A new found respect for slow-ass authors.

Patrick Rothfuss Fantasy Author

George RR Martin Fantasy Author

David T List Food Eater

I get emailed weekly from Goodreads updating me on new blog posts. I've considered sharing my thoughts on this before but hadn't. I guess today the planets are aligned. 

George RR Martin VS Brandon Sanderson!

Maybe you think you know where I'm going with this. Hear me out anyway because I might surprise you.

2011 was the year George published A Dance with Dragons, the latest novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Since then George has written a couple of novellas. The last thing he published is a collection of three previously published novellas in 2015.

When A Dance with Dragons was published, Sanderson had just released The Way of Kings, first of the Stormlight Archive. Since then he wrote and released the second entry in the series, Words of Radiance, in 2014. He recently finished book three and expects it to release in 2017. Aside from that he's written some 5-6 other novels and novellas.

Oh, I see. "HEADLINE: The author who writes SIX blog entries a week turns out no new content but the one who writes only TWO is super efficient."

No, that's not where I'm going with it. Although perhaps there's truth to be found in there...

You're about to bitch about George RR Martin's writing speed and how he blogs more than he writes.

I'm not. There was a point when I would have. When I see the above illustration, my gut response used to be - George, stop talking about everything except what people want to hear! Stop blogging so much and write the next novel. Look at Sanderson. Get his work ethic!

But the hard truth is, everything else aside,

I prefer to read George RR Martin over Brandon Sanderson. 

Sanderson has proclaimed himself a one-drafter, meaning his outline is so solid, he has such a great idea of where he's going with the story, that he can write it out, all 400k words, with no deviation to the plot.

Oh wow that's amazing! I can hardly get two characters to stop bickering long enough to fulfill their sex scene.

I know, right?
Except... his prose. Sanderson has also claimed to have "functional prose." This means he doesn't embellish the text or make it overly poetic but (and I am simplifying) he uses words as they are intended.

Unfortunately, for this reason, I find his books dull, no matter how efficiently he can churn them out. I am envious of his work ethic and happy for his success, considering how hard a worker he is. I'm glad there are people who love his work and I'm grateful he posts his creative writing lessons online for free (I've mentioned them before.)
But I need an unexpected turn of phrase that slaps my face. Witty prose that draws me elsewhere. Abrupt text that surprises me so much my inner critic is halted, if only for a moment.

As writers we each have our own goals and desires. I shouldn't compare Sanderson and Martin, but it happens. I shouldn't compare myself to other authors, as I so often do when I think about how long I've been working on Turesia. There is no timeline here. My first favorite author, the one who inspired me to create, was a slow-ass author. I mean, he had a good excuse, writing through the Great War and all that, but still.

I want my characters and world to outlive me. A good writer can hook you into reading about something you otherwise wouldn't, through magical manipulation of words. What's important to me is turning people onto the fantasy genre--and helping unlock the potential of those who already love fantasy--while building Silexare into a breathing, pulsing world.
If that takes me another draft or two, another year or two, then so be it.