In which Larry Correia indisputably proves himself not just to be The Mountain That Writes, but The Mountain That Writes at pulp speed:
I’ll save you the time of counting. Larry is outproducing George R. R. Martin thirteen books to one.
The days of authors being picked out of the slush pile or the old short fiction market by the Big Five publishers to become household names while writing one book per year, or whenever they feel like it, are over. The future of genre fiction looks much like the pulp past: enterprising authors toiling in the word mines to bring their readers a steady stream of pure entertainment.
Aspiring authors who were counting on tradpub to make them the next George R. R. Martin, James Patterson, J.K. Rowling, or Stephen King should adjust their expectations accordingly.
GRRM could not be reached for comment.
NB: Several people have been commenting on how much fun they’ve had reading my new fantasy novella, including at least one guy who knows all about writing at pulp speed.
-Pulp author Jonathan Moeller
I actually looked up the numbers one time and GRRM's writing speed is, at best, something like 680-odd words a day. AT BEST. His usual average is something like 400 or so. Which is pathetic, especially since he's more than capable of living off of his writing and the tv show. There's no excuse for this other than sheer laziness. He's going to die before he finishes GoT, mark my words, and he'll have no one but himself to blame.
I mean my average probably isn't much better but when I write I at least try to get out about 3-4,000 words per session, days apart, and in between I'm recording audio work, writing posts for my blog, editing audio, recording and editing podcasts, or doing general upkeep and maintenance on the house. If I was just writing and that was all that was expected of me, I would be absolutely killing George in productivity. And I want to, I just have other things that I have to do as well as write.
It's disgraceful that it's taken him six years to work on this book and it's not even done. I don't know if he has pretender syndrome, he's just out of ideas, if he's got bored of the story, if it's gotten out of hand, or if he's just plain laziness, but whichever it is (and I know where my money is), there is no reason to look up to this man as a writer and aspire to be him.
Apologies for the freaking novel, I just have a serious grudge against people like Martin.
Thanks for running the numbers. I have no doubt that a highly motivated individual like yourself would blow GRRM out of the water given enough free time.
Good theories on why he hasn't finished an ASOIAF novel in six years. I favor Vox's assessment that Martin let his POV characters multiply out of hand, tried to cull the herd after it was already too late, and ended up killing off every remotely sympathetic character.
Jim
No worries. entertsiners' job is to make us forget for a few hours the drudgery of life. So you guys have your job and it requires a commitment to get stuff out the door.
Guys like Martin are literally stealing other writer's chances and livelihood.
My gut feeling is that he's stopped enjoying the series because it's just so bleak I'm had enough by the 3rd book and won't bother with the series.
I'm pathetic but at least I'm a hobbyist who's practicing to be a writer. As I'm practicing in another language i have to write much slower as I haven't totally mastered the vocabulary. But that's ok I'm not under contract.
So thanks for working hard for our beer money 🙂
xavier
I look at the picture of GRRM and all I can picture is Steve McQueen hunting the Blob with a fire extinguisher.
Sad, George. Sad.
Somebody call the BURN ward!
There's a video on YouTube somewhere with Martin complaining about Tolkien not giving his audience enough on how Aragon ruled all those 500 years. Yeah that's exactly what we were craving, a few hundred pages on the domestic and foreign policy of the Aragon regime. If that's how he thinks, not finishing Game of Thrones is the least he can do for his fans.
Martin should really be looking at Burroughs and Howard, anyway.
Ya know that could be fun to write about Aragon in the 4th age. Of course I'd blatantly rip off the Luisades and Bernal de Diaz com age of discovery.
Last time this topic came up, you could check on GRRM's livejournal and he'd have a report on all the great stuff he did editing and writing for his low-selling 'Wild Cards' played out shared world superhero thing that came out of a superpowers roleplaying game he was in dozens of years back.
So like, totally important stuff yo.
Don't forget how he dodges questions about ASoIaF by digressing into posts about football.