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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/5156
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/5156
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The latest two volumes of Martin's _Song of Ice and Fire_ have been poorly received compared to the series' earlier books. What's interesting here is that Martin's [original plan did not include these books](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#Bridging_the_timeline_gap_.282000.E2.80.932011.29). Rather, these books were a solution to a problem Martin had:

> The fourth book, tentatively titled _A Dance with Dragons_, was to focus on Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros and the conflicts that creates. Martin wanted to set this story five years after _A Storm of Swords_ so that the younger characters could grow older and the dragons grow larger. [...] A long prologue was to establish what had happened in the meantime, initially just as one chapter of Aeron Damphair on the Iron Islands at the Kingsmoot. Since the events in Dorne and the Iron Islands were to have an impact on the book, Martin eventually expanded the Kingsmoot events to be told from three new viewpoints since the existing POV characters were not present in Dorne and the Iron Islands.
> 
> In 2001, Martin was still optimistic that the fourth installment might be released in the last quarter of 2002. However, the five-year gap did not work for all characters during writing. On one hand, Martin was unsatisfied with covering the events during the gap solely through flashbacks and internal retrospection. On the other hand, it was implausible to have nothing happening for five years. After working on the book for about a year, Martin realized he needed an additional interim book, which he called _A Feast for Crows_. The book would pick up the story immediately after the third book, and Martin scrapped the idea of a five-year gap. The material of the 250-page prologue for the beginning of _A Feast for Crows_ was mixed in as new viewpoint characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands.

But fan reaction suggests this solution was a poor one, resulting in stretched-out books whose object was to impart key information and to "keep track" of characters who weren't moving as far or doing as much as those of the earlier volumes.

Taking in good faith Martin's descriptions of the difficulties he had with the five-year gap, **how else might Martin have solved these difficulties?**

I am less interested in how _Feast_ and _Dance_ might have been condensed or abbreviated (that would be an editing question). What I'd like is suggestions for **plot/story structures** that might have been more appropriate to Martin's purposes. In other words, _given_ that Martin had these difficulties and considered an additional piece necessary - what would have been a better format and structure for such a piece?

Original score: 7