The Winds Of Winter: Book 6 Will Arrive...Someday

[DigitalCount]

There's also a perspective issue here. Tywin Lannister wasn't a POV character in the books. However, he was very much the main villain on the show, or at least a representative of the evil empire, complete with villain theme song, pet monster, and fan adoration. Killing him was a bigger deal than, say, killing Oberyn, but neither had a POV.

[Avaleigh]

I'm hoping that I'll be able to respond to this later today because I totally, totally agree about GRRM's reputation for killing major characters to be wildly exaggerated. 

 

As for the idea of the bad guys not getting enough of a comeuppance--I'm going to respond to this later as well but I will say now that I find it surprising that people didn't think Joffrey's death was good enough or that he didn't suffer enough. I totally disagree. I basically thought his death was appropriate and gruesome. I also disagree that it was quick. Joffrey knew that he was going to die and he was scared shitless. I thought it was shocking and awesome. He's straight up clawing at his throat and fighting to breathe. He's doing this in front of the entire court. He'd just been acting like an asshole as usual and he was finally paying the ultimate price for it. Tyrion's line as he's watching the scene play out is something like how Joffrey looked just like Jaime "only he'd never seen Jaime look so scared." I don't know, I just disagree that this can be written off as a quick death as though Joffrey got off easy or something. Then there's the added benefit of how upsetting this is to a character like Cersei or even Jaime and Tywin. I feel like this is a consequence for them as well. I don't understand why this death is so downplayed by people.

 

I also disagree about the dropped plot points. As opposed to seeing a bunch of dropped plot points I just see the story as not yet having arrived at x, y, and z. 

 

As for the supposed absence of "hell yeah!" moments--again, I totally disagree. I'm going to respond to this later today but in the meantime want to clarify--is the idea that the "hell yeah" moments stopped after ASoS? Is Dany riding Drogon considered to be the only HY moment in the last two books? If so, I definitely disagree. 

[Constantinople]

As for the idea of the bad guys not getting enough of a comeuppance--I'm going to respond to this later as well but I will say now that I find it surprising that people didn't think Joffrey's death was good enough or that he didn't suffer enough.

Good King Joff was one of the good guys.

[SeanC]

However, he was very much the main villain on the show

Well, unless you ask the showrunners.

[Hecate7]

While I agree with the gist of your comment, I have to disagree with that. First, it's unclear how old Melisandre really is (I don't think she's *that* old, personally. Just older that she looks), and really... Why does age preclude someone from being a person? Do you think, say, Tolkien's elves aren't persons? I just don't understand this point of view. We haven't gleaned much about Melisandre's personality from her chapters, but she does have one, I'm sure. She has her memories, her fears and her beliefs, just like any human character.

 

This is very true. I feel like it's the consequence of Martin not having a real plan/vision when he started writing (or maybe he had, and then ditched it). And, of course, him being too big for any sort of editor's influence (an issue my favorite fantasy series ever, Stephen Kings' The Dark Tower, had heavy suffered from in its last few installments).

 

This is my problem with the series as well. I like character interaction, in general, but I'm not even getting any between the character I care about. Where is Tyrion/Dany that we all expected to see when Varys sent Tyrion over the sea? When can any of the Starks see each other, in any capacity? Etc., etc.

In Melisandre's POV chapter it is made clear that she is not who she says she is--it's a glamor that allows her to look the way she does. In all likelihood she is some sort of skeleton or wight disguised as a human. And she has the thought in one scene of how long she has lived, and I think the word thousand came up.

 

And no,Tolkien's elves absolutely are not people. They're gods. They're ancient things with pretty faces, but they are not people, except for Arwen who gives up her immortality to become queen, which actually reads like a legend that isn't true. "Our queen used to be an elf," kind of like kings and queens used to lay claim to being related to gods. Tolkien was creating a myth, and had little people running around in a world of elves, giants, and monsters. His stories are comforting because they return us to a nice safe shire with gardens, food, and pipeweed, and happy hobbits doing pub sings. GRRM tends to do the exact opposite. He is known as a very cruel writer.

