

I'm not surprised Martin is struggling with Winds of Winter -- I could tell after reading the last book that he'd written himself into a tight corner with a few of the characters. He doesn't say that, so I could be wrong. But, it felt that way to me. Also, there's a lot of folks who think one character will survive, I'm not so sure about that.

At any rate, it is reassuring to know that I'm not alone in writing in this manner. Crafting a story requires time and patience. It also requires the understanding that it won't appeal to everyone.
The world can be insanely critical. But the responses to Martin's post are positive and kind.
Which is also, reassuring.

Comments

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

Sometimes when I write a fic I can almost hear the characters breathing. Sometimes when I re-read them I can re-experience what I was feeling when they were written.

kerk