Of the Unappreciated Writer
So summer vacation is finally here, and I am able to enjoy a couple of months of rest and sponging off of taxpayers, if you believe the anti-teacher rhetoric that is being bandied about these days. People wonder, "Hey Ray, why would you, a Famous Hollywood Actor, decide to also be a high school English teacher?" To questions like these, I ( Read more... )
It took JRRT 13 years to write LOTR, which, with appendices, is complete on page 1172. Page / Year is 90.2
GRRM has written, as of next month, 5112 pages over 15 years. Page / Year is 340.8
Now, Tolkien also wrote a lot of the content for the Silmarillion during this time so being generous we can add another 375 pages to Tolkien's (eventually) published output for the period. This gives us 118.2 Pg/yr.
Tolkien also had a full time job during this period, which "(he) did not neglect", whereas GRRM's sole job was as a writer. GRRM has held that ASoIaF is not his only professional commitment, and as such can not work full time on ASoIaF.
If we take Tolkien's time commitment as a professor, and GRRM's time limitation due to additional commitments,as roughly balanced, then the data shows GRRM as the more prolific.
Personally, I think George is word happy. He has a good story, but he could take a lesson from Twain.
Based on his age and productivity, if he continues at his current page production rate (using a linear projection), and if he can complete the series in 2 more books at 1050 pages each, the series will be complete in 6.2 yrs, and he will be 68 years old. However, statistically this is unlikely, given the drastic variation of production observable during the first 7.5 years, when compared to the last 7.5 years.
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