Take this for what it's worth: recent reports state that the new Star Wars trailer has gotten Martin excited and ready to finish TWOW in 2015.

 

Balderdash.

[WearyTraveler]

 Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if "Lost" had killed of more main characters than GRRM has, by this point, and it was a network show.

 

Teee heee! Lost killed them all!!!

[FurryFury]

And no,Tolkien's elves absolutely are not people. They're gods.

This is subjective, but I don't think immortality and a very different understanding of the world make them gods. They aren't nearly on the same level as Valar or even Maiar. And hell, in many mythologies, even gods are often persons. 

 

it's a glamor that allows her to look the way she does. In all likelihood she is some sort of skeleton or wight disguised as a human.

 

Wow, I've had a completely different impression of that flashback. I thought she used to be human, but underwent some sort of transformation that made her longer-lived, and glamor just allowed her to look younger.

 

Teee heee! Lost killed them all!!!

 

I meant before the end of the show.

Edited January 26, 2015 by FurryFury

[SeanC]

His stories are comforting because they return us to a nice safe shire with gardens, food, and pipeweed, and happy hobbits doing pub sings.

Not true.  The whole point of LOTR was that the Shire was ravaged and would never be the same again.

[Hecate7]

This is subjective, but I don't think immortality and a very different understanding of the world make them gods. They aren't nearly on the same level as Valar or even Maiar. And hell, in many mythologies, even gods are often persons. 

 

Wow, I've had a completely different impression of that flashback. I thought she used to be human, but underwent some sort of transformation that made her longer-lived, and glamor just allowed her to look younger.

 

 

It is subjective. I'm sure immortality changes a person, since mortality and aging is a defining characteristic of human beings. Yes, Melisandre used to be human. So did all the wights and skeletons. So did Lady Stoneheart. "Some sort of transformation" was probably the death of the slave girl Melony, and her resurrection as something other than completely human. Fairly sure she's undead, honestly.

 

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that whatever Coldhands is, Melisandre is the fire version.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Hecate7

[Winnief]

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that whatever Coldhands is, Melisandre is the fire version.

 

I like that idea!

 

Also SeanC the Shire was destroyed-but it was rebuilt by Sam and others.  Westeros will also be in ruins by the time this is all done-the question is who's going to be the one to rebuild.

 

I think the showrunners did understand that Tywin was a villain, I think they just fell in love with him as a villain, because of his Magnificent Bastard qualities as opposed to the likes of Joffrey and Ramsay who are just plain bastards both figuratively and literally.  LF is just slimy and Cersei's unstable and not nearly as clever as she thinks she is.  Tywin was the one bad guy who in his own fucked up way was *trying* to build something.  He sorta had the same appeal as Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy before the prequels ruined him-scary, truly evil, but with at least a certain grandeur as opposed to all the other members of the Empire. 

 

Anyhow, with TWOW being pushed back now to 2016, I'd say the whole "Martin's never gonna finish this," thesis is looking pretty solid right about now.  If I were his publishers I'd INSIST on him getting a co-author to 'help.'

[benteen]

I don't think it's going to be finished either.  When writing becomes a chore that needs to be finished, then you can forget about it.  If he is having difficulty writing his books, GRRM should bring in a co-author to help him out but he won't.

 

If the series ever expands to 8 books, I say that is the guarantee things won't get done.  Whatever the flaws of the TV series, at least we'll get some resolution there.  GRRM will have nobody to blame but himself for that.

Edited January 27, 2015 by benteen

[Constantinople]

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that whatever Coldhands is, Melisandre is the fire version.

Does that mean Sam is Derek Smalls?

