George R. R. Martin has posted an update on the completion status of The Winds of Winter, the awaited sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series, announcing that he has not yet completed the manuscript. With the sixth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones set to debut in mid-April 2016, this means that the television show will officially exceed the progress of the book in regards to the series’ overall storyline.
Martin’s update is notable in a number of ways. For the past two years, the author has been consistently silent on his progress on the book series, cognizant that any update would generate more questions from supportive fans and more criticism from detractors, neither of which would satisfy demand for the book itself. (Martin arguably receives enough of this already. Deadspin’s recent December 29th missive “GRRM Has No Pages,” although clearly intended as a joke, is only the latest in a series of frustrated ventings.) The author’s January 2nd update breaks that silence, offering an informative reply to the expectations of the reading and viewing public.
[…] with season 6 of GAME OF THRONES approaching, and so many requests for information boiling up, I am going to break my own rules and say a little more, since it would appear that hundreds of my readers, maybe thousands or tens of thousands, are very concerned about this question of ‘spoilers” and the show catching up, revealing things not yet revealed in the books, etc.
Martin’s update is also an exceptionally bleak piece of personal writing, detailing the process that has twisted his writing days from a joyous personal expression into stress-filled Sisyphean slogs.
Even as late as my birthday and our big Emmy win, I still thought I could do it… but the days and weeks flew by faster than the pile of pages grew, and (as I often do) I grew unhappy with some of the choices I’d made and began to revise… and suddenly it was October, and then November… and as the suspicion grew that I would not make it after all, a gloom set in, and I found myself struggling even more. The fewer the days, the greater the stress, and the slower the pace of my writing became.
[…]
But I won’t make excuses. There are no excuses. No one else is to blame. Not my editors and publishers, not HBO, not David & Dan. It’s on me. I tried, and I am still trying.
Any journalist, hobbyist, author, NaNoWriMo-er, or college student will tell you that writing something that is coherent and engaging takes a lot of forethought, focus, and hard work. And for those who write as a profession, such as Martin, these words are subject to additional outside scrutiny. Regardless of whether a piece of writing is an argument or a fantasy story, it must hold up within the minds of a wide variety of readers. Think of the last college paper, the last fanfic installment, the last novel you wrote. Now think about how much work you had to put into it before you were happy enough to let it out into the world.
Martin’s update—“I’m trying”—succinctly communicates the difficulty of this work from his end, and adds key emotional context to the other activities that the author undertakes outside of his writing on A Song of Ice and Fire. By detailing the difficult writing process for The Winds of Winter, Martin is also notably detailing how he sustains that writing process. As the author, Martin clearly knows best how to stay excited about writing A Song of Ice and Fire, and subsequently how to get the best writing out of himself. And as he details in his January 2nd update, this isn’t by chaining himself to rapid three-month deadlines, as the stress that this induces actually diminishes the quality output of his fiction. From this perspective, Martin’s additional outlets of expression: Managing the Cocteau Theater in Santa Fe, editing anthologies, and developing new shows, aren’t a way for him to shirk his duties writing The Winds of Winter. They are, in fact, necessary in alleviating the stress from his writing process. Detractors yelling for Martin to “get back to work” and stop spending his time on other activities miss that A Song of Ice and Fire most likely doesn’t get written at all without these activities.
For those who would make light of the stress apparent in Martin’s update on The Winds of Winter, the author points out that he is in a historically unique position:
The case of GAME OF THRONES and A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE is perhaps unique. I can’t think of any other instance where the movie or TV show came out as the source material was still being written.
While this isn’t necessarily true in the context of media throughout history, it is unique in regards to the genre of epic fantasy. It has only been in the past 10 years that it has been possible to adapt widescreen epic fantasy into yearly serialized seasons of television, and the scheduling conflict between Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire is undoubtedly a growing pain of television’s new capability to adapt epic fantasy.
