Winds update (not a blog)

[Rockroi]

Right on schedule: Our annual "The-Next-Book-Will-Not-Be-Done-Anytime-Too-Soon" post and people are acting like it means ANYTHING.

It, literally, means nothing that we did not already know; that GRRM is a great, slow writer who, at the very least, cares for his fans enough to let them know the truth (namely, that he is very, very slow).

In 2011, I said the next book would come out in 2017.  Just get me a Magic 8-Ball so I can shake it so it comes up "All Signs point to..."  

 

[DaveSumm]

It's utterly baffling to me that people are reading that blog post and getting from it that the book is almost done and will be out this year.  I have a bridge they might want to go in on.

It's utterly baffling to me that anyone can find this utterly baffling. He thought it was four months away  in September, but progress was slower than expected. Nowhere in his post does he say that he has less finished manuscript pages than he started with. He said he rewrote some old chapters; that doesn't decrease the total number of pages he's sat on, it just means newer chapters don't come as fast. He is clearly disappointed that he won't have it out before Season 6, but that is the only concrete time span he gave us. There is no reason at all to suspect  he is over a year away.

[awearyman]

I wonder what it is that is causing all these setbacks. Rewrites are not always a good thing. It can be a sign that the artist is losing his edge. 

[Cas Stark]

He says he is MONTHS away.  That is 'at least a year' in GRRM lingo according to me.  And that months away is if the writing goes well, he says.  

 

[Tijgy]

The only thing we know

he is busy with revising a Theon chapter.  

[wookan]

He says he is MONTHS away.  That is 'at least a year' in GRRM lingo according to me.  And that months away is if the writing goes well, he says.  

 

Exactly he though 4 months were enough to finish in August which was way off. I think we won't see it any time before July.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

Maybe maaaaaaaaaybe he's making rewrites due to the show?

I know he said he wouldn't, but maaaaaaaybe he is? Like, he got mad how the show handled certain things and he doesn't want to make the same mistakes?

I don't think that's the case but I wouldn't completely discard it either.

[DaveSumm]

He says he is MONTHS away.  That is 'at least a year' in GRRM lingo according to me.  And that months away is if the writing goes well, he says.  

 

It's worth remembering that GRRM has never lied about his progress. It's easy to point to his assumption that aDwD would take a year and its publication 6 years later, but in all the intervening time he was giving accurate reports of why he was struggling and telling people about the problems. In the short term, months has never meant years. There is no GRRM lingo. It's also odd that people get such intense conspiracies theories in their heads when the gap between both aSoS and aFfC, and aFfC and aDwD, is still larger than our current wait.

[Equilibrium]

Maybe maaaaaaaaaybe he's making rewrites due to the show?

I know he said he wouldn't, but maaaaaaaybe he is? Like, he got mad how the show handled certain things and he doesn't want to make the same mistakes?

I don't think that's the case but I wouldn't completely discard it either.

As much as I would like him to stick it to the D&D in any way possible I don't think he is doing that.

I am pretty sure no one can make same mistakes as them, you have to be very very special for that.

 

 

[Cas Stark]

It's worth remembering that GRRM has never lied about his progress. It's easy to point to his assumption that aDwD would take a year and its publication 6 years later, but in all the intervening time he was giving accurate reports of why he was struggling and telling people about the problems. In the short term, months has never meant years. There is no GRRM lingo. It's also odd that people get such intense conspiracies theories in their heads when the gap between both aSoS and aFfC, and aFfC and aDwD, is still larger than our current wait.

He is consistently overly optimistic about when he will finish and has been since Feast.  He wasn't going to let the show catch up to him either.  But he did.  He was going to get Dance out in a year, but he didn't.  There is absolutely no reason to take an optimistic view that instead of April it will be July, that he's only 3 months off schedule.  He also indicated the long delays for Feast and Dance were due variously to the Meereen knot [not solved] and trying and rejecting the 5 year gap.  That should have meant that Winds would take less time, even possibly a lot less time.

It will be 5 years since Dance July 2016.  

