Are We There Yet?

I had to take a break from reading A Dance With Dragons and pick up something else. In this case, it was Terry Pratchett's Pyramids. Yes, I'm still reading Pratchett since I recently discovered him. I'm now working my way through from the beginning, no matter how much I want to skip down the list and get to Going Postal. I've seen the movie, and it was good, but I want to read the book, too, which brings me back to George R. R. Martin.

I wasn't halfway through A Dance With Dragons when I began to notice I was leaning forward as though trying to make a slowing vehicle keep moving, preferably faster. It didn't work. I had to stop and pick up something else.

It isn't that I don't enjoy the different birds' eye views of what is happening in Westeros and across the Narrow Sea, but that the story should be further along. I also just want to slap Danaerys Targaryen (do Dothraki have last names?) because she has turned into a whiny, indecisive, and utterly boring character afraid of her own shadow and second guessing everything and everyone. She has become weak where before she was a force to be reckoned with. Now she is just puling.(Spoiler alert!)

Puling. Now that is an interesting word. It's another word for whining and whimpering. Okay, so one of the dragons has eaten a child so you lock the others up and keep them chained in the deepest dungeons. Is that fair? They didn't flame and eat a child. They stuck to sheep. There is no reason to believe that Drogon did it on purpose. Well, he had to do it on purpose since he ate the child, but not with malicious intent. For all you know, she was dressed in sheepskin and looked like a tasty sheep. Dragons have to eat, don't they? That's no reason to chain the others in the dungeon and stop visiting them. Dragons are intelligent. Train them and they will obey. You are the dragon mother after all. But I digress.

The whole point is that A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons could have been combined in a much smaller book and the story advanced. The fourth book should have been the end of the story -- or at least getting closer to it than it is now. It's time to bring things to a head and close it down. If George wanted to write more, he could do anthologies of stories from Westeros with the characters he has introduced and even create some more, but this series should be done by now.

I'm a writer and I certainly don't like people telling me how to write or what to write (except for my editor, and I reserve the right to disagree on issues of plot and story lines, and the occasional comma, but never about grammar). The problem here is that a series should end at some point, but not like Peter Danielson did in his Child of the Lion series where he screwed with history and time just to keep the same players and their offspring playing in the same field instead of the hundreds of years that passed in real time. That's why I gave up the series. As much as I liked Shobai and his brother Hadad's children, and the whole children of Cain series, I couldn't get past the time thing. Danielson wrote 19 books in his Child of the Lion series; is George Martin aiming for the same number of books? If so, he's going to have to move the story forward faster. At least in Danielson's books, the story moved quickly and something happened in every book to advance the series. With Martin, not so much. It feels like treading water in a drying mud pit.

That is not to say that I don't enjoy all the points of view or the story (what there is of it) but that I want the story and characters to actually move forward. The White Walkers haven't been mentioned in ages and haven't made an assault on the Wall. It is as if the White Walkers have stopped being a threat, what with all the resettling of the wildlings and such. George seems to have lost the thread and is wandering around trying to tell too many stories without advancing the plot, which brings up the question of when is a book done? 

I've asked that question with every book and story I've written -- or began to write. When does it end? When is the story done?

The answer in one case was never since I had no middle, only a beginning and an end. I had fleshed out the characters and got caught up in the relationship of the characters without having any idea what the middle of the story that took me to the end (girl gets boy) really was. I shelved the book, and rightly so. I didn't have a clue what the story was about, just an idea and something I wanted to say. I knew I'd lost the thread after about the 5th or 6th chapter and decided it was enough. Time to shelve the book. I had some great scenes and wonderful characterizations going, but no story. It was time to shut it down.

It feels like Martin has the same problem. He's become mesmerized with telling so many points of view that he has lost the thread of the story and the initial impetus to get going. That doesn't mean he doesn't tell a great story -- or at least he usually does -- but that he needs to get back on track, focus, and get moving on the main event, which is the coming of winter and the White Walkers and bringing Dany to Westeros with her dragons ready to fight and take back the iron throne from the Lannisters -- or rather from Cersei Lannister, if she gets to live now that she is in peril of her life from her actions. (I haven't finished Dragons yet, so I don't know whether she will call on ser Gregor Clegane from the pit or if Jaime will at last be able to fight with his left hand and win the day for his sister, lover, whatever.)

It is so easy to get caught up in telling so many different stories in a series that you lose focus and the point of the main story, which is to make good on the promise of the first book, the very first words. If a writer cannot maintain that focus and keep moving forward, it is far too easy to get lost. Don't want to kill all those wonderful darlings, and yet the writer must if he is to keep his audience and not coast on his laurels.

With series books, and even with trilogies, there is at least a year wait between books and, while this seems not to be a big deal, for those who began reading when the series began, to have to wait for so many years is asking a bit much, especially when there is an 8-year gap between the first 3 books and the 4th. I don't think I want to wait around another 8 years for the next book, and I doubt the 4th book would be out if HBO had not decided to make Game of Thrones. George wants to see the whole story told on the screen, and so do the fans, but what if the series doesn't pan out? What if it becomes too costly to continue making the series? Will HBO cancel it before we get to the part where the dragons reach Westeros and battle with the White Walkers and winter is joined? Will George ever finish the series?

Too many questions with no answers as yet. So far, we have season 2 of Game of Thrones and season 3 has been promised, and is likely now getting ready to film, but that's no guarantee of season 4 or the finish of the story.

A word to the wise. When a story begins to pall and you're treading drying mud, it's time to reassess what you have. If it's a story where the middle can be found and put in (not possible with my aviatrix and her lost aviator love in enemy hands) or the main thread can be found and followed to its inevitable conclusion (whatever that will be), then get busy and get on with it. If not, it's time to consign the story to the shelf. It's time may come, or it may not, but at least there are more stories to tell.

