Small Council: What, if anything, does George R.R. Martin owe his fans?

This week, George R.R. Martin wrote that he thinks The Winds of Winter, the long-gestating sixth novel in his Song of Ice and Fire series, “will be out this year.” Fans have been waiting a long time for it. Has Martin let them down by not getting it out sooner, or not giving more regular updates along the way? Has the show spoiled book-readers to the point where they’ve lost interest? What, if anything, do authors owe their fans, anyway? At what point, if any, is it appropriate for a fan to demand delivery of an ongoing work of fiction in which he or she has become invested? The Small Council is in session.

DAN: This is a big picture kind of question, so I’m going to give a big picture kind of answer. The universe is a vast and pitiless void that has no meaning but what we put into it. Therefore, in the cosmic sense, no one owes anyone anything, ever. I think that applies to George R.R. Martin’s relationship with his fans. I don’t think he owes fans updates, nor do I think he even owes them a finished book. If he was writing a sentence in The Winds of Winter tomorrow and decided halfway through to abandon the project and never pick it up again, I would respect his choice, though I’d be bummed I wouldn’t get to read about the further adventures of Jon Snow, Daenerys, Tyrion and the rest.

Of course, talking about things in the cosmic sense has limited utility. We—and George R.R. Martin—live in a world governed by laws and deadlines and contracts and vast amounts of money in book sales. The universe may not impose obligations on Martin to deliver his books in a timely manner, but his publisher does, and I’m betting he imposes them on himself, too. In fact, he’s successful enough that, if he wanted to, he could ignore all pressure except that which he puts on himself.

That could be a very good thing. A Song of Ice and Fire is by far the biggest thing Martin has ever written, and he has the freedom to work on it at his own pace. We clamor for new entries now, but in 20, 50, 100 years, it won’t matter how quickly the books came out. It’ll only matter if they’re good, and taking the time to perfect them will help them be as good as possible.

There’s a theory out there that, once a writer/artist/filmmaker has completed and released a piece of work to the public, it no longer belongs to the artist, but rather to the people who enjoy it. I think that view is particularly prevalent when it comes to huge franchises like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. In many cases, these stories have gotten under fans’ skin, and it’s hard not to feel a sense of ownership over something that’s had such a big effect on your development. That sense of ownership might explain why some fans are irritated with Martin’s slow progress, and demand that he produce the rest of his tale at a pace that suits them.

I think that feeling is misplaced, though. George R.R. Martin, like everyone else who’s ever lived or will live, owes nothing to anyone. I’m willing to let the pressure he puts on himself do its work. Hopefully, it’ll result in more of the story. But if it doesn’t, more of the story was never owed.

I’m curious to hear what the rest of you think. To whom do Martin’s creations belong, in the end? To himself, or eternity?

RICHARD: This is a tough one, but I do agree with Dan. In the final analysis, any artist, including George R.R. Martin, is beholden only to him/herself as regards to the creations. As eager as hardcore fans are, and as possessive as they feel about a story and characters they have invested so much in to (including money), they have no right to make demands. As Dan reminds us above, GRRM isn’t dumping out endless books in an attempt to enrich himself further; he is painting us a Sistene Chapel, and we, the ones who will ultimately benefit the most from this, must be P.A.T.I.E.N.T.

I’ll turn to the much-quoted author Neil Gaiman for support; he explains this far better than I ever could. The following passages are from a 2009 blog post called “Entitlement Issues.” Gaiman wrote it in response to a Game of Thrones fan complaining about Martin’s apparent indolence:

"You’re complaining about George doing other things than writing the books you want to read as if you’re buying the first book in the series was a contract with him: that you would pay over your ten dollars, and George for his part would spend every waking hour until the series was done, writing the rest of the books for you.No such contract existed. You were paying your ten dollars for the book you were reading, and I assume that you enjoyed it because you want to know what happens next.It seems to me that the biggest problem with series books is that either readers complain that the books used to be good but that somewhere in the effort to get out a book every year the quality has fallen off, or they complain that the books, although maintaining quality, aren’t coming out on time . . . For me, I would rather read a good book, from a contented author. I don’t really care what it takes to produce that . . .. . . in the future, when you see other people complaining that George R.R. Martin has been spotted doing something other than writing the book they are waiting for, explain to them, more politely than I did the first time, the simple and unanswerable truth: George R. R. Martin is not working for you."

