"Noooo, don't you dare be mean to my favorite millionaire! Absolutely no writer ever has ever received criticism throughout human history, why are you so mean to Saint Martin?!"
I think he is just unable to finish a story in general. It's a writer's skill issue, not a writer's block. He knows how to expand a world. He doesn't know how to get to the shore.
It's basic DND; the DM dangles a million story threads for the players in the beginning and then as the campaign goes on he narrows it down to the ones the players are interested in. Issue with GRRM is that he doesn't have any players to help push the story forward, it's just him, so he keeps adding more threads and red herrings, and now it's just a mess of knots.
My personal theory is that there's a conflict between his stated writing method/style, and his intended outcome. That is, he's stated that he's a "gardener", meaning that he lets things develop semi-organically, and then prunes and steers the story/stories as need be.
I think the problem is though that his story has gotten far enough away from where he'd intended it to go (his stated ending) that he can't figure out how to get it back on track and still make sense, essentially.
If that's the case what he ought to do is jettison his intended ending, or amend it, because if he can't make it make sense in the narrative, then maybe it just doesn't make sense at all. Y'know?
To add to your comment, I think part of it is that his ending is pretty close to the Game of Thrones ending, and he doesn't know how to fix it, and he saw how everyone hated it, so he's just running out the clock at this point
I remember a interview or something between him and stephen king where martin asks him how he is able to just right constantly and king just goes "I just do it, its my job" Or something along those lines.
But I always wondered what "can't write endings" thing is about. What's the issue? Do people think the ending is too open for interpretation? Rushed? Not what they wanted it to be?
Its pretty obvious his ending was similar to the one in the show, he basically instructed them on the outlines and the severe pushback probably made him question everything.
At this point he can't write an ending that will satisfy people.
It’s a bit more complex than that. He wrote himself into a corner. GRRM calls his writing style “gardening”, where he doesn’t plan the entire story ahead meticulously but rather lets the characters do what makes sense for them in the situations he writes, even if he didn’t plan on that outcome.
The upside of that is a much more realistic and convincing story as characters don’t do convoluted shit to get where the author wants them to be. The downside is that in book 4 GRRM introduced so many new characters that his “garden” is now too big and out of control and he can’t get it back to his original outline of the story.
The most famous example is that in book 2 he gave Daenerys a plot of starting to oppose slavery and oppression, but that plot spiraled out and became her defining characteristic, that is completely unrelated to the other ongoing plots in the books, and now by book 5 he can’t get Daenerys out of the east without having her betray all her principals and ideals.
Pretty sure Oda has the ending planned and in sight already. We are in the final saga and the pace is faster than it used to be. I think he was lost around dressrosa -> punk hazard -> wano but figured it out during egghead.
Hasn't Oda stated he already knows the ending? I know he said that the One Piece is an actual thing and not just "the friends we found along the way" and since thats the crux of the story, I venture he likely has at least a general idea of how the story ends.
Sorry, if anything "gardening" style should make it easier to continue the story. Even if the original outline is hard to reach, surely there must another satisfying resolution.
Sorry, if anything "gardening" style should make it easier to continue the story
Not really, it has resulted in him having disparate story threads which need to be satisfyingly resolved in a coherent way - without having fully planned out how they will come together.
He has a broad outline of where he wants to end up, but he hasn't meticulously planned everything out - meaning every time he writes a chapter he needs to check it doesn't contradict every other chapter. If he had a fleshed out central plan this wouldn't be necessary.
The benefit of the gardening approach came at the start of the writing process, not the end.
Introduce parallel universes or gods or what have you to get a get out of jail free cards he can literally make a world full of parallel worlds within world within shadows of trees or shadows of wings or what ever
Or ask a writer AI for suggestions or select a group of lucky fans that get to help him finish the story in a meaningful way
If he lacks new ideas then ask someone fresh look at Beserk with Miura and Mori
Asking for help isn't weakness refusing to ask for help is
I think that's the problem, that he's insisting on trying to make his original goal/ending make sense. If that's the case, he really needs to just come to terms with the fact that the ending needs to change, and let the story/narrative dictate it.
There is also the problem that some realistic stories don't end particularly interesting.
For example, if Jaime would get infected during his time in the riverlands and die of dysentery, that would be realistic. Can happen to anyone. Wouldn't be much of a thrilling read though.
This. When I read the books, it was "next book expected to release within the next year or two"... it's still nowhere to be seen and I've read enough other books since to barely remember most of ASOIAF. I already have too many books I'm planning to read to have time to reread all the books when this one eventually does come out, not to mention there's allegedly a seventh planned too, will we have to wait another 15+ for that one? I just can't be bothered anymore.
The fantasy community has conflicting opinions about Sanderson but damn, at least the man WRITES.
Hasn't Sanderson said that he essential has a timeline and release schedule set for the rest of his career? Outlining and forward thinking is basically his writing superpower.
Mad Queen Dany is probably not a show original thing and most fans I know hated their "qween" went vengeance fueled tyrant, so he knows he's gonna get backlash for it.
Tbf thats easily the thing I have the least problem with in that ending. Its a bit too sudden, but in the books (and in the show too) seeds for Mad Queen Dany have been planted so as long as it developes organically it could easily be her story's end.
The biggest issues is how the show's ending either skips or wipes away tons of character developement to get to where it wants to go, and then the largely non-sensicle decisions such as Bran becoming King.
For most decisions the final 2 seasons make I could come up with a reasoning why they happen (though I disagree with some of them), but basically all of them are rushed for no reason, or feel like just retreading old ground due to lack of creativity.
And then of course there is all the stuff they left out of the show that is likely could play a role in the books. Like I could see Euron stealing one of Dany's dragons instead of killing it for example. Not that the books are ever coming out.
No, it si pretty sure that books will end different, because they already differs from the show (or rather, show differed from them) in very important ways. Like, there are whole big factions which were not represented in the show. There is whole army led by the boy who declares himself Aegon (brother of Daenerys). Euron Greyjoy in show was ribauld simpleton pirate allied with Cersei, in books he is cunning sorcerer who has some much bigger ambitions and is collecting fragments of the occult knowledge from across the world. In general, in later books magical elements become more and more important - something which showrunners disliked and they wanted to keep show as mundane as possible. It is assured that in the books endboss is supposed to be magical (be it White Walkers or Euron or both), not Cersei.
I suspect that big parts of the show's ending were more or less what Martin had in mind. The terrible reception has made him gun-shy and ultra-critical of the work he has already done.
Combine that with the fact that he can do anything he wants, and he finds writing other stuff a lot more enjoyable, and the delay makes a lot of sense. He's probably written and thrown out a lot of material, and he's supremely discouraged and bitter (at both himself and his fans). The motivation to finish the series is all negative, rather than writing for the joy of it, which makes the output worse, which feeds into the discouragement.
I binge watched the dvd extras, https://youtu.be/XNluc8P4Dd8 and watched a few alt shit x videos on the wider series like the dunk and egg stuff and was done. i held out hope until the last episode of got that it would decent but no luck so im over it. although i have been watching spoofs of hotd but we know how that story turns out so it just for the jokes.
I devoured the first books. I had a copy of "A Dance with Dragons" reserved at Borders when it came out and drove a half hour into the city to get it. I could not give the first shit about whatever else comes of this series. Fuck GRRM and GoT at this point.
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u/Mindless0ne 7h ago
"...lose interest" -there I fixed it for you.