He’ll write anything other than finishing ASOIAF.
I sympathize.
I’ve had the third book in the first series I wrote damn near twenty years ago, sitting unfinished for damn near that long. The first two flopped, and it took the wind out of my sails, which led me to re-editing the first two, and intending to rejigger the third and finish it.
But the original inspiration was gone. I still have the overall plot in my head, still have some of the scenes there, but getting that to come out in words just never happens.
If it isn’t there, it isn’t there, and trying to force it ends up making crappy writing.
Yeah, off and on. Mostly short fiction, some poetry, and another series that takes years before a book is finished lol.
His inspiration is so far gone that doing anything else has become a defense mechanism at this point. Imagine the worst period of procrastination you’ve ever experienced. It has to be like that. His heart isn’t in it and the task of getting back in and tying everything up in a meaningful way probably feels insurmountable, but the immense pride that comes with authoring ASOIAF prevents him from passing the work on.
A lot of people think Brandon Sanderson should finish the series but I think that would make for a very stale and sterile end to the series. Sanderson books read like a movie script or something. They just keep moving forward without really slowing down to paint the environment and let the story breathe. It has to be someone else.
Sanderson books read like a movie script or something. They just keep moving forward without really slowing down to paint the environment and let the story breathe.
Well put, I read the first Mistborn but never got really immersed in it, that’s probably why
I don’t know what “slow down and let the story breathe” means, can you explain a bit please? Myself, I’m not sure exactly what it was but I did notice a difference in style between Mistborn and The Way Of Kings. I thought the latter flowed better and illustrated his improvement as a writer; I’d be curious to hear what you think and how you’d quantify the difference, if you give Stormlight Archives a go!
I wonder if he saw the bad reception that the end of Game of Thrones got and just assumed that it was pointless to finish it out. Which will be yet one more reason to hate the showrunners for ruining not just the show, but the books.
I really want some obnoxious interviewer to open up with “So George, do you hate Benioff and Weiss now? If so, how much do you hate them?”