That said, yeah, I get it. Martin is no spring chicken. Robert Jordan’s fans saw him die before completing his Wheel of Time series. Stephen King was hit by a van (surviving, fortunately, after five operations in ten days) before his The Dark Tower series was complete. But life is difficult, nothing is guaranteed and Neil Gaiman is right.

KATIE: I can only agree with Dan and Richard. Writers are human beings, not machines capable of working tirelessly to produce in time with the public’s demand. A Song of Ice and Fire isn’t Martin’s entire life, but rather a cog in his career. He cannot reasonably be expected to do nothing but work on its closing chapters. Creative writing can be an immense emotional burden all on its own, never mind all the exterior pressure Martin is forced to combat in light of the series’ popularity.

If everyone could just find their chill and stop pestering him for a due date, perhaps Martin wouldn’t feel obligated to provide his guesstimate. Thus far, he’s been off the mark, which has only discouraged fans more. But it’s frankly unfair to badger Martin for an answer he doesn’t have. I’m willing to bet that he wants to finish writing the books more than his fans want to read them. Writing may be the man’s job, but it shouldn’t be a chore. He should be able to enjoy the experience, and it’s hard to enjoy anything when everyone’s adding their unsolicited two cents.

As Dan discussed, fans may very well feel a sense of ownership over the series. Even I’m guilty of that in certain respects. But it doesn’t belong to us. Our feelings and interpretations make it a more personal experience, but it’s not ours to take from Martin and demand more like we’re channeling the spirit of Veruca Salt. And honestly, where have all those demands gotten fans? The Winds of Winter still doesn’t have a concrete release date. Tweeting and commenting at Martin is like shouting into the void, and he doesn’t owe us an explanation, anyway. Let the man do his thing. And if his thing happens to be—as I personally hope—pulling a Willy Wonka and releasing naught but five copies of Winds, all with wildly conflicting conclusions, then so be it. Let the chaos ensue. But for now, pop a chill pill and carry on with your lives.

COREY: As I said on the latest episode of Take the Black, I have three primary problems with the long wait for The Winds of Winter. First and foremost, I don’t see why everyone who complains about the book not being out is labeled as entitled or something along those lines. Why can’t we simply be fans disappointed that we aren’t getting more of what we love? As someone who has dabbled in writing fiction, I sympathize with Martin’s plight to an extent. Fiction is very hard to write and inspires self-doubt, and that’s just with dabbling. I can’t begin to understand how Martin managed to weave his increasingly complex narrative together over two decades of writing. But again, I don’t think that, because we complain that the next book isn’t out, we’re literary malcontents who care nothing for the author.

Secondly, I think the show has likely caused an undue amount of changes to the books. Winds is unique in that it will be the first book to come out after the film adaptation has revealed many of its plot points. Think of all the things we saw in Season 6: Jon’s rebirth, Hodor’s death, the White Walkers’ origins, the Starks taking back Winterfell, Cersei’s destruction of the Sept and House Tyrell—all of these things were likely to show up on the page in Winds. 

So I would not be surprised if Martin is rewriting whole swaths of the book in an attempt to differentiate them from what we saw on screen. And even if Martin isn’t trying to outdo the show, his narrative is more complex than the show’s. For instance, in the books Loras Tyrell has two older brothers not present in King’s Landing. Does Martin move them to King’s Landing? Do they survive? This is just one of many questions Martin has to answer.

And last, but certainly not least, I think Martin has to accept part of the blame for the ire of fans. Not for his slow writing style, not for using a word processor older than many of his readers and not for spending some of his time on things like eating and sleeping. Martin has earned some of the ire for completely blowing his own estimates for when his novels will be complete. In January of 2016, months before Season 6 hit television screens, Martin wrote on his Not a Blog that, throughout the fall and winter of 2015, he was laboring under the false belief that he could have the book out in time for Season 6.

It’s now 2017, and we still don’t have the book. I think that’s the part that frustrates people the most. We want to believe Martin’s estimates, but he’s proven time and again that he likely has no idea when it will be finished. Giving us false hope is worse than no hope at all, and that’s why I believe Martin has earned at least some of the ire directed his way.

But as I said at the beginning, I do sympathize with Martin. I think it’s possible to sympathize with people on both sides of the argument, something I learned from Martin’s wonderfully written novels. Good luck, George. Get the damn book out already.

