[ProfCrash]

I am in full agreement with DD here.

I am sure that when GRRM started the books it was a great story that he started that he had to write/wanted to write and if it sold that would be awesome. I think I can say the same about many authors of a series, like JKR and Harry Potter.

But there is a very real difference here.

The Harry Potter novels took off and JKR took more time between books and they got longer. But the length of time in between the books was not really all that bad. The first book was published in 1997 and the last book was published in 2007. The books grew in length as the stories developed. It was clear she had an outline from day one and she knew where the characters and the story was going. She has had every opportunity to cash in on this franchise, and she has with the movies, games and theme parks, but she has not given into the demand to write more books based on the characters as adults and the like. Maybe she will, maybe she won't but so far she said she had a specific story to tell and she told it.

GRRM started with a story that he wanted to tell and started out strong. It is a great world, well developed, organized and way bloody but well developed and interesting. Then something happened. The books were meet with a ton of success. People started wanting more. He didn't hold steady to whatever plan he had, he changed that plan. He said that he meant for the fourth book to jump ahead in time to allow the kids to grow up but decided he couldn't do that. Was that because he didn't want to tell the story from that perspective or because he knew he could make more money by writing more books and introducing new characters? Who knows. Only he knows his motivations.

Geralt: Look at his interviews before the TV show. When he was dragging the process out between books three and four, long before the TV series, he was talking about the artistry and all that fun stuff. He was able to deliver a book every two years for the first three books but once it was clear that the series was a huge hit with the fans, it suddenly took a good deal more time to churn out the fourth book. He has gotten worse since the TV series was announced but he was bad before the TV series ever happened. And the pressure was there back then.

All I know, from an outside perspective as someone who loved the first three books, is that he went from delivering a great book once every two years to taking 4-6 years in between books and delivering books that were longer, not as well written and not as focused. Oh, and he added in a TV series. And he his written special novellas.

So, while not a perfect comparison, I can look at two authors who started with an idea that they had to write and took totally different paths. One wrote the story she wanted to write, delivered reasonably quickly while franchising her story and is happy with how it all turned out. Another is writing a story that appears to have changed after the third book was published and has taken an approach that is ok because he is an artist writing for art and not for money and all those people who want him to write the books are simply those who don't understand the grand artistry and really should not be looking at the speaking engagements, tv shows, ever expanding number of books and lack of publishing anything in a timely fashion.