[ElizaD]

George RR Martin’s The Winds of Winter: no plans for publication in 2015

 

Another year of waiting for The Winds of Winter to blow is in store for fans of George RR Martin, as his publisher confirmed there are no plans for the much-anticipated latest volume from his A Song of Ice and Fire series to appear in 2015. Instead, readers will have to comfort themselves with an illustrated edition of three previously anthologised novellas set in the world of Westeros.

 

However, Johnson confirmed that The Winds of Winter, the next novel in the series that has been filmed by HBO as A Game of Thrones, is not in this year’s schedule. “I have no information on likely delivery,” she said. “These are increasingly complex books and require immense amounts of concentration to write. Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.”

 

This certainly makes me appreciate the other fantasy authors who deliver doorstopper-sized novels every couple of years.

 

It's January and they're already telling us not to expect TWOW in 2015.

[Advance35]

Well anyone who's not a fan of the show's interpretation of the characters, I would urge you to TRY because the writers of that show are going to be the one's to tell  us the fates of these characters.

 

Who sits on the Iron Throne, Who marries Whom, Who lives, Who dies, will the author who began this tale tell us all this?  I think not.  It'll be a television show that cuts corners (but I'm so eager to see how this all ends that I won't complain).

 

This really makes me think less of GRRM.

[Avaleigh]

GRRM's publishers can make excuses for him all day long about why they can't set a release date for the book but I think most people know that it comes down to GRRM not giving himself the time and environment he says he needs in order to get a decent amount of writing done.

 

Thankfully I like most of what the show has been giving us. No doubt I've had some issues when it comes to my favorite characters and silly avoidable things like Shireen's hair color but overall I'm happy with the show. There are actually multiple things about the show I prefer especially the characterizations of people like Cersei, Tywin, Sansa, Joffrey, Bronn, Roose, etc.   

 

If nothing else I think it would be nice if he released another sample chapter.

[jjjmoss]

Another reason I like that I stan for Brandon Sanderson (aside from his being the best writer at weaving complex magic systems and having 2 epic epic fantasy series which don't have wildly uneven installments).

[benteen]

 

“These are increasingly complex books and require immense amounts of concentration to write. Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.”

 

I love that quote from GRRM's publisher.  I think the correct description would be increasingly bloated books.  I don't know how GRRM concentrates on writing them when he spends half his time either traveling or on other projects.

 

This series is never getting done.  Period.  GRRM's ego won't allow him to admit he can't write it anymore or allow him to bring in a co-writer to help.

[Black Knight]

I am neutral on the question of whether WoW will be released this year or not, but the fact that the publisher has said that as of January it's not on this year's calendar means nothing in terms of whether it will or won't be published this year. The last two very late books of the series were eventually published in years for which they weren't on the calendar in the January of that year. So Johnson's comment that she has "no information on likely delivery" is exactly that - she has no information, one way or the other. She knows not to calendar a book of GRRM's that she doesn't already have in hand, but it doesn't mean she's not going to get it this year. It also doesn't mean that she is going to get it this year. She just doesn't know, and we just don't know either. The only prediction I am going to make is that we'll see the book by 2017, because I don't think this wait will break the record of longest wait for an installment of this series.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Black Knight

[Holmbo]

How accepted do you think the show will be as canon once it overtakes the books?

Of course there is a difference but stuff like who lives and who dies or who ends up on the iron throne.

Will you make a difference to what the show reveals vs the book?

[Domenicholas]

How accepted do you think the show will be as canon once it overtakes the books?

Of course there is a difference but stuff like who lives and who dies or who ends up on the iron throne.

Will you make a difference to what the show reveals vs the book?

I think it'll be like the Star Wars Expanded Universe and the new Star Wars movies, where as long as the last 2-3 novels aren't out, the show's canon will be considered the canon of ASOIAF where it doesn't contradict the canon of the 5 published books.  Once those books come out, however, then they would be the canon of the series.

[Haleth]

Good lord, this is so frustrating!  How many people are going to lose interest in the books once the show wraps things up?  It'll serve him right when he finally gets around to publishing and after long years of delays and excuses his book is met with a big, fat meh.  

