Because he refuses to write an outline. By making shit up as he goes, he is very susceptible to getting himself stuck in situations like the Mereenese Knot.
Yeah, if he lacks motivation/inspiration now I imagine that'll only get worse after this season of the show starts to spoil everyone. I'm highly doubtful we ever get another installment.
So, as much as it annoys us all that he can't finish these books... I have been thinking about how difficult it would be to actually write a standalone book, let alone a 7 part series with as many story lines, intricacies, histories, and an ending in mind that everything/everyone must reach. I've been considering trying to write a book just for personal consumption to see how difficult it is- A collection of short stories of a boy's sexual discovery.
And of course dance was mostly finished when it was split from feast. Add in that he has always taken longer to write each book than the previous one in the series. I suspect were looking at ~ 5-6 years from now for WoW. Spoiler Oh and fuck off new money. You don't know our pain. Respectfully, Huck
George R.R. Martin has renewed his commitment to finishing The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Check out this recent exchange from his Not a Blog: Q: “Hello, Mr. Martin! Sorry for the off-topic question, but will you be writing an episode for Season 7 of Game of Thrones?” A: “I am not writing anything until I deliver WINDS OF WINTER. Teleplays, screenplays, short stories, introductions, forewords, nothing. And I’ve dropped all my editing projects but Wild Cards.” http://winteriscoming.net/2016/02/1...ing-anything-until-i-deliver-winds-of-winter/
My level of hatred for the entire wild cards project is impressive. Remember back, before GoT, when we'd read that he was working on editing a new Wild Cards and be like "sigh... Just finish the next book George." Those were the more innocent times of summer.
So he's gone from doing other projects instead of WoW to doing nothing instead of WoW. Got it. Great.
I hate the people who are telling us to calm down more than I hate this thread being bumped with no news. "I've only known about this for 2 years, but yall are wayyy over reacting!" I'll shove my fist up your ass and feed your manhood to the goats, and that would still be an appropriate response.
What a shocker. I knew something like this would happen. George R.R. Martin's next big twist won't be seen onGame of Thrones The author told IGN he’s decided to move forward with the mysterious narrative move in his next novel,The Winds of Winter. It’s a twist Martin first told EWabout early last year, but at the time he wasn’t sure if he was going to pull the trigger or not. “I have decided to do that, yes,” Martin said in the new interview when asked about his previous quote. “Will you know it? I don’t know. It’s fairly obvious because it is something that involves a couple of characters, one of whom is dead on the show, but not dead in the books. So the show can’t do it, because they have killed a character I have not killed. But that doesn’t narrow it down much because at this point there are like 15 characters who are dead on the show who are still alive on the books.” http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/25/george-rr-martins-game-thrones-twist
A twist for twists sake. That's one of the reasons he has such a hard time finishing these things. So let's see, who is dead on the show but not in the books and in a position to make a major difference? http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=65078 Its gotta be one of barristan, mance or jeyne I'd think. My money is on a pregnant jeyne. Just so the north can be as big of a clusterfucking knot as meereen.
I shouldn't care about GRRM pulling this stunt because it's not like he's ever going to finish writing the book that the twist in.
