I imagine it's tough to be a writer, in general. As a coder, it burns me out heavily to sit at the same screen for 8 hours a day, working on the same project endlessly without much of a break, to get something done over a long period of time. That's happening with me now, in fact, porting a crappy old mis-architected MS Access database into a web-based format. The original Access DB has been under development for almost 4 years by people who are not coders by trade and I need to get a web version built in three months. Been working on this solidly since January and between the lack of a cohesive architecture and good programming techniques from inexperienced coders and the general complexity and scope of the project, it's really wearing me out quicker than any of my previous projects. Back in my 30's, this would have been much easier, but now that I'm 46. Ugh...
GRRM is one year away from 70 and the stuff he writes is so intertwined, convoluted and complex (and long) that it honestly doesn't surprise me that he tries to change things up a bit before his brains start dribbling out his ears from extreme burn-out. Burn-out also leads to careless mistakes, which slows down the final editing process even further to make sure everything lines up properly. I share in the frustration for not having seen the new book yet, too, but I also understand his need to try to keep things fresh in the final stretch of his series. There is also supposed to be the one final book after this one, "
A Dream of Spring". No doubt it will take at least as long to get that one done. Unless, of course, the extra time he has been taking has included some framework and initial scripting of the final book. Still hopeful, but who knows anymore?
I just hope Roy Dotrice is still up for doing the audio-book!