 

(I can claim to refuse to be shackled to this anymore, but I know I'll end up buying the book.  Assuming I haven't died of old age by then.)

[Winnief]

I also twitched a little bit at the note that the books were getting increasingly complicated because a lot of those "complications" were entirely unnecessary like the Maester conspiracy, Victarion, and fAegon, (all of which the show wisely has cut out.)  They just served to take up room and time away from making progress on the things readers actually *cared* about like a certain Big Reveal that's been in the making for 20 years.  Not to mention all the travel porn and food porn.  How many times in AFFC I was thinking "Hey we get it! Westeros in general and the Riverlands in particular have been devastated by the war.  We know that because we already read countless chapters of Arya seeing the devastation first hand in the first three books!"   WE GET IT!!! Now what the hell's happening with LSH and the Brotherhood already?!?

 

I do wonder though, if Martin will release another sample chapter, and if so, I think it would be one of the following possibilities to deal with the very likely event that the show is about to 'spoil' them...

 

1. Battle of Winterfell

2.  Battle of Mereen

3.  That infamous 'controversial' chapter with Sansa.  Her storyline is likely to be the biggest spoiler of all this season since even if we didn't read the conclusions to the battles yet, everyone still has some ideas of the likely outcomes while no one has the faintest clue what's going to happen in the Vale.

[benteen]

It's like GRRM has an idea and he can't say no to it.  I'm looking forward to seeing Skagos for instance but I feel like the only reason we're visiting it in the next book is just for the sake of visiting it.

 

I hope Sansa doesn't get kidnapped by Ser Shadrich because we'll then be treated to another endless travel montage.  I just remember Jorah and Tyrion on horseback in Essos and thinking how boring that was.

[Winnief]

 

It's like GRRM has an idea and he can't say no to it.  I'm looking forward to seeing Skagos for instance but I feel like the only reason we're visiting it in the next book is just for the sake of visiting it.

 

Same here.  Frankly I think it's half of why its taking Dany so long to reach Westeros because he couldn't resist all those travels in Essos and a lot of other chapter bloat.  Frankly I think the show's smarter to just have Rickon and Osha holed up with the Umber's-it's more believable than the whole deal with Wex was AND it could help save a lot of time and travel for resolving that storyline of restoring Rickon to Winterfell.

[benteen]

I'm curious what Davos's storyline will be on the show.  I'd be fine with him staying strictly in the North but the North has been so downplayed, I don't know what to expect.  But Rickon has to get back in the picture on the show if he is going to be the actual heir.  He's the spare and that's his role.

 

I said this a while ago.  I think Dany needs to get revenge on that Dothraki that left them all for dead.  But I'd rather is be one chapter of her lighting him up with her dragon and telling the rest of the Dothraki to get in line.  I'm not interested in an extended return of the Dothraki.

 

Good point about Wex too.  Unless he heard the dying Luwin discussing it with Ohsa, how would he know where they were going?

Edited February 1, 2015 by benteen

[ElizaD]

3.  That infamous 'controversial' chapter with Sansa.  Her storyline is likely to be the biggest spoiler of all this season since even if we didn't read the conclusions to the battles yet, everyone still has some ideas of the likely outcomes while no one has the faintest clue what's going to happen in the Vale.

 

If he releases anything, I hope it's this. I checked the AFFC release date and in October it will have been ten years since the last new Sansa chapter.

 

I just remember Jorah and Tyrion on horseback in Essos and thinking how boring that was.

 

I'm 99% sure Glen and Dinklage will make GOT's version of this plot more entertaining than ADWD did.

[benteen]

10 years, wow.

 

Glen and Dinklage will definitely be able to rise above the material if their scenes together are on the show.

[Winnief]

I'm thinking Benteen they'll have Davos at the Wall for a little while at any rate-if for no other reason than to see him interact with Jon which should be good.