Read this article the other day and immediately thought of grrm (among a few choice others). http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/07/why-im-always-late.html Spoiler Why I’m Always Late By Tim Urban I woke up this morning to a text from Andrew. It was a link: http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/optimistic-people-have-one-thing-common-always-late/1097735/ “optimistic-people-have-one-thing-common-always-late” Intriguing. Nothing’s better than the headline, “The reason people are [bad quality that describes you] is actually because they’re [good quality].” I got reading. And as it turns out, late people are actually the best people ever.They’re optimistic and hopeful: “People who are continuously late are actually just more optimistic. They believe they can fit more tasks into a limited amount of time more than other people and thrive when they’re multitasking. Simply put, they’re fundamentally hopeful.” They’re big-thinking: “People who are habitually late don’t sweat over the small stuff, they concentrate on the big picture and see the future as full of infinite possibilities.” Late people just get it: “People with a tendency for tardiness like to stop and smell the roses…life was never meant to be planned down to the last detail. Remaining excessively attached to timetables signifies an inability to enjoy the moment.” By the end of the article, I had never felt prouder to be a chronically late person. But also, what the hell is going on? Late people are the worst. It’s the quality I like least in myself. And I’m not late because I like to smell the roses, or because I can see the big picture, or because the future is full of infinite possibilities. I’m late because I’m insane. So I thought about this for a minute, and I think I figured out what’s going on. The issue is that there are two kinds of lateness: 1) Okay lateness. This is when the late person being late does not negatively impact anyone else—like being late to a group hangout or a party. Things can start on time and proceed as normal with or without the late person being there yet. 2) Not okay lateness. This is when the late person being late does negatively impact others—like being late to a two-person dinner or meeting or anything else that simply can’t start until the late party arrives. Haltiwanger’s article is (I hope) talking mostly about okay lateness. In which case sure, maybe those people are the best, who knows. But if you read the comment section under Haltiwanger’s article, people are furious with him for portraying lateness in a positive light. And that’s because they’re thinking about the far less excusable not okay lateness. All of this has kind of left me with no choice but to take a quick nine-hour break from working on the gargantuan SpaceX post to discuss not okay late people. When it comes to people who are chronically not okay late, I think there are two subgroups: Group 1) Those who don’t feel bad or wrong about it. These people are assholes. Group 2) Those who feel terrible and self-loathing about it. These people have problems. Group 1 is simple. They think they’re a little more special than everyone else, like the zero-remorse narcissist at the top of Haltiwanger’s article. They’re unappealing. Not much else to discuss here. Punctual people think all not okay late people are in Group 1 (as the comments on this post will show)—because they’re assuming all late people are sane people. When a sane person thinks a certain kind of behavior is fine, they do it. When they think it’s wrong, they don’t do it. So to a punctual person—one who shows up on time because they believe showing up late is the wrong thing to do—someone who’s chronically late must be an asshole who thinks being late is okay. But that’s misunderstanding the entire second group, who, despite being consistently late, usually detest the concept of making other people wait. Let call them CLIPs (Chronically Late Insane Person). While both groups of not okay late people end up regularly frustrating others, a reliable way to identify a Group 2 CLIP is a bizarre compulsion to defeat themselves—some deep inner drive to inexplicably miss the beginning of movies, endure psychotic stress running to catch the train, crush their own reputation at work, etc. etc. As much as they may hurt others, they usually hurt themselves even more. I come from a long line of CLIPs. I spent around 15% of my youth standing on some sidewalk alone, angrily kicking rocks, because yet again, all the other kids had gotten picked up and I was still waiting for my mom. When she finally arrived, instead of being able to have a pleasant conversation with her, I’d get into the car seething. She always felt terrible. She has problems. My sister once missed an early morning flight, so they rescheduled her for the following morning. She managed to miss that one too, so they put her on a flight five hours later. Killing time during the long layover, she got distracted on a long phone call and missed that flight too. She has problems. I’ve been a CLIP my whole life. I’ve made a bunch of friends mad at me, I’ve embarrassed myself again and again in professional situations, and I’ve run a cumulative marathon through airport terminals. It’s often the same story, something like this: I’ll be meeting someone, maybe a professional contact, at, say, a coffee place at 3:00. When I lay out my schedule for the day, I’ll have the perfect plan. I’ll leave early, arrive early, and get there around 2:45. That takes all the stress out of the situation, and that’s ideal because non-stressful commutes are one of my favorite things. It’ll be great—I’ll stroll out, put on a podcast, and head to the subway. Once I’m off the subway, with time to spare, I’ll take a few minutes to peruse storefronts, grab a lemonade from a street vendor, and enjoy New York. It’ll be such a joy to look up at the architecture, listen to the sounds, and feel the swell of people rushing by—oh magnificent city! All I have to do is be off the subway by 2:45. To