This situation stands as a cautionary tale to other possible fantasy television adaptations, but it also comprises a fascinating and unique moment for readers of epic fantasy. For perhaps the first time ever, fans of a fantasy book series will get TWO endings to their beloved saga. HBO’s conclusion to Game of Thrones will undoubtedly be satisfying in regards to knowing the answer to larger questions, but only Martin’s written conclusion has the capability of being detailed, vast, and truly epic.
I personally would prefer to read the book before seeing the show, but I nonetheless find the show outrunning the books to be a delightfully weird situation; one appropriate to the time-and-world-bending fiction which I adore. I don’t envy the showrunners for having to write an end to their favorite series, but the very nature of adaptations means that this will only be one version of the ending. The story doesn’t end when the TV show does.
Martin’s update also doesn’t rule out the possibility of The Winds of Winter being published later in 2016. By the end of this new year, it is possible that fans of this epic series may have both the book and the TV season in hand.
I’m more concerned that once he has finished a ms., the press will be so rushed that decent editing doesn’t happen. He’s a good writer, but also a writer who needs a resolute editor. Can an editor insist on the necessary cuts/changes and the time that will take? I think it gets less likely the longer a ms. takes.
@1, he has an editor?
I’m a little sad that I won’t get to read the books sooner, but I hope he can just relax and get into a productive groove again. I doubt he’s doing it to spite anybody. And at this rate the shows/books are so different that I wouldn’t really take anything in the show as a ‘spoiler’ because there is no indication that means it happened in the books.
I’m just glad that if he actually thought he could do it and worked hard to try and do it, he must have an awful lot of it done. Hopefully that means we will get it sometime this year.
I am happy this means I won’t have to buy anymore of his books until they go in the bargain bin. It just cost way to much buying new releases, now I can get them 75% off as I will not feel the need to read something that I know the end too already.
I don’t think this is very surprising. It does suck for him and his publisher though. Hopefully now that the dreaded deadlines are past he won’t feel so bleakly pressured to perform like a panda expected to mate in captivity.
I figure we’ll get the book before the end of 2016.
It is a deception, but not a surprise. I somehow fear GRRM and Rothfuss have set the bar higher when it comes to readers expectations versus release time.
I am deeply afraid more authors are going to delay their sequels because even if the readers have to wait 4 years, it still is faster than GRRM. I would hate for long delays to become a trend.
A small part of me feels betrayed though… I understand writing is difficult, but books used to be released faster.
I am glad that they released “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” in time for my wife to give it to me for Christmas. Three wonderful novelettes set in Westeros a hundred years before the time of his more epic tale. And written with a lighter touch than the larger story. Not to mention lavishly illustrated by the incomparable Gary Gianni. Not a substitute for the next Fire and Ice installment, but a nice little appetizer.
Per your suggestion that this might be the first time a TV show outpaced its source material, a fine example of that would be the adaptation of Manga titles to their animated series. This happens time and again, the anime outpaces the Manga and the TV show producers are forced to either create a bunch of – usually low quality – filler episodes to allow the Manga author room to breath (Dragonball Z, Naruto, Bleach all did it), or create an entirely new story (Fullmetal Alchemist did this on their first outing). I suppose GRRM had some kind of deal set up that gave them all the important deets to the end game. Odd that.
Writing is an organic process, and not one easily quantifiable. Some people write effortlessly, churning out books at an amazing rate. Stephen King and Issac Asimov epitomize this. Others have more difficulty. Yet, it is not fair to castigate GRRM for the way he writes. I am sure he would rather nail every deadline, and churn out a book a month. To my mind, it’s unfair to expect him to write any other way than the way he does. Having to deal with the heckling of angry fans will not make the books appear any faster.
I often wonder which I’ll be able to read first – The Winds of Winter by GRRM, The Doors of Stone by PR, or Peace Talks by Jim Butcher.
Pretty sure it will be Peace Talks.
