George R. R. Martin “wonders if he has any talent” in conversation with Stephen King

George R.R. Martin and Stephen King are two of the best authors of our time. But their writing paces are drastically different, with King having published over 65 novels/novellas and being able to write a book in two months. On the other hand, Martin takes much longer to finish a project, most notably The Winds of Winter. In a discussion with King back in 2016, Martin discussed self doubt and writing blocks with Stephen.

George R. R. Martin often wonders if he had any talent at all

In a discussion at the Kiva Auditorium, Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 2016, George R.R. Martin and Stephen King discussed various topics. One of the questions Martin asked was related to King’s writing pace.

Martin asked the “It” author: “How the f— do you write so many books so fast?”

He even compared his writing speed with that of Stephen King: “I think, ‘Oh, I’ve had a really good six months — I’ve written three chapters!’ and you’ve finished three books in that time.”

King answered: “Here’s the thing, There are books, and there are books. The way that I work, I try to get out there, and I try to get six pages a day.”

Stephen King then described his working process: “When I’m working, I work every day, three-four hours, and I try to get those six pages, and I try to get them fairly clean. So if the manuscript is three hundred and sixty pages long, that’s basically two months’ work — but that’s assuming it goes well.”

George R. R. Martin followed up with his doubts: “You don’t ever have a day when you sit down there, and it’s like constipation — you write a sentence and you hate the sentence, and you check your email and you wonder if you had any talent after all and maybe you should have been a plumber? Don’t you have days like that?”

King responded, emphasizing that he does not face similar problems, but he has challenges of his own: “No, I mean this real life. You know, I can be working away and something comes up and you have to basically get up, you have to go to see the doctor or you have to take somebody’s care package or you have to go to the post office because whatever but mostly I try to get the six pages in although entropy tries to intervene.”

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