Why Does George R.R. Martin Not Hire a Co-Author?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Aug. 17, 2020, 4:50 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
There still is no news on when George R.R. Martin shall finish The Winds of Winter, the sixth book of A Song of Ice and Fire, his epic series of books (and do not forget that there shall still be one further book, after that), so I cannot help but wonder why he does not hire a co-author to assist him with writing his series? Is he so arrogant that he believes that he does not require any assistance?
What does everyone else say about this? Why does George R.R. Martin not hire a co-author?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
Caerwyn, the Star Wars prequel trilogy is what happens when the creator of a franchise has too much control over it, and not enough input from other people; do you really want that in this franchise, as well?
August 17, 2020 5:08 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #4
Optimistic me says creative control, cynical me says he doesn't want to split the royalties, realist me says probably both.
Also, the last sentence of your first paragraph is a very loaded question. Do you honestly believe that it is arrogant for an artist to work alone? Martin has written an insanely successful book series without any help, so it is rather obvious that he doesn't require help.
August 17, 2020 5:14 p.m.
Your Star Wars argument not a valid point in the slightest. All you have shown is some creators, like Lucas, need editors - not that all creators do, and not that Martin does.
I could just as easily say that Tolkien is a prime example of a case where an author having full creative control is a necessity - Tolkien’s editors wanted him to make a number of spelling/grammatical changes to his works, which he refused - as a scholar of language, he had very carefully chosen specific words (like dwarves over dwarfs). The works were, ultimately, better off due to Tolkien’s full creative control.
But, besides showing how silly your Star Wars point is, that likewise has little bearing to Martin’s specific case.
You have no evidence to suggest Martin would create a “prequel trilogy“ if he lacked full creative control; whereas I already cited evidence that suggests others are unlikely to live up to what Martin has done thus far.
August 17, 2020 5:27 p.m. Edited.
It's a series he's been writing for something like 30 years now. He started putting it together back when I was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s. No one else can really do the things he's done with it that make the series great. You just have to have patience for it, he's always done it at his own pace.
August 18, 2020 12:54 a.m.
I mean this to be humorous not combative but I think these questions really fail to grasp art. Or artists.
Why would any artist need or feel the need to share their vision or creative process? Would you tell Prince, Bob Dylan and John Lennon,"You arrogant people, hire someone to write your songs!"
"Hey, Michelangelo! You take too long! Maybe you should have someone else do the painting for you!"
Not every writer can churn out books as fast as people famous for prolific writing like Stephen King, Piers Anthony and many others.
August 18, 2020 4:36 p.m.
It’s taking me awhile to formulate my thoughts on this topic. Does anyone want to comment for me while I Ponder this?
Caerwyn says... #2
Why should he? Sure, he takes forever to write his books, but it also means he has full creative control over them. Seeding control to a co-author is essentially putting your brainchild up for adoption - that’s an impossible task for any parent.
Plus, considering how close to 100% of the non-Martin content in the show was utter garbage, I’m not sure there’s any reason to believe others can give us the story that we deserve.
August 17, 2020 4:55 p.m.