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Originally Posted by Boaz  The gist of what I'm saying is that ASOIAF has had a very cohesive feel to it from the beginning. I assume that this is more than just luck on GRRM's part. I think he's planned this story meticulously. Many author's try to backdoor prophecy into their stories. Martin has put up a large amount of prophecy and foreshadowing up front. The only backdooring has been the Valonqar prophecy in Cersei's POV, but again that's explained by the fact that we never had a Cersei POV up until AFFC... I think it's good timing. ASOIAF does not feel open ended to me. It feels directed and focused. |
Sorry to take the wind out of your sails, Boaz, but Raven will do it to you anyway, and it's so rare to get the opportunity to beat him to it.
I may be teaching my gran to suck eggs here, but I think this is relevant to your point. I have no doubt that if it isn't, I'll soon be told.
I was lucky enough to get to a talk/signing with GRRM on his FFC tour, and someone asked more or less this exact question. His answer is one I've seen him give in a few other places. He divides authors into architects and gardeners.
Architects meticulously plan their books, creating detailed blueprints of every part of the story, chapter by chapter breakdowns so they know exactly what is happening, and what is going to happen. Then they fill out the rigid outline with prose, and build their novel.
Gardeners have a seed of an idea, and allow it to organically grow, exploring characters and their motivations by placing them in particular situations and seeing what they do (e.g. "I wonder what this character would do if I have him discovered cavorting with his twin sister by a small child...Good God, he's pushed him out of the window!!")
GRRM is very much of the second type. The first chapter came to him in a flash of inspiration while he was working on some other (now lost) novel, and he planted it in his fertile imagination to see what it would grow into.
From what I can gather, I think he had a fairly strong (but not immovable) idea of what the fate of the major characters was going to be at the end of the story (The Stark kids, Dany, Tyrion), but everything else was open-ended. For instance, I doubt characters like Brienne and Davos had even occured to him when he started out and I doubt he's decided their final destination even now.
He knows who's going to win the war with the Others, of course, but then so do we, don't we?
Also, if ASoIF was as meticuously planned as you suggest, it wouldn't have taken him seven years to write FFC.
Of course, the fact that it all appears to cohesive and structured rather than improvised just makes the achievement all the more impressive.
Does this answer your point, or should I return to lurking and keep my foolish opinions to myself....