So, if I had any advice to give George (and who does not?), I'd say get back on track and save all these little stories for an anthology of stories from Westeros -- it would sell millions -- but get back on track and finish the story you began in A Game of Thrones. It's time to kill those darlings (or save them for an anthology) and move along or a lot more people are going to be puling, "Are we there yet?" And that's no good for anyone.

The Tyranny of Series Novels

Since George R. R. Martin blogged about how some of his fans were actually angry at his slow pace on putting out the fifth book in the Fire & Ice series, many authors have been asking who is in charge, the author or the fan. It's seems like a simple answer. The author is in charge. The answer is not so simple. The author is in charge of writing, but publishers, editors and fans have more control than you would think.

When Stephen King posed this question, he came up with a novel length answer: Misery. King put the author in danger and in the hands of a psychotic fan enraged that he had killed off her favorite serial character, Misery Chastain, and changed both their lives. Seeing that as one dangerous extreme of the author-fan spectrum, what is the other end?

Writing a series of novels around a character or group of characters can be fun -- for a while. It's a great way to build up readership and a loyal fan base, but it's also hard work that often ends in tears and flat writing.

Traditional publishers are all about the series because it brands an author and that leads to pseudonyms, writing on a tight schedule and often repetition. The publisher cracks the whip. What next? The author complies with an outline of the next book in the series and the work begins again . . . and again . . . and again, and so on until the author is played out or on the verge of a major snit fit. Too often the publisher's demands exceed the muse's well of creativity and newness and the books suffer. The writing is flat and bordering on repetitious, if not downright repetitious, and rabbits must be pulled from an assortment of hats. I've seen it happen to too many series that started out wonderful and ended up boring.

Anne Rice's famous vampires were fresh and interesting once upon a time, but they became boring and irritating and no longer any good. That happened about the time that Memnoch, the Devil came out and the series didn't survive very long after that. Anne even took a powder and decided to write something else, turning her back on her vampires for religious writing.

Katie McAllister's books were fun and innovative with her vampires looking for their one true soul mate to save them from their wicked, wicked ways and make them whole. I read several and noticed that the same situations cropped up in almost the same point in the next story as in previous tales and there was little variation in the characters or their dialogue and demeanor. I have not read her dragon series or her steampunk novel, but I'd be willing to say there is a similar issue with those as well.

Charlaine Harris has fallen down the rabbit hole with her latest addition to the Sookie-verse and several other authors have fallen down the same hole, albeit with a different landing zone.

It's nearly impossible to sustain the enthusiasm for a single character or group of characters unless you're either very committed or have an endless range of stories that fits that particular universe. Boredom sets in for reader as well as most discerning fans, although the die hard fans will drive the author nuts demanding the next book in the series -- or else. Fans can be so possessive of what they consider to be their books and their characters, hence King's premise in Misery.

Many authors of genre fiction choose to write the same style of books without following a single character, like David Baldacci, although David does branch out a lot and remains firmly entrenched in the thriller genre. It's the one he knows and knows how to write very well.

A few decades ago, I picked up a novel, Children of the Lion, by Peter Danielson and was introduced to writing that mingled fact and fiction with what were purported to be the children of Cain. You know Cain, the first murderer who killed his brother Abel so his god would love him more. I enjoyed the books thoroughly and couldn't wait for the next book in the series, until I hit The Golden Pharoah. I had a big problem with the short reign of the Shepherd Kings in Egypt during the schism and the fifty-year bondage of the Israelites. That much disbelief I was not willing to suspend. I was done and didn't go back. I had the same problem with Anne Rice's Mayfair witches series that took off from the Vampire Chronicles to follow the line of Mayfair witches and who had the power in the next generation. The first book was wonderful, the second a bit bizarre and, with brief forays into more interesting territory, the books and writing descended into bland territory and I was done.

Maybe I don't have an obsessive gene that allows me to overlook banal writing, predictable plots and endless repetition or maybe I just don't have the stamina for an endless stream of books built around the same characters or situation. Whatever it is, I fail to understand the need for a fan to dictate to an author what should and shouldn't be written and on what schedule.

It could also be that I'm an author with lots of stories to write and I know how hard it is to be fresh and original with the same character or group of characters. I have never loved any character that much, even though I will be returning to New Orleans to tell the rest of Pearl Caldwell's story and write what happens when Pearl and J. D. Bath meet again, and they will meet again. It's only one more book and not a real series. Series aren't really series until they get past trilogy. So far, there is no plan for me to venture into that particular territory. Two books are okay. I can even envision a trilogy, but I doubt I'll head into series territory any time soon, or within my lifetime.

George R. R. Martin is writing the fifth book in his series and it looks like there will be another one after that one. How many more he plans is up to him. His fans have been rude and demanding and refuse to understand that some authors just don't do deadlines well. A book takes as long as it takes and fans need to understand that or Stephen King's fantasy may well become real.

My advice to readers and fans is to accept what is given in the time that it is given and be glad when you get it. Treat it like a Faberge egg: priceless, enjoyable and one of a kind. I felt that way about Frank Herbert's Dune series. His was the one series of books that never got old, wasn't repetitious and was always fresh and new. He was a rare author and I followed his stories whenever I could find them. I have also read his son Brian's continuation of the series and have enjoyed them so far, but there are only so many hours in a day and I must write my own books -- and book reviews. They are my Faberge eggs -- so far. I hope they stay that way.

As for publishers demanding additions to the brand names they feel that they have created (chain gangs authors are being tied to), buy a clue. An author is a rare and precious thing able to create wondrous worlds and memorable characters. Treat them gently or they will find someone who will. Series work on television because writing is done by committee.