 

[lakin1013]

I am so disappointed and I admit to feeling a bit used.  Yes, I read the books and LOVED the story and the characters.  But now television will finish the story and tell me who lives or dies, who succeeds or fails, while I would have much preferred the author's vision of what happens.  The intimacy of reading will be replaced by a hard, shiny screen.  Martin may still complete his books but I will yield to the siren call of the TV, on my sofa, and watch the HBO interpretation of how this all ends.  I hate that, but I am not strong enough to refuse it

[sifth]

It's worth remembering that GRRM has never lied about his progress. It's easy to point to his assumption that aDwD would take a year and its publication 6 years later, but in all the intervening time he was giving accurate reports of why he was struggling and telling people about the problems. In the short term, months has never meant years. There is no GRRM lingo. It's also odd that people get such intense conspiracies theories in their heads when the gap between both aSoS and aFfC, and aFfC and aDwD, is still larger than our current wait.

Really so that one time he made a post at the start of 2010, about how he felt he could get ADWD finished by June of that year was true?

[Cas Stark]

I am so disappointed and I admit to feeling a bit used.  Yes, I read the books and LOVED the story and the characters.  But now television will finish the story and tell me who lives or dies, who succeeds or fails, while I would have much preferred the author's vision of what happens.  The intimacy of reading will be replaced by a hard, shiny screen.  Martin may still complete his books but I will yield to the siren call of the TV, on my sofa, and watch the HBO interpretation of how this all ends.  I hate that, but I am not strong enough to refuse it

Why shouldn't you watch the show?  At least we know it will finish the story.  I have lost faith in GRRM's ability in that regard.

[DaveSumm]

 

Really so that one time he made a post at the start of 2010, about how he felt he could get ADWD finished by June of that year was true?

It turned out not to be true, but he wasn't lying. He did think that. And he didn't let June hit and not tell anyone: he kept everyone posted. I'm just saying that people seem so intent on there being a conspiracy, that he can't possibly mean what he says. There's no evidence of that.

Essentially we're glum over the morose tone of the post, but that tone was due to him missing a deadline we didn't even know existed (BryndenBFish calculated the length of time Dance took to hit shelves, worked backwards, and believe it or not we're over a month away from that point of no return). So there's no reason to think the overall experience of writing has been bad, just that he's disappointed he's missed this deadline.

[Equilibrium]

Now I am torn whether to hope for release in say August or September, because he has great chances of getting it out by then or for the release in some November or December so I can read the books while it is actually starting to get cold. It is extremely hard to emphatize with characters freezing their balls off while it is unbearably hot. 

[Lord Varys]

They really should take their time when the TWoW manuscript is finished. ADwD wasn't exactly in very good shape when it hit the shelves, and considering that Ran/Linda and the other proofreaders actually know their stuff, it is pretty obvious that things were rushed.

[Narvi]

I love all his works but think he's lost the passion for this project. I'm no writer but 5 years between books is a bit much in anything. 

[Cas Stark]

It turned out not to be true, but he wasn't lying. He did think that. And he didn't let June hit and not tell anyone: he kept everyone posted. I'm just saying that people seem so intent on there being a conspiracy, that he can't possibly mean what he says. There's no evidence of that.

Essentially we're glum over the morose tone of the post, but that tone was due to him missing a deadline we didn't even know existed (BryndenBFish calculated the length of time Dance took to hit shelves, worked backwards, and believe it or not we're over a month away from that point of no return). So there's no reason to think the overall experience of writing has been bad, just that he's disappointed he's missed this deadline.

He means what he says.  But he's running at 100% 'wrong' for the last 10 years on his timing.  There is no conspiracy, just his history of being wrong.

[Westeros Luftwaffe]

Dammit George. 

I'm sure he is disappointed too, but with the scope of things in this series, does anyone expect it to resolve in 7 books anyways.

He isn't going to finish. I'll be very honest, once the show finishes for him, he willywill have very little motivation to keep on pushing hard. Honestly, he's 67, most people at this point are retired and relaxing and most people aren't multimillionaires and famous like GRRM. 

He might finish TWOW this year but then its back to Cons and all the other things he likes, such as developing and editing all kinds of other stuff.

He's obviously burned out on writing the series, I can't even blame him after 20 years. But seeing ADOS? I'll be shocked. That's another 5 years---at minimum---for a guy in his seventies who has a great life.

Can't wait for TWOW because its probably the last one we will get.

(Embraces show storytelling to get a conclusion)

[Weirwood Schmeirwood]

My heart says the book could be out in fall 2016, but my head says it will probably be more like March 2017.  

I'm now extremely glad for the TV show.  At least we'll be guaranteed to see an ending to the story one way or another.  And honestly, I'm excited to watch along with everyone else not knowing what is going to happen.