Outlander author explains George R.R. Martin’s slow writing speed

Fans have been waiting nearly a decade for The Winds of Winter by George R.R. Martin. What’s the holdup? Author and friend Diana Gabaldon shares her insight.

Diana Gabaldon is the talented author behind the Outlander books, adapted by Starz into a hugely successful TV show. With eight novels coming out since the early ’90s and another, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, on the way, Gabaldon put out books at a pretty good clip over the years, although it’s been six years now since the previous entry.

That’s a while to wait, but not as long as A Song of Ice and Fire fans have been waiting for the next book in that series, The Winds of Winter. The last book in that series, A Dance With Dragons, was published in July 2011, around the time the first season of Game of Thrones premiered on HBO. Yes, it’s been that long.

The topic of author George R.R. Martin’s writing speed has been much discussed, but perhaps no one is better qualified than a fellow writer. Gabaldon, who is friends with Martin in real life, talked about their differences during the 2016 Television Critics Association panel for Outlander season 2. She was asked about potentially missing book deadlines as Martin is known to do, and in the nicest way possible basically said that GRRM is slow as hell and that she gets her stuff done.

“Unlike George, I write no matter where I am or what else I’m doing,” Gabaldon said. “In fact, well, he admits it himself.  He likes to travel, and he can’t write while he travels. That’s just the way he works. Everybody’s got their own writing mechanism.”

"As I say, when I began writing, I had two fulltime jobs and three small children. I wrote in any spare minutes that I had, so I’ve just kept that work ethic, so to speak. I do have a couple of hours in the middle of the night that I can count on when things are quiet, and that’s my main writing time, but I will at intervals during the day. I write when I travel and so forth."

Then, when a deadline approaches, it’s officially go time for Gabaldon. “Eventually we get down to the deadline, my deadline, which means that the book is talking to me so strongly that I am not doing anything else other than eating and sleeping minimally,” she said. “It’s like being plugged into electrical mains with both hands and just stuff going through me. I’m not doing anything else. And luckily this only lasts two or three months or I’d die.”

I guess some people are better at multitasking than others. Maybe these two could get together and Gabaldon could share some tips with GRRM.

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h/t Cheatsheet