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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5187
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5187
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

GRRM's primary goal with _Feast_ was **to fill in crucial details** , whereas most of the volumes had the goal of **portraying epic plot and conflict**. I'd suggest that the structure used in the previous volumes - interlacing novellas told from different viewpoints, collectively portraying a larger plot - is a great match for the latter goal, and a poor match for the former.

Interlaced narrative is great for a multi-faceted plot. Individual details, on the other hand, don't need to be forced into a single narrative. There's no inherent reason to try and swirl them all together - while some creative interactions can yield brilliant, unusual plots, it's also possible to simply convey the different points separately, one by one.

In other words, I think _Feast_ would have been better conceived as **an anthology of short stories.** Short stories are an excellent way to convey focused information. They can zoom in on a particular character, time, place, or society. They're less limited by the narrative needs of a full novel (or a complete volume of a saga). And they can let individual characters quickly sum up a lot of what they're going through, while concentrating on a single, specific exciting event. (Interlaced narrative doesn't let you do that, because you need to either spread the single event over the whole book, or else have _lots_ of exciting events, not one.)

For example, Brienne's oft-maligned arc could have been confined to a short story - for example, beginning with her expecting to find Sansa and discovering the outlaws instead, and then speeding right up to her finale with Catelyn. As a short story, this would have worked very nicely. I think many of the other arcs could be similarly condensed; similarly, using unusual and one-time viewpoints (as in the Dornish and Kingsmoot arcs) would have been easier, more natural, and more flexible - in fact, other more unusual framing POVs could have been employed as well.

As an aside, I'd suggest that considering individual short stories (rather than a full double-volume novel) would make it much easier to identify when a story sags or meanders. This could also be fixed more easily, by shortening the story without rearranging the structure of the entire book.

Lastly, I think an anthology of "tales from the interim" would have better conveyed the nature of the book, its inherent _lack_ of epic-scale developments, its focus on things _other than_ advancing the main characters and plot. It would have stood out as a volume that was fundamentally and intentionally _different_ from the others, and I think it could have served that purpose well.

Original score: 6