Martin ha rilasciato una lunga intervista dove ha parlato di un po' di tutto. Posto il pezzo che riguarda DANCE e affini:

Ryan: So could we talk a little bit about the book series and where that stands? I'm sorry to be the millionth person to ask you if you're getting close to finishing "A Dance With Dragons." I hate to do it because I know what it's like to be on a deadline and have someone ask you about when you're going to be done.

Martin: You were at Medill [school of Journalism at Northwestern], right?

 

Ryan: I was.

Martin: I bring that up because even when I was a college student, I picked [the magazine course] because they didn’t have deadlines every day. I love newspapers; I love the history of newspapers. But the idea of having a deadline every day at 5:00, -- [i thought] I’m going to have a heart attack at 42 if I go into that work. Magazines, you have a month to write your article.

 

I’ve never been good with deadlines. My early novels, I wrote by myself. No one knew I was writing a novel, I didn’t have a contract. Many writers will get a contract by selling chapters and outlines or something like that. I wrote the entire novel and when it was all finished, I would give it to my agent and say, "Well, here's a novel, sell it if you can." And they would do that and it was good because I never had anyone looking over my shoulder.

 

But obviously you can’t do that with a series. And so I do have contracts and I do have a series and people are expecting it to come out. So, it has produced this pressure and with this book. It’s obviously the worst I’ve ever blown a deadline, although I had blown deadlines before. And I am very aware of that.

 

Some fans seem to think I’m not conscious of that, but I am aware of it every day. I think I am approaching the end of "Dance," knock wood. I had a very, very productive period in February and March and the early part of March, and I slowed down a little in the latter part of March, so I got to get back in the groove again.

 

Ryan: And you will make the announcement of when it's done on your "Not a Blog," I assume.

Martin: Yeah. The minute I do it. I told the fans that a million times. But there are still ones that don’t believe me -- they read my posts like some kind of Delphic Oracle speaking. You know, "Is there a clue there that he’s actually finished the book?"

 

Ryan: It’s funny because I loved that famous post that Neal Gaiman wrote [about deadlines and expectations for authors]?

Martin: Oh yeah. [laughs]

 

Ryan: It was a great statement about how sometimes creativity can't be rushed. But having said that ... I have to ask... You wrote on the blog about some problems you had to solve with this particular book. Do you think having solved those problems will make the next books come more quickly?

Martin: I hope so. I hope that this is, you know, the middle book and it’ll get easier after this, but I don’t know. When we split "A Feast for Crows" [into two books], I thought the second half would go easier, and I made the mistake of actually saying in the back of "Feast for Crows," "Well the [next] book is half written, I should be able to finish it in a year." But obviously, I was off by four years.

 

Ryan: It happens. It's funny, with the book series -- as the HBO adaptation has gotten more publicity, more and more people I know are reading the book series and they all, once they start, get totally into it. I’ll get emails at 2 in the morning – "How could Martin DO that? I can’t believe that happened." They understand the intensity of the fandom once they’ve dipped into the books. They get it, you know? And I have to give credit to my husband for recommending the books in the first place, he read them way before me.

Martin: Is your husband a journalist as well?

 

Ryan: Oh no. But we’re both reading freaks. It’s so funny, once in a while on my website someone will leave a comment saying, "Why don’t you just read a book sometime?" Which I find hilarious, because I spend so much of my free time reading.

Martin: I hate to say this because books are my first love. I’ve always loved books more than anything else, but television and film have become our – they’re [a huge] part of our culture.

 

Ryan: Yeah.

Martin: I mean, I associate with a lot of other writers, I attend conventions and hang out with them. We have a writer’s group in Albuquerque, we have lunch together all the time. And they’re science-fiction/fantasy writers mostly. And even talking about science fiction, I’ll say, "Well, what did you think of the new China Mieville book?" And no one will have read it. Someone else will say, "Well, I read this book by so-and-so, did you read that?" And no one would have read it.