GINA: I’m a Taurus, so I’m patient by nature. I could literally wait until the sun rises in the west and sets in the east for something if I think it’s worth it. So I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’ve tweeted angrily about the lack of The Winds of Winter on my shelf. However, I will say that as it stands right now, Martin at least owes us a book sometime in the future.

As Dan and Katie both mentioned, this is Martin’s magnum opus, and something of this magnitude can’t be created with the wave of a wand or a snap of a finger. Writing can be a tireless process, one that sometimes needs to be set aside before it can be revisited. As for what’s taking Martin so long, I can’t say, but Corey makes a good point about possible rewrites to differentiate the books from the HBO series. That could be eating up a lot of his time.

We live in a world of instant gratification, where we can order shoes from Zappos that arrive the next day, or decide foreign policy in 140 characters or less. As Richard said, patience is a good thing, and since Game of Thrones has already been a life-changing experience for some of us, I think we can wait a little longer without raising too much of a stink.

Martin has referred to himself as a “gardener” type of writer, which is a lovely analogy for a process that’s led to the extensive series we all know and love. Gardening takes time, and what he’s already planted has bloomed into a cultural phenomenon that will leave it’s mark for decades to come. Do your thing, George. We’ll be waiting. Wine in hand.

RAZOR: Well, I guess I get to be the bad guy. While no, I do not think George R.R. Martin owes us continued updates on his progress through The Winds of Winter, I do feel he owes us a well-written masterpiece of a book within the year. The reason I feel this way is because Martin himself has, in the past, freely updated his fans on his Not A Blog, so fans have high expectations. Just take a look at the ASOIAF subreddit to see the number of book theory posts uploaded on a daily basis.

If Martin didn’t want fans pestering him for updates, he shouldn’t have led us down this twisting and treacherous rabbit hole in the first place. Don’t bore me with the “you don’t know what it’s like to be an author” comments. I don’t think one needs to be an author in order to have the right to complain about the pace of George R.R. Martin’s writing or the lack of a finished and published book. Don’t get me excited for the possible release of the book if you’re going to constantly let me down by not meeting the target release date. I’d rather Martin keep quiet until The Winds of Winter is finished. That way, there are no expectations.

ANI: If I may, I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the following graph, released by The Washington Post back in the summer of 2014, directly after the end of Season 4, just as the show began to veer into uncharted territory with the reveal of the Night King and was gearing up to film the last of the known material for Season 5.

The article, at the time, was trying to work out just how much longer we had to wait for Martin’s next book, and if he was slowing down in his writing pace due to working on the show, as well as anticipating if he could beat the show to the punch in terms of spoilers. The answer it uncovered may surprise you! In terms of speed, Martin had not slowed down. In fact, when his progress is plotted against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, his writing speed was right in line with hers. It was just that her books were a lot shorter.

So, based on the speed he wrote the first five books, could he beat the show to the punch? When was the next books coming? The answer to the first question, as has been proven true in the intervening years, was “No.” The answer to the second was “2017.”

Now, is that really going to happen? We won’t know until 11 months from now, when The Winds of Winter is either on store shelves or it isn’t. But I wonder why this chart hasn’t gotten wider play. Every year, Martin sets up expectations he seems incapable of fulfilling, and yet every year, no one seems to correct him, or point out to him that when he says “I’ll be done by 2015” the numbers say otherwise.

I would like, if we can, to correct this oversight, especially if we have The Winds of Winter in our hot little hands buy the holidays in December. If in fact Martin finishes the book this year, I believe we should all agree that the numbers were borne out, and therefore the estimate that A Dream of Spring will not be ready until 2023 should be treated by fans as gospel. Any words to the contrary from the author himself should be immediately met with someone posting the above chart in his mentions over on his Not a Blog with a reminder that the numbers don’t lie, and to please stop thinking he can write faster than he can.

As for the rest of us, the best thing we can do, if these numbers prove correct, is to treat 2023 as the presumed due date for the book, and not to demand it any earlier. Let’s all agree we leave Martin alone to go live his life and plod along in his writing and blog about his football and let him be happy…up until mid-summer 2022. Then we all all check in on him, as a family, with the expectation that his real deadline, and not one he made up in his head, will be met.

Agreed?