” I can’t think of any other instance where the movie or TV show came out as the source material was still being written.”
Harry Potter. When the first movie was released in 2001, J.K. Rowling had only written five books with two remaining.
This would be funnier if it hadn’t forced me to binge-watch the series ;-) Oh well, sacrifices must be made.
More seriously, in his post he goes onto listing characters being inconsistently alive/dead in the series/books and I was worried about the amount of people I cannot longer remember who they are in the books. I’d welcome a return to the relative leanness of the first books in the series.
It is also interesting (SPOILERS FOR THE BOOKS/SERIES AHEAD) how a certain king is marked as dead in the series by him, although there’s been speculation as to, since it happens off-camera, it is really so. I hadn’t even considered that he could be alive when I watched it, to me it was a clear cut to black, but still… Does he really know or it’s simply his interpretation too?
@12: Also happened frequently with Saint Seiya.
I do feel for him as a lawyer I know how hard writing can be, but as a lawyer with firm deadlines who has stayed up many long nights to get things done and is often unhappy but still have to stop when it is “good enough” how much I feel for him is limited. He did do this to himself by agreeing to the TV deal before all the books were finished. Waiting is a much better way to go about it. The TV deal I am sure did also increase his stress, but he decided to do the deal. I am still sorry for his stress and I agree that chaining yourself to your desk completely does not work but you do at times have to write something you don’t feel like writing. I can not say if he is getting the balance wrong certainly and I don’t think anyone else can either, but we also can’t say if he is getting it right. I am glad he has let us know, as I will now know not to watch the show and stay away from media about it.
True Blood also outpaced its novels, but they diverged so much by then that no one cared. It’s interesting that both the ending of the books and that of the show were just badly written as far as I was concerned. It was like no one cared by that point. I hope that the divergence here doesn’t lead to something similar.
@12
It happened as well with Trigun. The author of the manga gave an outline to the anime producers of what the story would be before the company that published him bankrupted. After he found a new publisher, the manga artist then ended the story, but the anime had already ended before that. And I thought this was one of the few times the anime was superior to the manga.
After hearing him at a World Con, I am 0% shocked by this news.
He’s a short story writer that tackled “the epic.” Now “the epic” is a massive hit, and he doesn’t know how to control / finish it.
I really believe, if he could write the end as 4 or 6 short stories – it would be done. But that would send the collective fandom and his editors into a fit. So we are left with him trying to figure out how to write an epic that ends. Not another drama show with at cliffhanger.
I wish him luck.
The show turned left pretty hard awhile back, so they are not the same to me anymore. Thus book 6 not coming before season 6 won’t affect me that much.
The question I’m left with is, do I care about either?
At this point, we might get Dragonsteel or the Liar of Partinel before Book 7 of ASOIAF.
Back when I still liked the show, I would’ve been devastated and would have found it very difficult to wait for the book….now, my only concern is how to avoid spoilers, because the show is basically utter crap with great production and i’m not gonna miss watching it. Avoiding social media from the moment Season 6 comes out and until WOW comes out will be easy. But to avoid the internet from the release of WOW until ADOS comes out….I don’t know how to pull that one off.
It’s at times like these that I get competing sentiments. On the one hand, there’s Neil Gaiman’s famous blog, which he sagely finishes with “George R. R. Martin does not work for you.” On the other hand, Paul and Storm gave the fan’s viewpoint in their fun little song “Write Like the Wind.” While tongue-in-cheek, it also expresses the exasperated frustration that many of his fans are beginning to feel.
I think my final perspective is this. I haven’t even finished A Dance With Dragons yet. I got bored and just stopped. It took me -years- and two false starts to finish Feast for Crows. I think with this blog post he’s gotten me to the point where I can quietly and sadly say that I’m done. I’ll watch the show because I’m a fan of D&D’s vision of the world, and maybe when I’m in my 60s and the books finally conclude I’ll pick them up . . . but maybe not. Maybe the reason that I haven’t been able to force myself through the last couple of books is that thing that we all feel but can’t admit: He’s lost his way, and doesn’t know how to find it again. It’s sad, because I’ve been reading these books since a friend pointed out A Game of Thrones as something that a fan of The Wheel of Time might like. This year, by the way, will be twenty years since the first book was published, and I didn’t start that long after. ’97 I think, so it’s been nineteen for me.