 

(Another show improvement-a lot more character interaction between the main ones like doing Brienne/Arya and Arya/Tywin, or Varys/Littlefinger.)

 

And yeah, there's no way Glen and Dinklage together can *fail* to have screen chemistry.  Without fAegon and JonCon and with Tyrion presumably not going over completely to the dark side, and actually having him meet Dany, I'm thinking that whole story line will be a *massive* improvement.  

 

And yes it really has been nearly 10 years for Sansa which given that she's a POV character who's being set up for *something* important is pretty goddamn annoying.  

 

My guess is Davos is going to learn that Rickon's being harbored with Northern lords and they'll pledge to help Stannis-*if* he helps them return their Stark liege to Winterfell…which if some of the theories about the Children of the Forest and ancient pacts are right might be important not just for the Starks but for all Seven Kingdoms.  There could be a reason, "There must always be a Stark at Winterfell."  Personally I think the wolf bloodline was always key to the Long Winter and the battle and that's one reason why Rhaegar *had* to sire the 'third' with Lyanna.

[Black Knight]

Admittedly I've had way more tolerance for the travelogues than many other readers, but I do think a real payoff is coming. I've long theorized that Dany will end up not coming to the continent of Westeros from the east, but instead travelling in the exact opposite direction as everyone expects. That's foreshadowed as what Quaithe told her to do, and after having read the world book, with all the detail it's got about the east, I'm even more certain. Think of the world as a globe - everyone thinks she'll go west and land in Dorne or maybe Dragonstone. I think she goes east and then south, which means (assuming the world is round) she'll actually enter the continent on the far northern end, the Land of Always Winter, and catch the Others on their back side. I may be wrong about the second part of it, the going south to reach north part, but I'm very confident in my prediction that she goes east instead of west to reach Westeros. We're going to see Asshai, etc. and she's going to pick up some interesting magic that will be useful for the final battles.

[WearyTraveler]

That's a very interesting idea, Black Knight.  I really like it and I think it's very possible.

 

I also don't mind the travelogues and all the additional characters.  I love reading, and I can go on for days.  I do think it's not fair to have people wait so long between books, but even more so to not have set dates.  I understand the creative process may not work with a tight schedule, but I think GRRM goes too far.

[benteen]

Interesting idea that Dany comes to Westeros from the Sunset Sea.  That's an area where people have traveled and never came back from, including an old Stark king.

[SeanC]

GRRM was asked about that and he said that the characters had gone as far east as they're going to.

[Constantinople]

It's like GRRM has an idea and he can't say no to it.  I'm looking forward to seeing Skagos for instance but I feel like the only reason we're visiting it in the next book is just for the sake of visiting it.

 

 

Same here.  Frankly I think it's half of why its taking Dany so long to reach Westeros because he couldn't resist all those travels in Essos and a lot of other chapter bloat.  Frankly I think the show's smarter to just have Rickon and Osha holed up with the Umber's-it's more believable than the whole deal with Wex was AND it could help save a lot of time and travel for resolving that storyline of restoring Rickon to Winterfell.

How can Rickon eat the Boltons for breakfast if he doesn't go to Skagos?

[Haleth]

I just saw a photo of GRRM at the Super Bowl. He should be home writing, dammit.

[Avaleigh]

I can't get mad at GRRM for enjoying the Super Bowl along with the rest of the country.

What gets me is the way he says yes to every con and activity so that he can get his ass kissed. It didn't bother me until he started throwing shade at the showrunners for moving through the books at the pace that they have. If he wants focus more on leisure time and other projects I'm fine with that, I just don't want to hear him whining at all about the show overtaking the books. At most they could have given him an extra year if they'd been willing to commit to twelve episode seasons instead of ten. Even if that had happened though he'd still need another five plus years to complete ADoS if his pace for the last three books is anything to go by and obviously that was never going to happen.

What a difference a little discipline would probably make.

