Agreed, I could go for a split in publication as long as the two parts came out a few months apart.
RandAllThor Send a noteboard - 16/02/2010 04:20:06 PM
From Martin's latest not-blog entry:
"Just musing aloud here, so don't anyone get all hysterical... but depending on how long the book comes out, moving some of these finished chapters into WINDS OF WINTER may make sense. Structurally you could make a good case for making DANCE a perfect parallel to FEAST; different cast of characters, but exactly the same time frame, so both books end on the same approximate date. Then WINDS could pick up the action for both sets of characters the following day.
That's not the way I have been doing it, however. As written, I've covered the FEAST time frame in the first 800 pages (manuscript pages, the printed book pages will be different) of DANCE. Everything that follows is post-FEAST, so that's where some of the cast from the last book start popping up again. Not the most elegant structure, I admit... but given how late this one is, I wanted to resolve at least a few of the cliffhangers from FEAST... (if only to set up the new cliffhangers). So..."
For what little it's worth, I thought I should go on record to say that the idea of splitting based on chronology would be a huge mistake. To say nothing of the fact that circa 800 manuscript pages would produce a frustratingly short volume after a five-year wait, and presumably the shortest one in the series to date, leaving Dany's plotline before her potential suitors arrive would mean that we can probably expect minimal plot progress in her arc, which would put off a lot of readers. I think Martin's best course might be to compromise and cut selectively from the Feast cast, leaving Dany's suitors in Dance but leaving Cersei, Brienne, and some of the others for Winds.
Any thoughts?
"Just musing aloud here, so don't anyone get all hysterical... but depending on how long the book comes out, moving some of these finished chapters into WINDS OF WINTER may make sense. Structurally you could make a good case for making DANCE a perfect parallel to FEAST; different cast of characters, but exactly the same time frame, so both books end on the same approximate date. Then WINDS could pick up the action for both sets of characters the following day.
That's not the way I have been doing it, however. As written, I've covered the FEAST time frame in the first 800 pages (manuscript pages, the printed book pages will be different) of DANCE. Everything that follows is post-FEAST, so that's where some of the cast from the last book start popping up again. Not the most elegant structure, I admit... but given how late this one is, I wanted to resolve at least a few of the cliffhangers from FEAST... (if only to set up the new cliffhangers). So..."
For what little it's worth, I thought I should go on record to say that the idea of splitting based on chronology would be a huge mistake. To say nothing of the fact that circa 800 manuscript pages would produce a frustratingly short volume after a five-year wait, and presumably the shortest one in the series to date, leaving Dany's plotline before her potential suitors arrive would mean that we can probably expect minimal plot progress in her arc, which would put off a lot of readers. I think Martin's best course might be to compromise and cut selectively from the Feast cast, leaving Dany's suitors in Dance but leaving Cersei, Brienne, and some of the others for Winds.
Any thoughts?
Cutting the book at the break may actually be a good idea from the idea of putting * something * out ASAP. If the 'complete' ADWD goes to around 1600 MS pages the book will have to be cut anyway, so chopping around page 800 (which is still 500 pages or so in mmpb, still a respectable length if not the huge book we were hoping for) makes sense. That then leaves ADWD Part 1 as the flipside of A FEAST FOR CROWS (A RAVIOLI FOR RAVENS?) and Part 2 as the pushing-the-narrative forwards next book in the series which sets things up properly for THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING.
This would only work and be sellable to the fanbase if Part 2 was actually 100% finished, done and delivered at the same time Part 1 was published, and Part 2 came out at the most six months later.
I think overall, however, this situation should be avoided and a full, chunky novel published ASAP. After leafing through some of Diana Gabaldon's time travelling romance novels in the bookstore and seeing how big they are (one of them is over 1,500 pages in paperback), the whinging publishers' excuses about books being too thick to be fitted into one volume doesn't really wash.
Still more SoIaF news
- 05/02/2010 02:45:59 PM
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Maybe he should split it in half. Make it a kind of split-by-characters.
- 05/02/2010 02:51:47 PM
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Not trying to be snarky here, but isn't his blog publicly available?
- 05/02/2010 04:12:47 PM
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Re: Not trying to be snarky here, but isn't his blog publicly available?
- 05/02/2010 04:51:50 PM
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I guess. It just sort of reminds me of the people who would post Onion stories back at wotmania.
- 05/02/2010 05:17:09 PM
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Perhaps someone could create a single sticky thread for all pre-Dance completion news. *NM*
- 05/02/2010 07:03:16 PM
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I didn't think it was generally known that he had pushed back an Arya chapter. I didn't know anyway.
- 05/02/2010 07:01:08 PM
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It is older news.
- 06/02/2010 04:20:43 PM
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Re: It is older news.
- 06/02/2010 09:08:21 PM
352 Views
Nothing is off the table at this point + there's a new update.
- 09/02/2010 01:56:36 PM
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Yep.
- 09/02/2010 02:11:58 PM
290 Views
Reminiscent of the situation at the end of the writing process on AFFC.
- 09/02/2010 05:38:08 PM
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On splitting ADWD
- 16/02/2010 12:32:51 PM
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Re: On splitting ADWD
- 16/02/2010 03:54:51 PM
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Agreed, I could go for a split in publication as long as the two parts came out a few months apart.
- 16/02/2010 04:20:06 PM
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