Anyway, tl:dr. — I’m done, and it’s not sour grapes to say that I probably would have been done anyway, but this puts the nail in the coffin for me.
@22: I get the joke. :-) I do hope GRRM is alive and able to write that long. I wish him well, I just can’t care about his story anymore.
For those that don’t follow Brandon Sanderson, the two books are not in his line up of “to be written” for 20+ years. Since it is Sanderson, baring death or extreme personal tragedy, I do not doubt they will be written.
My takeaway from Martin’s comments isn’t about deadlines or series spoilers. Rather, it has removed any doubts I had that he has come to hate writing these books. It seems pretty obvious to me that he has been blocked for around a decade now, and all the digressions and delays (in the books and out of them) have only postponed his reckoning with a story he doesn’t know how to carry across the finish line. The guy clearly dreads sitting down at his desk to work on this monster of a project. Even without the enormous external pressure, I doubt Martin could pull it off. Only the most defiantly optimistic of fans still believe this series will ever be completed.
Huh. Until I read that update, I didn’t know there was any general belief that Book 6 would be finished by now. His update actually implies he’s further along than I thought he was. I wouldn’t hold my breath for a 2016 release, mind you. (Given that the artificial Game S06 deadline will have already passed, I hope Bantam can take their sweet time with editing and production, and put out quality.)
As for the show … did any of us really believe books 5, 6 and 7 would all manage to stay ahead of HBO? It was never a question of if the show would “catch up”, but when. Though for awhile there was talk about stretching each book’s material into 2 seasons. That may have helped. Of course, you do very much of that, pretty soon you have 22-year-old actors still playing 12-year-old characters.
Two books? I thought Dragonsteel and The Liar of Partinel were two possible titles for the same book. But when you’ve got a book that apparently will contain spoilers or meta-spoilers for at least 17 other books you intend to write, it could be awhile.
@27:
You are correct. It was part of my joke.
Its more like 25 other books, lol: http://brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2015/
@27 & 28: My mistake. Hoid tends to cause confusion. :-D
Still, a “Loooong way off”
@27 Two books. Liar of Partinel is Hoid’s origin story. You can find a few chapters of the draft floating around the internet. Dragonsteel (as it exists now; it will definitely change before publication, since large parts of it were used in Way of Kings) has different main characters.
I’m still torn about watching the show. The ONLY thing that got me through last season was the constant refrain of “the books are better, the books are better”. So while, like LisaMarie, I don’t think the show constitutes spoilers for the books, I don’t like what they are doing with the characters I love.
@30:
Hmm, that’s not my understanding of it. I can ask Peter about it later though.
I’ve gone back and forth on whether to watch or wait. My current plan is that if I think TWOW will come out fairly soon after S6 airs, I’ll probably hold off watching until after I read the book. If it seems that the book will be delayed into 2017 or beyond, I’ll probably watch the show. Assuming the show avoids the problems it had in S5.
@32 I haven’t read Dragonsteel, but I’ve read a synopsis of it, and I have read the Liar of Partinel chapters floating around. They’re very, very different stories.
There’s a little more information on them on Coppermind: http://coppermind.net/wiki/Unpublished_works
@16 – I had the exact same thought about the particular character that he mentioned as dead, haha. I more or less assumed that character was, but took it with a grain of salt.
@34:
The reason I’m wondering is that he lists these on one line as if they are one work in his latest State of Sanderson, and refers to them collectively using singular pronouns in the entry for it, as if its one book. I realize there are two things floating around, but my understanding was that two won’t be published, that’s what I was saying. Either way, I don’t particularly care, other than that two would be better than one.