[GreyBunny]

In this story, it's really silly to want secret identities "kept to a minimum." Let's see.....we have Arya, who's just one big secret identity and really doesn't exist anymore as Arya, but is just dozens of masks wrapped around a core of hate. We have Sansa, who is no longer Sansa but rather Alayne Stone, the bastard daughter of Baelish who is about to most likely be raped and affianced to her "father," and live that way henceforward. We have Tyrion who is no longer Tyrion and probably never will be again. Bran's a tree, Rickon's been eaten by cannibals or will be a dropped plotline, Theon is now named Reek, and Catelyn Stark is Lady Stoneheart. Given the story so far, I think if there's a Stark left who isn't running around under a fake name, that will be rectified shortly, either by killing them off or by disguising them intriguingly and then forgetting all about it.

 

Meanwhile there's Septa Lemore whom I'm pretty sure isn't, Aegon who probably isn't, Barristan Selmy who isn't anymore. Melisandre is not a person--she's a thousand years old. R + L = J, but no one will ever find out and nobody cares. Brienne of Tarth is most likely a zombie of some sort, The Hound is living under some other name, and The Mountain is probably Frankengregor. I think at this point in the story the only people who are still who they are, are Cersei, Tommen, Jaime, and Danaerys. Pretty much everyone else is either disguised for their own personal safety, wildly mistaken about their own identity, zombified,

 

I think it's a little late to worry about having "too many" secret identities.

 

There's a cast of thousands in a crapsack world so there is a lot of identity swapping but that's no reason to give everyone a secret identity.  Sansa, Arya, and Tyrion and some of the others make sense, but Coldhands being Benjen, Septa Lemore being Ashara Dane, or the High Sparrow being Howland Reed would be annoying and cheap and I don't want to see much more of it.  

 

 

Glen and Dinklage will definitely be able to rise above the material if their scenes together are on the show.

 

Toss them both in a brown paper sack and they'd still have some of the best chemistry and acting brilliance.

I also twitched a little bit at the note that the books were getting increasingly complicated because a lot of those "complications" were entirely unnecessary like the Maester conspiracy, Victarion, and fAegon, (all of which the show wisely has cut out.)  They just served to take up room and time away from making progress on the things readers actually *cared* about like a certain Big Reveal that's been in the making for 20 years.

 

Oh, I know.  I like travelogues and color commentary and some POVs from less important characters but if they don't move the story forward and are just there because the author got distracted by a Shiny Thing, it's time for an editor or publisher with some balls to step in and streamline the writing.  GRRM isn't taking his time to produce quality work, he's just dithering and messing around.  

Edited February 3, 2015 by GreyBunny

[Pete Martell]

Dinklage is a terrific actor but they have to be very careful with what to do with Tyrion. I thought most of his season 4 material was wildly uneven (some terrific, some...not so much) and by the last episode I felt like it did affect his performance. 

 

Anyway, I'm not sure what it says about me that when I saw this my first thought was this thread.

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/02/06/george-r-r-martin-comments-on-winds-of-winter-publishing-date/

[that one guy]

I just remember Jorah and Tyrion on horseback in Essos and thinking how boring that was.

 

The show specializes in weird road movie pairings. Tyrion and Bronn, Arya and the Hound, Jaime and Brienne, Dany and Jorah, Brienne and Pod etc. I think I like those sequences better than a lot of actual plot-heavy stuff. I have been looking forward to Jorah and Tyrion on TV since reading the book a year and a half ago.

[Winnief]

The show specializes in weird road movie pairings. Tyrion and Bronn, Arya and the Hound, Jaime and Brienne, Dany and Jorah, Brienne and Pod etc. I think I like those sequences better than a lot of actual plot-heavy stuff. I have been looking forward to Jorah and Tyrion on TV since reading the book a year and a half ago.

