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''As for finishing my book… I fear that New Zealand would distract me entirely too much.   Best leave me here in Westeros for the nonce.   But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done.  ''- GRR Martin.(Worldcon New Zealand ,July 29, 2020)

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The way I read it, he is trying to set a deadline for himself, and hype himself to finish, without actually making any literal promises.

If he wanted to convince us he was close to done, an actual progress report would be more meaningful.

My first thought, on reading it, was to get excited.  My second thought, however, is that the most we should hope for in 2020 is more happy noises of progress.  We should also prepare for the worst -- a sullen silence as Worldcon 2020 approaches and recedes, indicating that, once again, the only ones he has succeeded in hyping are his fans.

Well, good luck to him. 

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11 hours ago, Platypus Rex said:

The way I read it, he is trying to set a deadline for himself, and hype himself to finish, without actually making any literal promises.

If he wanted to convince us he was close to done, an actual progress report would be more meaningful.

My first thought, on reading it, was to get excited.  My second thought, however, is that the most we should hope for in 2020 is more happy noises of progress.  We should also prepare for the worst -- a sullen silence as Worldcon 2020 approaches and recedes, indicating that, once again, the only ones he has succeeded in hyping are his fans.

Well, good luck to him. 

I imagine he will get berated about this at Titancon later this year.  His optimism in the past has quickly turned to realism and this could be another one of those situations.  I don't see him giving a progress report and will only announce if the manuscript is complete.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I took it as bad news.... that he is even leaving open the optioin that he is still writing a full year from now is just discouraging.

 

Especially when after the show has ended, I am even more keen to read Winds, to see how the book develops. Come on George.

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I REALLY thought that after the show finished, he would announce a big update on Winds or a release for the book or something. It just seems like smart marketing. When I saw this at first I was excited but honestly, I don't see it getting done in that time.

I wish he would just say hey, I am halfway done writing but I need to edit it all still. Or I am whatever amount done and still need to do X. Just some update besides, I am still writing, would be nice....

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55 minutes ago, btfu806 said:

I REALLY thought that after the show finished, he would announce a big update on Winds or a release for the book or something. It just seems like smart marketing. When I saw this at first I was excited but honestly, I don't see it getting done in that time.

I wish he would just say hey, I am halfway done writing but I need to edit it all still. Or I am whatever amount done and still need to do X. Just some update besides, I am still writing, would be nice....

He did this with Dance and it pissed people off when his estimates were inaccurate. Its a lose-lose situation for him, he doesn’t provide progress reports, people get pissed and say he isnt writing, he provides progress reports that end up being too optimistic (due to the nature of how he writes) and people are pissed again. Unless he becomes Mystic Meg and can provide precise details of when he will be finished he is always going to piss off some section of the fandom with his progress reports or lack thereof. 

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28 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

He did this with Dance and it pissed people off when his estimates were inaccurate. Its a lose-lose situation for him, he doesn’t provide progress reports, people get pissed and say he isnt writing, he provides progress reports that end up being too optimistic (due to the nature of how he writes) and people are pissed again. Unless he becomes Mystic Meg and can provide precise details of when he will be finished he is always going to piss off some section of the fandom with his progress reports or lack thereof. 

Well, was it progress reports or him saying, "I will finish this by X date." Then not doing it. (I honestly can't remember anymore). But it shouldn't be too hard for him to say, I wrote 22 or w/e chapters but I still have more to write and edit them all. Or something basic. Doesn't have to be super detailed or anything.

I get you can't please all the people all the time so I can only speak for what I would want.

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20 hours ago, Calibandar said:

I took it as bad news.... that he is even leaving open the optioin that he is still writing a full year from now is just discouraging.

Especially considering where he was four years ago, according to that blog post of early January 2016. By this time in 2015 he thought he would be finished by end of October that year. By August, he realized he wouldn't make it, but considered a two-month extension enough time to finish. Since then, three years have passed and then some. More than twenty times longer than that extension. The time of the deadline extension (August 2015) will soon be closer to the release of ADwD than to today. Evidently, something came along that set progress back really far, practically back to scratch considering how close he felt to the finish line.

If GRRM ever finishes ASoIaF and feels like writing more, I think "The Cutting Room Floor of Ice and Fire" would be a very interesting read.

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I agree that it would be good if he finally gave an update. That update does not have to have him give an exact release date but he could say how far he is , what more he expects to roughly have to do, and people would generally appreciate it.

And yes, back in 2015 he thought he would be done soon, and since then we really have no idea what he's actually doing, how far he is, what has caused the additional massive delays, nothing. And no one is better off for it. I'd just like to get an idea of when this could see the light of day. Could it really be that bad that even now, June 2019, he still has no idea when Winds will be finished?

 

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4 hours ago, M.Alhazred said:

I would like regular updates but it's not gonna happen.He gives a update then everyone gets upset.

Everybody's already upset, just when he actually says something concrete, people have reason to voice out. Can't really blame fans for that.

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On 6/20/2019 at 5:01 PM, Calibandar said:

I agree that it would be good if he finally gave an update. That update does not have to have him give an exact release date but he could say how far he is , what more he expects to roughly have to do, and people would generally appreciate it.

And yes, back in 2015 he thought he would be done soon, and since then we really have no idea what he's actually doing, how far he is, what has caused the additional massive delays, nothing. And no one is better off for it. I'd just like to get an idea of when this could see the light of day. Could it really be that bad that even now, June 2019, he still has no idea when Winds will be finished?

 

It would be really nice if one day we get the story of what happened with Winds that made it take so long. Was it just taking the gardener approach screws up what you want your planned endings to be? Or were there massive rewrites, working on two books at once (or really just an outline of the last so you don't box yourself in). I know it won't happen, but I can dream.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've said it before, the ONLY way Martin will give us the end of ASOIAF is in a Fire and Blood style faux history book. 

That's not a bad thing in itself, at least he will have given readers his ending without the pressure of turning out 2 doorstop multi POV novels on an antique PC!!

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Worldcon is only days away.   Maybe he will read something no one has heard before.   He does plenty he says he won't.   He's human.   I reread that post again today.    As bitterly disappointing as GOT was it's possible he feels the same as the so many of us do.    Perhaps he knew the train wreck was coming and he's been working to give ASOIAF fans a really satisfying next part.   So many pieces of this story are up for TV exploitation.   I won't fall for that again, but I have to believe he cares about the story and the characters enough to try to get in front of HBO.   It's doubtful that book sales even matter to him anymore.   He's made tons, so it's got to be about the story now.  Jon and Dany and Westeros, not more way back history.   Not in the next step at any rate.   

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  • 4 weeks later...

While I acknowledge that GRRM owes me exactly nothing, this kind of ticks me off. 

Not that statement specifically, but the whole situation. GRRM has not finished a complete, main sequence ASOAIF novel since Storm. 19 years ago.

And no, I do not count Feast OR Dance. As both books had only half the characters AND failed to complete many of the plotlines. 

The whole reason for the split was so that the arcs would be completed, and then they were not. Not in Feast nor in Dance. Cersei's Trial? Nope. Jaime/Brienne? Nope. Jon Snow? Cliffhanger. Battle of Mereen? Nope. Winterfell? Nope.

But the upside was that since the arcs were not done, Winds was over 1/3 finished with the stuff that was not published. And would be out quicker.

Whatever. 

I am boycotting Martin until it is finished.

 

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On 8/31/2019 at 6:06 AM, YouKnowNothingJonSnow said:

I am boycotting Martin until it is finished.

I know what you're saying and get what you mean, but I find it amusing that this sentence basically says "I won't buy any more books from this author until he writes another book".

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