 

And then, "What did you think of 'Avatar?'" And everyone would have seen it. And there we are talking about "Avatar" for the next hour. [Then it's] what do you think is going to happen next on "Lost" or "House" and all that stuff. This stuff is becoming common culture even for people who make their living writing books, much more so than the books themselves. And that maybe an unfortunate thing, but I don’t know. Maybe there’s a circle out there where they’re still talking about Proust rather than "House." But I’m not part of that circle.

 

Ryan: No, I think you’re right. And a lot of shows these days invite intense analysis, which is great for what I do.

Martin: You know, I've written some standalone novels, but a book series allows fans in. There's much more intense involvement. With a standalone book, you get, "Hey, I liked your novel." When it's a series, it can be a much different discussion.

 

Ryan: Does that ever change what you're doing? Do you read message boards and all that?

Martin: I try not to let it influence me. Sometimes people will figure out a twist that you're contemplating, so the temptation is to change what would have been the twist. That way lies madness and disaster. So I read some [comment areas on GRRM-related sites] early on [but not now].

 

No matter what, it's exciting as an artist to have a response to your work. Sometimes you put so much work into a book and it’s carefully crafted and it’s got secondary meanings and subtext and a little foreshadowing and you have no idea when they go, "Oh, I like your book," that anybody is getting any of it.

 

But when they’re responding to that, you can see that they’re getting [what you're trying to do]. You’re trying to do something and it’s not coming across. You invented this character and everybody hates it. Or everybody completely misunderstands the character, so you might not be doing it right, you know?

 

Ryan: Yeah, exactly. I just want to briefly ask you about coming to conventions -- is that at the request of your publishers?

Martin: Well, you know, I started out as a fan. I went to my first convention in 1971 when I had sold one story. But there are different types of conventions these days and they all came out of the science-fiction culture, which goes all the way back to the ‘30’s. But comic book fandom has become much bigger than science fiction fandom, and [now there are] media conventions, which really mean television and film.

 

I tend to go to three or four science-fiction conventions a year, just because that’s where my roots are, I have a lot of friends there, etc. So I go to those just for myself, really.

 

L'intera intervista qui: Link

ma riassumendo ?

Riassumendo, Martin sa che quei libri li deve proprio scrivere.

Nel podcast di dragonpage.com, Martin parla di Warriors, di ASoIaF e della serie HBO.

Sulle Cronache, elenca soprattutto i motivi per cui ha e sta impiegando così tanto tempo per scrivere gli ultimi due libri (Feast e Dance), rispetto ai primi tre. Riassumendoli:

- La saga è cresciuta parecchio dall'idea della trilogia iniziale (più personaggi, complicazioni, trame e sottotrame).

- Ha raggiunto una parte difficile (tricky) della storia.

- Ha perso un anno e mezzo, durante il quale aveva scritto la storia col gap dei 5 anni, poi cestinata perché per alcuni personaggi non funzionava.

- Abbandonato il gap, le cose sono andate meglio; ma ciò che andava bene col gap, va un po' meno bene senza, per cui si è dovuto ingegnare per risolvere questi nuovi problemi sorti nel frattempo.

- Sta diventando vecchio (lo dice ridendo) e perfezionista.

- Tutti i complimenti che gli hanno fatto lo spingono a migliorarsi. Visto che questa è l'opera per cui sarà ricordato, non gli basta più scrivere qualcosa di "semplicemente" buono, ma vuole che sia eccezionale.

- Non era abituato a scrivere storie non autoconclusive, e lui già di suo non è mai stato veloce a scrivere.

- Ora c'è molta più pressione rispetto all'inizio. Prima, quando scriveva un libro (fa l'esempio di Fevre Dreams), lo faceva quasi all'oscuro di tutto e tutti. Ora, tra le email dei lettori, le telefonate degli editori, date di pubblicazione sui siti, eccetera, è tutto diverso.

Riassumendo, pensa che si sta avvicinando alla fine di ADWD (toccando legno) ma non ha ancora una data sicura di conclusione!

