Fans of George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, know and understand that poor George isn’t the fastest of writers.
It’s easy to understand why though, what with helping the producers work on the TV adaptation, Game of Thrones, and the countless press tours and conventions he attends – but it seems there’s another reason why George’s books take so long.
A letter sent by George when he was a fresh faced teen to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby has revealed an awful lot about the legendarily slow paced writer.
In the letter George wrote that he found one flaw in a Fantastic Four comic, a flaw he calls ‘regrettably, very common’ in Kirby and Lee’s work.
He wrote:
When we last saw the Red Ghost in Fantastic Four #13 he was stuck on the moon being chased around by three super-powered apes livid with hatred and waving Mr. Fantastic’s paralyzer ray at him.
Now suddenly you bring him back in full control of his apes without one single word of explanation.
The future writer went on to point out other times the comic’s continuity had gone a bit squiffy and asked Lee and Kirby not to pull villains out of their hat again.
While some of you are no doubt nonplussed with the nerdy nitpickings of a teenage author, it actually tells us something about George R.R.
If we assume that he’s as rigorous with his own continuity as he is with the work of others, then no wonder the books take so long to write. After all, he’s got hundreds of characters separated by hundreds of miles to keep track of, not to mention the sprawling histories he’s written for each house.
It must be like herding cats!
Although the whole trapped on the moon being chased by apes with ray guns thing may explain whats happened to Benjen Stark, who’s still missing in the books!
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.