George R.R. Martin clears up misconceptions about Fire & Blood, and much more

When George R.R. Martin wrote on his Not a Blog last week about Fire & Blood, his upcoming compendium of Targaryen history, we never expected him to stick around in the comments section as long as he did…but stick around he has, dropping all manner of interesting nuggets about his work, his process, and more. Let’s see what he has to say.

Speaking of Fire & Blood, you shouldn’t believe everything you’ve heard about it. Shortly after he announced the November 20 release date, a description for the book appeared on Martin’s website, which description promised exploration of some interesting questions. “Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom?” it asks. “What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle.”

But will they really be answered? Martin is less sure. “Uh… I never said anything about Dany, that was added by Bantam. Please disregard.”

"I think some of the hype is overblown but that is the nature of advertising.There are a few bits and scenes and suggestions in the text from which one can extrapolate certain things and concoct theories… but in the case of things like Valyria and the dragon eggs, it is all possible answers, not meant to be definitive."

Fire & Blood is “written” by Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t have all the information.

Fire & Blood is but one of the many subjects on which Martin touched. He also spoke at length about the original conception for A Dance with Dragons, and what ended up getting cut. Prepare for text:

"My original intent was to end DANCE with the two big battles, yes… intercutting between the two of them, each told through several different points of view. And both battles were partially written. But NOT COMPLETE, which became the issue. Also, maybe even more to the point, not yet good enough in my estimation. Battles are bloody hard, and I wanted these to be great.The book had already been scheduled for publication, I had blown through several previous deadlines, and we simply ran out of time. Initially I decided to push one battle back to WINDS to focus on the other, but that did not work either, and neither of the sequences came together the way I wanted them to, so ultimately the choice came down to moving both of the battles to WINDS or canceling the planned publication and pushing back DANCE. And given how far ahead publishers schedule their releases, the pushback would not have been a few days or a few weeks, but at least half a year, and maybe longer.Also, DANCE was already very long, and the battles would have made it substantially longer. That could also have affected the pricing.Did we make the right decision? I don’t know, even to this day. I understand your frustration, and some days I do feel the same way. But back then I had the fans howling after DANCE the same way they are howling after WINDS now, and my publishers really really did not want to push back again. And DANCE, even without the battles, was extremely well received — yes, there were dissenters, I know that, readers who did not like the book as well as the earlier volumes, but out in the wider world, DANCE had extremely strong sales, rode the bestseller lists for a long long time. It was a Hugo finalist, won the Locus Award for best fantasy of the year, and was named by TIME magazine as the book of the year. So even without the battles, it worked pretty well… but part of me still wonders if we made the right choice.These things are not easy. Those who think they are have obviously never written anything, or had to deal with the realities of publishing,"

The battles at issue are the Battle of Winterfell and the Battle of Meereen. If the show can be believed, Stannis loses the first and Daenerys wins the latter (we’ve already seen several snippets from the Battle of Meereen in advance chapters from Winds), but we’ll see if that changes when we have the finished text.

On the subject of advance chapters, Martin elaborated on why he doesn’t plan to release any more from Winds:

"Look, there is always an immediate positive feedback when you read a new chapter at a con or post a new sample on line, but these days the internet is so omnipresent that I am not sure these sorts of things don’t do more harm than good.I take both good reviews and bad in stride, I’ve been doing this since 1971, so I have long since become accustomed to the fact that some readers will not like a particular book or story. But reading that the never-before-published “Sons of the Dragon” was ‘old, recycled’ material did irritate me. Yes, the section was old in that it was originally written for the worldbook, but since it had never before been published, it should have been perceived as brand new material. In essence, by reading it at a con I had spoiled my own twists and revelations."

Weirdly, Martin’s fame has likely made this problem more acute. Had the Song of Ice and Fire novels not been so successful, he could probably read whatever he wanted at cons without critics remarking on it. As it is, for better or worse, the public scrutinizes everything he does.

So if he’s not going to release advance chapters from Winds, what about giving fans a report on its progress? About how much does he have left? Martin’s not keen on that idea either:

"My past experience has proved to me that progress reports do more harm than good. Some people dislike the answer and that triggers a fresh wave of nonsense. Or they do like the answer, but having answered one question just guarantees I will get a hundred more the next day. Also, since no one ever seems to go back to old posts, I get asked the same questions over and over and over again, even if I have already answered them a dozen times.Sadly, that seems to be just what is happening here on this new blog. Replying to comments just brings in more comments that people want replies to. And the commenters will not stay on topic, no matter how often I ask. This post, for example, was about FIRE & BLOOD, but I am getting tons of comments about WINDS OF WINTER and the GAME OF THRONES series, including some very specific questions about specific characters… questions of the sort that I have never replied to, and will never reply to. Character reveals belong in books, not blogs.I do like to engage with my readers, but this does get frustrating."

Seems like we have a damed-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don’t situation here.

Obviously, Martin didn’t give out any hints about what’s coming in his books, but did say that some things have been gestating for a long time:

"I had certain reveals and twists and scenes in mind all the way back to the early 90s. And none of those have changed.However, in the process of writing, new ideas are always coming to me. That’s one of the things that separates the gardener from the architect."

We’ll probably see a few of those twists and scenes in Game of Thrones season 8, but many more will likely be reserved for the page.

Really, we could keep going for a while — Martin was very generous when commenting, but here are some of the highlights:

• On the love of writing: “I am not sure it’s accurate to say that I have ever “enjoyed” writing. What I enjoy is having written, the sense of accomplishment I get when a story is done, and has turned out well. The actual process of writing is hard work, and there are days and times when it is not going as well as I’d like when it feels like pulling teeth.”
• On whether he’s particularly proud of any one chapter or section: “I really don’t think in those terms. There are times when I am very pleased with my own work… usually just after a story is done, or just after it is published… but often, when I go back and reread my older works, I am all too conscious of their imperfections. I always want to do better.”
• On fan theories: “I am not really familiar with most crazy fans theories. Well, at least not the new ones. I stopped looking at fan boards many years ago. There are too many of them, and while I loved the enthusiasms, I did not want to take the chance that any of it could influence the work.”
• On the competition: “Love WESTWORLD. It deserves more awards recognition — Emmy and Hugo nominations both.”
• On his perfect schedule:

"IF I had all the time in the world, I would finish THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING, write another six or eight or ten Dunk & Egg novellas, complete the second volume of FIRE & BLOOD… then I might go back my unfinished historical BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER, do some Wild Cards stories and maybe a Wild Cards novel, write some new Haviland Tuf stories, spec a few pilot scripts for my own GAME OF THRONES successor shows, do a sequel to FEVRE DREAM, return to the Thousand Worlds for a huge space opera… and then do something completely different, like a murder mystery or a western.Time is always the issue."

For more, head to Martin’s Not a Blog.

Next: Season 8 filming: Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy) walks his cat in Belfast

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