Dal blog:

Monkey front. Whacking at King Kong, making progress, but not as fast or easy as I like. But Freaky Monkey is finally coming together, and him I should be able to get off my back in the next few weeks

Few weeks, non si era mai spinto a tanto, forse ci siamo. :unsure:

ohmygod la luceeeeeeeeeee :unsure:

Dal blog:

 

Monkey front. Whacking at King Kong, making progress, but not as fast or easy as I like. But Freaky Monkey is finally coming together, and him I should be able to get off my back in the next few weeks

 

Few weeks, non si era mai spinto a tanto, forse ci siamo. ^_^

In un post diversi mesi fa ha detto che sperava di ultimarlo entro l'anno (il 2009), e la scadenza era, se non qualche settimana, certo non piu' di due o tre mesi. Pensavo che avesse deciso di non fare piu' pronostici ma nell'ultimo anno credo che sia gia' il terzo. Una parte di me crede che se prima aveva annunciato di non fare piu' previsioni, e poi ha cambiato idea, magari davvero si intravede la luce. I post ottimistici circa il suo lavoro potrebbero supportare questa ipotesi...

E' come DNF: sara' pronto quando sara' pronto :unsure:

settimane... :unsure:

ci conto, vecchio balordo! ^_^ ^_^

Stavolta credo che sia la volta buona, George stesso ha ammesso di aver avuto un periodo particolarmente fecondo tra marzo e aprile, quindi pesno che abbia risolto buona parte dei problemi del libro.

Non per rovinarvi la festa, ma le poche settimane si riferiscono alla Freaky Monkey (Fort Freak è il prossimo volume delle Wild Cards); King Kong è ADwD, e su quello è stato vago come sempre.

Ah ecco....mi pareva che ci fosse qualcosa che non quadrava. Io a domandarmi cosa c'entrassero King Kong e le scimmie con ADWD, e gli altri a parlare della luce :unsure: : cominciavo a dubitare del mio inglese.

Beh, in ogni caso mi sembra che oramai sia a buon punto: a marzo diceva di aver già pronte 1300 e passa pagine di manoscritto, poi in queste ultime settimane continua a ribadire di essere in un ottimo periodo produttivo... insomma, quanto lungo lo vuole fare 'sto libro?

Oh, sì, sarebbe una buona notizia: ma ho letto un po' troppo spesso delle sue speranze nel futuro per crederci fino in fondo. Secondo me quella dichiarazione non cambia nulla... Vedremo.

Mah... io sono abbastanza fiducioso. Bisogna innanzituttto considerare che innegabilmente le sue previsioni del futuro vanno prese con le pinze, ma ricordare anche che ormai dovrebbe aver superato la crisi di A Feast. La sua dichiarazione lascia intendere che il lavoro procede bene: se vuole finire il libro in autunno, cioè tra 3-4 mesi, deve aver già scritto molto (questo ammettendo che non decida di mettersi a riscrivere quanto già fatto). Il grosso dovrebbe essere a posto.Voglio dire, forse sperare nella fine dell'anno è troppo, ma questo indica chiaramente che durante il 2007 il volume non solo sarà finito, ma uscirà.

Per la serie "chi vive sperando, muore caxando"...ecco uno dei tanti post simili agli ultimi. Occhio alla data :unsure:

Non per rovinarvi la festa, ma le poche settimane si riferiscono alla Freaky Monkey (Fort Freak è il prossimo volume delle Wild Cards); King Kong è ADwD, e su quello è stato vago come sempre.

Ahahahah. ^_^ Meno male che non ho letto questo topic ieri. A sentire parlare di settimane avrei iniziato a urlare per casa mi sa. ^_^ Grazie Ilyn. Comunque meglio qualche notizia di un vago progresso che niente dal mio punto di vista. ^_^

Per la serie "chi vive sperando, muore caxando"...ecco uno dei tanti post simili agli ultimi. Occhio alla data ^_^

Ce ne deve essere qualcuno anche dei miei datati 2008/2009. :unsure: ^_^

Viva l'ottimismo!!! ^_^ ^_^