((Some of what follows may be vaguely spoilerish. Don't read if you hate spoilers).
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS just got a little shorter.
What's happened is, I've decided to move two completed chapters, from Arianne's POV, out of the present volume and into THE WINDS OF WINTER. This is something I've gone back and forth on. Arianne wasn't originally supposed to have any viewpoint chapters in DANCE at all, but there's this... hmmm, how vague do I want be? VERY vague, I think... there's this event that would of necessity provoke a Dornish reaction. The event was originally going to occur near the end of the book, but in one of my forty-seven restructures I moved it to the late middle instead. And the timeline then required that the Dornish reaction happen in this book and not the next one, so I wrote the two Arianne chapters and was going to write a third... and a chapter from another POV that would be a necessary complement to them, and...
But no, I've restructured again, and put the original precipitating event back close to the end of the book. Which means the Arianne chapters can be returned to WINDS, where I had 'em originally. It also means that I don't have to write that third Arianne chapter and the complementary chapter from the other POV... not yet, anyway... which moves DANCE two chapters closer to completion. (The move did mean I had to revise two chapters from another POV, which took place after the event in last week's draft, but now take place before said event, but fortunately that was just a matter of tweaking a couple of lines).
I suppose this is a good news/ bad news situation.
Bad news for those who want DANCE to be really, really, really long, as long as STORMS OF SWORDS or longer. This move makes DANCE four chapters (two written, one partly written, one entirely unwritten) shorter.
But it's good news for DANCE, since I'm now two chapters (the ones I hadn't finished) closer to completion. And hey, it's even good news for WINDS OF WINTER, since I now have four chapters done for that one (an Arya, a Sansa, and two Ariannes).
This, of course, is assuming that I don't change my mind again tomorrow and put everything back the way it was last week.
I am dancing, boys and girls, I'm dancing as fast as I can. But some days it does feel as if I am dancing in circles.
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS just got a little shorter.
What's happened is, I've decided to move two completed chapters, from Arianne's POV, out of the present volume and into THE WINDS OF WINTER. This is something I've gone back and forth on. Arianne wasn't originally supposed to have any viewpoint chapters in DANCE at all, but there's this... hmmm, how vague do I want be? VERY vague, I think... there's this event that would of necessity provoke a Dornish reaction. The event was originally going to occur near the end of the book, but in one of my forty-seven restructures I moved it to the late middle instead. And the timeline then required that the Dornish reaction happen in this book and not the next one, so I wrote the two Arianne chapters and was going to write a third... and a chapter from another POV that would be a necessary complement to them, and...
But no, I've restructured again, and put the original precipitating event back close to the end of the book. Which means the Arianne chapters can be returned to WINDS, where I had 'em originally. It also means that I don't have to write that third Arianne chapter and the complementary chapter from the other POV... not yet, anyway... which moves DANCE two chapters closer to completion. (The move did mean I had to revise two chapters from another POV, which took place after the event in last week's draft, but now take place before said event, but fortunately that was just a matter of tweaking a couple of lines).
I suppose this is a good news/ bad news situation.
Bad news for those who want DANCE to be really, really, really long, as long as STORMS OF SWORDS or longer. This move makes DANCE four chapters (two written, one partly written, one entirely unwritten) shorter.
But it's good news for DANCE, since I'm now two chapters (the ones I hadn't finished) closer to completion. And hey, it's even good news for WINDS OF WINTER, since I now have four chapters done for that one (an Arya, a Sansa, and two Ariannes).
This, of course, is assuming that I don't change my mind again tomorrow and put everything back the way it was last week.
I am dancing, boys and girls, I'm dancing as fast as I can. But some days it does feel as if I am dancing in circles.
- Current Mood:
crazy
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grrm- George R.R. Martin
- George R. R. Martin
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Comments
go!! (and good luck)
The bad part of all of this, is that i must wait for translation, i´m from spain. v.v
...
(Okay, fine, it's adjectival for the southernmost region of Westeros, and every word you wrote about it is burned into my brain forever. But you have no right to expect us to remember.)
considering it is already over a thousand pages long, it is about three times as long as the average fantasy novel, and your writing is certainly ten times better than the next fantasy writer, so it can be expected that these novels are taking three times as long to write.
As long as ADWD is released with the GRRM seal of approval, it will be well-worth the wait and I am sure people will want to read it over again.
It is interesting how fate brought together the greatest master fantasy writer and the greatest master actor of our time. I always thought that actors were overrated, but Roy Dotrice's performance on the audiobooks was so amazing that for the first time I saw that a good actor can display as much expertise, experience and creativity as any great artist, musician or writer. It would be a treat to hear him again on a another audiobook. May you both be blessed with a very long life.
Regards, Joe
has me anticipating the final product all the more
So, suffice it to say, I'm excited by the fact that we'll have more of Dorne in time. You had hinted at it a few months ago, of course, when you mentioned the Dornish sands as a locale, but I didn't quite dare to hope.
(I reserve the right to envision a younger Salma Hayek as Arianne, instead of Apollonia, however!)
Let's just hope he lives to see some of his hopes come true. Goat is ugly, especially if you keep drinking wine, but he is strong...
Oh, and just a random question: Did Egg ever visit the Watergardens (and his great-aunt Princess Daenerys) while he and Dunk visited Dorne? Somehow I think Dunk&Egg would have made a great couple in the pools ;-).
Said discussions (spoiler free) sound rather like this:
Me: "it must be blah! Only blah could provoke such a strong reaction!"
Hubby: "But wait. Wouldn't blahblah (alternative version of thing I suggested) also provoke a very strong negative reaction?"
Me: "But would Arianne necessary have anything to say about it, personally? And wouldn't the other people mostly affected by that be very far from Dorne?"
Hubby: "Maybe...but THIS basically unrelated thing happening SOMEWHERE ELSE involving OTHER PEOPLE! could ALSO provoke a strong Dornish reaction!"
And on and on.
Part of your style that I enjoy the most in this series is your willingness to re-hash as little backstory as possible within each new novel. A competent reader will remember enough from previous books and you sprinkle in just enough to help a times. I am honestly struggling through 'Wheel of Time' right now, the seventh book probably has 300-400 pages of pure backstory before anything new happens! It drives me crazy when writers do this!
Does anybody happen to know how many more books there are expected to be in the series beyond the two mentioned here?