After Game of Thrones’ ending, the book feels even more pertinent. No longer is there another version of the story to sustain people, and what there is wasn’t exactly satisfying to many. At the same time, good art doesn’t happen overnight, and sometimes it doesn’t happen over 5,113 nights. Martin has faced a lot of criticism over The Winds of Winter’s release (or lack thereof) and, in particular, the many other projects he’s taken on, which the author has recently responded to.
George R.R. Martin’s Recent Winds Of Winter Comments After New Project Announcement
Martin Is Producing A New Animated Movie
The latest apparent setback for The Winds of Winter was the news that Martin is set to produce an animated adaptation of Howard Waldrop’s A Dozen Tough Jobs. After multiple other movies, TV shows, and book series over the years that he’s worked on, without delivering the sixth ASOIAF novel, then, as with any of these announcements over the last few years, it was met with disappointment and comments that he’s “never finishing.” This time, though, Martin gave a passionate response, via his Not A Blog page.
“I know, I know. Some of you will just be pissed off by this, as you are by everything I announce here that is not about Westeros or THE WINDS OF WINTER. You have given up on me, or on the book. I will never finish WINDS. If I do, I will never finish A DREAM OF SPRING. If I do, it won’t be any good. I ought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me… I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in A Song of Ice and Fire decades ago. I don’t give a s**t about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money.
“I edit the Wild Cards books too, but you hate Wild Cards. You may hate everything else I have ever written, the Hugo-winners and Hugo-losers, “A Song for Lya” and DYING OF THE LIGHT, “Sandkings” and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, “This Tower of Ashes” and “The Stone City,” OLD MARS and OLD VENUS and ROGUES and WARRIORS and DANGEROUS WOMEN and all the other anthologies I edited with my friend Gardner Dozois. You don’t care about any of those, I know. You don’t care about anything but WINDS OF WINTER. You’ve told me so often enough.
“Thing is, I do care about them.
“And I care about Westeros and WINDS as well. The Starks and Lannisters and Targaryens, Tyrion and Asha, Dany and Daenerys, the dragons and the direwolves, I care about them all. More than you can ever imagine.”
Martin’s comments are important here. I don’t think anyone should really doubt that he cares about The Winds of Winter (or A Dream of Spring). If that were true, he could’ve rushed something out to be done with it, passed it off to someone else, or just straight-up said he wouldn’t finish it. You don’t write over 1,000 pages of a book without caring, nor without really trying.
Again, there has to be understanding and empathy here, because he said it with real hope and belief, and has since stopped making those predictions. Nonetheless, they were at best careless, and unfair to his fanbase, many of whom have been around for decades now. I think that made the frustrations with the delays and taking on the other projects a lot worse, and greater transparency in those situations about the timeline and priorities might’ve helped adjust expectations earlier.
Ultimately, I’d rather Martin never finish the books than get a rushed version or one completed that isn’t his vision, but it does make me wonder how much these other projects have affected things.
GRRM Admitted Other Projects Haven’t Helped The Winds Of Winter
The Author Has Worked On A Lot Of Different Things In The Last 15 Years
“The success of the show and the success of other things has injected a lot of other aspects into my life. So sometimes I lay in bed at night and I’m not thinking about…Westeros. I’m thinking about some other problem I’m having, one of the other shows I’m involved with, or a deadline on an anthology I’m editing, or something that’s happening with the non-profit organization that I started. All of these other things are filling my head and that is one of the thing’s that’s delayed me.”
It’s not just the time spent working on those projects – which will vary considerably from writing a script to executive producing something – but time spent thinking about them, taking away the focus from Winds even if he’s not actively doing something else. That’s understandable and inevitable, even if it leads to a lot of frustration. But it’s also unfair to expect Martin not to pursue other opportunities or do whatever else he wants. We aren’t owed the final two books, after all.
The Winds Of Winter’s Story Is The Biggest Reason Behind Its Delays
It’s So Much Bigger And More Complicated Than Anticipated
Martin’s many other projects are a big factor in The Winds of Winter’s delays, and certainly a major one in any annoyance fans may have that it’s not been released, but I don’t think that’s the biggest reason the book has taken so long. Instead, that’s an issue that owes to the sheer nature and scope of A Song of Ice and Fire: it’s so expansive, filled with so many storylines, and so complicated, that it’s got to be difficult to start bringing it all together.
A Song of Ice and Fire has continually expanded and expanded (this was originally going to be a trilogy!), and has a lot of elements that are difficult to start coalescing because of that.
Martin describes himself as a gardener, not an architect, in terms of how he writes. There might be certain goals or destinations in mind, but no fixed plans. Things are always changeable, as he sees where the story and the characters take him. Which in this case is thousands more pages than might’ve happened otherwise.
With book 7 the last one, The Winds of Winter needs to somehow start bringing all of those disparate elements together for the endgame, which feels like a daunting task even thinking about it, let alone trying to write the damn thing. Hell, one of the main characters is dead, and that’s not even in the five most difficult plots to try and reconcile.
That also comes with having to increasingly build to the main battle of the series: the fight against the Others. Another Long Night is coming, and it’ll certainly be longer than just one night, but getting there requires a pivot: this is more pure fantasy, good vs. evil stuff, the kind of thing Martin’s story, for the most part, is not. I can’t imagine that’s easy to navigate either, even if they have always been intended as the final threat.
I Still Have Faith In GRRM Finishing The Books
Let’s Not Give Up On It Just Yet
As Obi-Wan Kenobi would’ve said if the books existed in a galaxy far, far away: Who’s the more foolish – the fool, or the fool who still thinks ASOIAF will be finished? And yet, I do think there’s reason to have faith, despite how long it’s taken, despite how many other projects he has worked on, and despite how many struggles there might have been.
Martin is still clearly extremely passionate about this story and this world, and if Ridley Scott can direct Gladiator II in his mid-80s, and Paul McCartney can still play three-hour live shows when he’s 80, then it’s fair to think someone in their 70s can write a book… and even do a second one.
Yes, by the time it comes out it’ll have been a long time. A re-read will be required for most people (like that’s a bad thing). Maybe, even (and this is extreme optimism), if he can finish Winds, then A Dream of Spring will be easier, with more things in place.