My point in the initial comment was that I don’t think GRRM will EVER finish the series.
The original anime version of _Full Metal Alchemist_ was produced while the manga was nowhere near completed. The manga author deliberately did not reveal the direction the story was going to go in the manga, letting the anime take its own (very different) course based on their interpretation of events that had tracked so far.
After the manga was finished, a second series was produced that more faithfully tracked the manga, beginning to end.
It never seemed to hurt anything that mattered.
For everyone frustrated by GRRM’s slow pace (and by slow, I mean inability to write at all), I suggest you read Brandon Sanderson (if you haven’t already). I would start with the Mistborn trilogy, and go from there. Sanderson is an author who writes for his fans as much as for himself. He keeps up a great pace (faster than any fantasy author I have seen) and does not come up with excuse after excuse like GRRM. It’s clear GRRM does not enjoy writing. He prefers spending his time working with the TV show producers/writers and writing short stories. He got in over his head with this series, and continues to inflate the plot and characters with no end in sight. I thought the last book was awful, and gave it a one star review on Amazon (my only ever 1 star review on a book). I will probably not even purchase the next book when it comes out in 2021, and wait until I can get it at the library.
The Song of Fire and Ice became mired in self-indulgence a couple of books back. I was an early fan of those books, and remain a fan of his other books, but I stopped caring about Fire & Ice long ago. It was a work of Tolstoyan proportions to begin with, but there are at this point so many divergent subplots and so many secondary, tertiary and n-ary characters that I doubt that any writer living or dead could tie them up in any satisfactory way.
The series remains more focused, but if they really killed off Jon Snow (the books are so far more ambiguous, and frankly I highly doubt that he is gone, as he embodies one of the main story arcs) people are going to be less willing to invest themselves emotionally in its narrative, and that does not bode well for its future.
@1
A “resolute editor” is a conservative way of putting what he needs. What he needs is an old-school nun with a steel ruler that stands next to his desk and whacks him every time he meanders into a new subplot.
Well there’s still hope for me, since I won’t be seeing the show until it comes out on Blu-ray next February.
Speaking of which, Season 5 comes out in a few weeks! (for me).
@39:
Sorry, but to imply that Sanderson’s stories compare with Ice and Fire is just laughable. Look, I have enjoyed Brandon’s stories, and have high hopes for Stormlight in particular. I also applaud his efforts to conclude the impossible project that was WOT. But Ice and Fire is on another level, simple as that. I have to wonder that if more people/fans would just leave GRRM alone and let him finish the books at his own pace, he would probably get done faster, have more fun doing it, and deliver better stories as a result. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll watch the tv series and enjoy it. Then when the books come out I’ll read them and enjoy it.
@43, @39:
Opinions, opinions. Laughable to you. Not to hundreds of thousands of people who can’t stand grimdark and love Brandon Sanderson’s work for its ability to portray optimism… which is also a part of reality. I personally don’t find Brandon Sanderson’s prose to be as good as Martin’s at this point in his career… but he’s got 25 years’ less experience than Martin, and prose is only one component of being a novelist.
Lets not state opinions as facts in regards to reader preference. @39 simply stated if you don’t like the pace, try Sanderson. That is certainly a fair statement.
I love GRRM and his stylistic approach to A Song of Ice and Fire, the style itself is for more complex than how other great writers of our generation write. He is easily one of the best story tellers of all time, SO cut him some slack. GRRM has never been a fast writer, so it’s crazy to expect him to change now that he’s writing more than he ever has faster, and with more personally at risk.
I understand his seeming procrastination, I think is stems from the HBO people making his life’s work a cultural phenomena, while taking liberties with the story line and characters. GRRM is challenged to tell his story, the way wants too, and if that pace is every 4-5 years we (and HBO) will just have to wait.