do that, I need to be on the subway by 2:25, so let’s be safe and get to the subway by 2:15. So I have to leave my apartment by 2:07 or earlier, and I’m set. What a plan. Here’s how it’ll play out (if you’re new to WBW, you’re advised to check this out before proceeding): CLIPs are strange people. I’m sure each CLIP is insane in their own special way, and to understand how they work, you’ll usually have to get to some dark inner psychology. For me, it’s some mix of these three odd traits: I’m late because I’m in denial about how time works. The propensity of CLIPs to underestimate how long things take comes out of some habitual delusional optimism. Usually what happens is, of all the times the CLIP has done a certain activity or commute, what they remember is that one time things went the quickest. And that amount of time is what sticks in their head as how long that thing takes. I don’t think there’s anything that will get me to internalize that packing for a week-long trip takes 20 minutes. In my head, it’s eternally a five-minute task. You just take out the bag, throw some clothes in it, throw your toiletries in, zip it up and done. Five minutes. The empirical data that shows that there are actually a lot of little things to think about when you pack and that it takes 20 minutes every time is irrelevant. Packing is clearly a five-minute task. As I type this, that’s what I believe. I’m late because I have a weird aversion to changing circumstances. Not sure what the deal is with this, but something in me is strangely appalled by the idea of transitioning from what I’m currently doing to doing something else. When I’m at home working, I hate when there’s something on my schedule that I have to stop everything for to go outside and do. It’s not that I hate the activity—once I’m there I’m often pleased to be there—it’s an irrational resistance to the transition. The positive side of this is it usually means I’m highly present when I finally do haul my ass somewhere, and I’m often among the last to leave. Finally, I’m late because I’m mad at myself. There’s a pretty strong correlation here—the worse I feel about my productivity so far that day, the more likely I am to be late. When I’m pleased with how I’ve lived the day so far, the Rational Decision-Maker has a much easier time taking control of the wheel. I feel like an adult, so it’s easy to act like an adult. But times when the monkey had his way with me all day, when the time rolls around that I need to stop working and head out somewhere, I can’t believe that this is all I’ve gotten done. So my brain throws a little tantrum, refusing to accept the regrettable circumstances, and stages a self-flagellating protest, saying, “NO. This cannot be the situation. Nope. You didn’t do what you were supposed to do, and now you’ll sit here and get more done, even if it makes you late.” So yeah, that’s why I’m late—because I’m insane. Don’t excuse the CLIPs in your life—it’s not okay and they need to fix it—but remember, it’s not about you. They have problems.
Could be but what would be the point? R+L = J reveal? At this point that seems a pretty weak reveal, especially since Tree Bran is omniscient.
the fact that he says it's two people and one is dead in the show, I'm really sticking with Jojen and Meera.
sometimes I think about where the books are trying to go and will think of say the north and how it could work out, but then it opens up a huge can of worms for other messes. The point is George really made a mess of this whole deal and it's a mountain of a task to get himself out. Now this whole twist thing he wants to throw in, it's like why ? Just write your way out of the mess you already made before you make another mess. I really hate him
Why are we assuming that he's throwing a twist in just for the sake of it? I mean it's possible, I guess, but it's also possible that it's something he'd always considered doing
Mitch Cumstein can we get a thread title update? Something like "Winds of Winter will never be finished. Come to grips with reality ITT"
Also assuming that the twist is just another knot he is writing himself into. When he talked about it previously he said the twist came very organically.
If he'd always considered doing it then why wouldn't he tell the show runners about it? This is just GRRM being upset that the show is going to tell his story before he can, so he's changing the story.
I really do believe the reason this book is taking so long is because he's doing a good job of unwinding all the knots and trying to get ready for a conclusion. That process was always going to take longer than any of the previous novels.
Honestly, he's been writing this for 20 years. After 20 years, if your friggin nickel flipping about whether to put in this new twist you've been thinking of... Well that's either epic levels of poor project management or, as mentioned above, a temper tantrum because your legacy got tarnished by a TV show having to finish your masterwork. Fuck him.
I initially thought Mance pink letter but when he said two people i'm definitely thinking you're right.
He hasn't told the show runners anything beyond what's been published and the overall ending of the series. He's not obligated to tell them every single twist and turn of the individual arcs. Even if it was something that he decided/thought of recently, that still doesn't mean anything. He's always worked pretty much chronologically while letting the story dictate where things are headed. He's never had a full plan for entire plot lines or anything like that
Guy creates a fantastic, complex, and often groundbreaking story set in a huge, unique, living universe. But it's taking longer than I want for him to finish so fuck him. Seriously the GRRM hate is dumb as fuck. I'm frustrated with how long the series has taken just like everyone is, but I am also capable of understanding that none of it would even exist without Martin. I also appreciate how complex his story is and how great his attention to detail is. Those things require time.