 

 

It might not be the only pairing we get; I'm thinking Sansa/Brienne/Podrick or Sansa/Blackfish might happen next season.  And I know I'm gonna like me some more Jon/Stannis and Jon/Davos!

 

I am wondering if Martin will release that 'controversial" Sansa chapter now, since it seems likely the show's about to spoil it anyway.

[Avaleigh]

I am wondering if Martin will release that 'controversial" Sansa chapter now, since it seems likely the show's about to spoil it anyway.

This is my hope.

[SeanC]

I am wondering if Martin will release that 'controversial" Sansa chapter now, since it seems likely the show's about to spoil it anyway.

I believe he's said there weren't going to be any more previews.

[SeanC]

Speak of the devil, while GRRM seemed to say there wouldn't be any more previews, Elio & Linda briefly talk about the Sansa chapter circa 42:10 of their talk about the trailer for Game of Thrones season 5:

 

http://www.westeros.org/GoT/News/Entry/Discussing_the_Season_5_Trailer

 

They don't go into details as to the actual events, but mainly say that they don't think anything happening in the show right now (or in the trailer) has anything to do with it.  Linda describes the chapter in question as "a character development thing...that surprised us a little bit, in retrospect maybe it shouldn't have."

[Notwisconsin]

Cut winds of winter into three parts of say, 300 pages each.  release the first in the spring, the second around christmas, and the third just before the Republican Convention.

[Winnief]

How many pages *has* he written yet anyway?!?  Does anyone know?

Edited February 15, 2015 by Winnief

[Avaleigh]

I'd actually be cool with getting just the first part of the book with GRRM releasing it in three or even four parts. From a cynical POV couldn't that be more profitable anyway?

[Holmbo]

From a fandom perspective it would be kinda cool if the book was released in pieces with say a chapter a week. It would make it episodic and give time for people to comment on each chapter and make predictions for the next one. It would be fun to follow. But the overall reading experience probably wouldn't be that good and it would be annoying once we got to the end of the released chapters. Also grrm couldn't go back and change some detail or line if that made a later chapter work better.

[Brn2bwild]

It struck me that for Martin, the show could work as a (very expensive) focus group, demonstrating whether certain plot points will work.  For instance, if everyone watches Dany, Jon, Tyrion, etc. fight the Ice Zombies and thinks: "This is lame!", Martin might decide to take a different approach in the novels.

[WearyTraveler]

It struck me that for Martin, the show could work as a (very expensive) focus group, demonstrating whether certain plot points will work.  For instance, if everyone watches Dany, Jon, Tyrion, etc. fight the Ice Zombies and thinks: "This is lame!", Martin might decide to take a different approach in the novels.

 

I don't know, as much as his writing pace frustrates me, I think he's not one to change something if he personally thinks it's good, or where the story should go.  I've read articles that stated he said he knew of fans who had guessed upcoming twists and he's not changing those, anyway.  He said he put the clues in the books for a reason, and if we have guessed them, we sort of earned that guess and that if he changed it, then the flow wouldn't make sense with what he had already written.

There's also all the stuff with editors.  He's notorious for not doing certain changes the editors have asked him to do, sticking to his guns.  He's been asked, for example, to stop using certain phrases, or at leas to reduce the number of times he uses them, and he refuses.  He says that's how these characters speak, that's what they say in this world, and so, that's that.  If he's not willing to change regular, inconsequential little phrases in the text, why would he change major things because of fan pressure?

Fan pressure has not caused him to change his writing habits, and that has been some serious pressure applied for years.  I don't see him caving now.

[GreyBunny]

How many pages *has* he written yet anyway?!?  Does anyone know?

 

If you take out all of the times someone says "as useless as nipples on a breastplate" and the food porn - four.  Four pages.

[kivara]

I suppose the quote below explains why he prefers to write about new people and places and is unlikely to finish the other stories:

 

"I find that if I know exactly where a book is going I lose all interest in writing it" (https://racefortheironthrone.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/quick-analysis-of-the-ur-text/)