I personally think the direction of the books, which are taking a much longer approach to resolution, is considerably more satisfying than the TV Show. And if the TV show was motivated by anything other than $$$ and prestige they would be taking the show at a slower pace. There is more than enough content in the books for 2-3 seasons at their 11-13 episode season schedules.
There are two distinctly different stories being told, one a story for lovers of deep fantasy and one for lovers of action and drama. The TV show is omitting major elements of the story which I believe will be pivotal to the final resolution. So HBO can do its thing, I’ve personally given up on it. HBO can create their obscene TV show. Good Luck to them. I however will wait patiently for the full song.
@44:
Fair enough. I meant to go into why I felt that way but ran out of time and had to go work. Still no time unfortunately. Apologies @39, no offense meant. We are lucky to have enough quality writers to debate their works and styles.
Before Ice and Fire became a TV show, it was apparent–to me at any rate–that Mr. Martin had created a work of fiction that could not possibly be completed by a mortal author. To put it bluntly, the narrative was out of control, and clearly uncontrollable. So what are you all waiting for? The next installment of the soap opera?
That’s actually the only conceptual framework that will fit Fire & Ice: a soap opera is a drama that goes on and on with characters appearing and leaving (possibly permanently) until the audience gets tired of it. The author can die and the story goes on, as was shown by the “completion” of the Jordan’s Wheel of Time epic thingie by Mr. Sanderson. In fact, Brandon Sanderson is a paradigm of the new syfi as business plan: it guarantees perpetual employment for as long as the writer can string words together.
I suppose I’m an old curmudgeon: I long for the return of the novel, of defined stories with a beginning, middle, and end. I’d like more art and less bloat; more inventiveness and less pomposity. Meanwhile, Fire and Ice has long since jumped the shark for me, and I don’t care what or when George Martin finishes writing something.
I think GRRM has been eaten by his offspring. He’s lost. He hates it. Maybe if we all leave him alone, he’ll finish it in the next 10-20 years. Personally, I don’t care anymore. I’ve found other wonderful work to sustain me. (Jim Butcher!) I will love the TV series though. Those people have a deadline they HAVE to meet, and they will, and I will be satisfied.
I just hope that the long wait means the next book(s) will be very, very big. Seriously. AFFC is my favorite in in ths series and I came to like ADWD much more after a reread and the Read blog here. So…more of that, please?
But if it doesn’t involve enough ocean enthusiasts of one kind or another, I’ll be muchly miffed.
@46:
Hey, I’d love to have a debate of opinions… but I actually agree with you. There’s no doubt in my mind that the first three books of ASOIAF are better than anything else I’ve ever read, including anything by Brandon Sanderson. So I doubt such a debate would be very interesting.
@37 – Is that what Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is? I always wondered (although apparently not enough to even check wikipedia) why there were two. Is it worth going back to check it out?
Also, in line with all the Brandon Sanderson comments:
GRRM, fake your own death and get Brandon to finish your series for you. He’ll knock out the remaining books in 3-4 months. You can even edit them.
All of this just makes Steven Erikson’s achievement with Malazan even more astonishing.
@39: Careful to recommend Sanderson on writing pace only. I absolutely adore Sanderson, but I have to admit not all his books have the same appeal and it is entirely possible for the Stormlight Archive fans not to dig too heavily into his other books. Yes, Sanderson writes fast and releases many books, but the fact remains the delay in between each Stormlight Archive books is not short: 4 years and 3 years. It is much, much, much better than GRRM, but it does not compare to the pace of other authors such as Erikson or Butcher.
I absolutely love Sanderson, he currently is my favorite author, but he does split his attention between many, many, many projects which sometimes creates elongated delay for some. For those who mostly read the Stormlight Archive, it can be grating if not frustrating. So I would be careful in stating Sanderson writes fast: he does write fast, but he isn’t completely dedicated to either of his series which means there are delays in between books of the same one.