Why George R.R. Martin Still Hasn’t Finished The Winds of Winter

There's hardly a Game of Thrones fan in the world who doesn't know the old wizard from George R.R. Martin's story. George R.R. Martin published A Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, in August 1996. Five books followed—A Clash of Kings in 1999, A Storm of Swords in 2000, A Feast for Crows in 2005, and A Dance with Dragons in 2011.

Reasons for Publication Delay

After 15 years today, billions of readers and viewers around the world are eagerly waiting for the next two books of A Song of Ice and Fire book series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. But our wait is not over. There are thousands of theories floating around the internet as to why old Martin hasn't been gifting us new books for a decade and a half. A few days ago, A creator Pop Culture Pandit released a huge video, where he gave specific seven reasons why George R.R. Martin has not been able to give us the next two books in the Game of Thrones book series for the last 15 years.

I will briefly mention seven reasons for Game of Thrones fans in this blog.

In 2011, when HBO began to create the most popular Game of Thrones in world television history with the vast world of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin announced that he would complete the next two books in the next seven to eight years and finish the story of Dance of Dragons. But it's been 15 years today, The Winds of Winter is still not released. And we don't expect to talk about A Dream of Spring now.

So, dear fans, let's discuss the reasons why old Martin leaves us so frustrated.

George R.R. Martin doesn't write one-liners in The Good Men. He writes a scene differently from the point of view of different characters. This style for the reader is called POV Character Writing.

After the fifth book published in 2011, so many characters of this huge world are intertwined in so many stories that it is very difficult for a writer to bring everyone together by writing the story from their point of view.

To give you an example—when the fifth book, Dance with Dragons, ends, Jon Snow is stabbed in the chest at Castle Black. Daenerys Targaryen is flying alone on her dragon Drogon somewhere in Essos. Tyrion Lannister Trillions frolicking in Essos with a Fake Aegon Targaryen, a storyline never shown in the series. On the other hand, the political game is going on between Arianne Martell and Doran Martell in the kingdom of Dorne. The story of the three Greyjoy brothers Euron, Victarion and Aeron Greyjoy in the Iron Islands. Meanwhile, Stannis Baratheon's battle against House Bolton continues. Arya Stark's trauma-filled journey, the actions of Ramsay Bolton and Roose Bolton. Lord Baelish and Lord Varys' political game in King's Landing. On the other side of the Wall is the complex equation of Bran Stark and Bloodraven.

Around 25 characters' points of view are stuck until the fifth book. HBO's TV show D&D showed Greyjoy traveling from King's Landing to Casterly Rock in a matter of minutes. But George R.R. Martin doesn't write anything like that. If a character in the book wants to travel 3000 km by ship, it maintains a very realistic time frame. As a result, it is very tough for a writer to properly connect all the POV characters going on in the book right now.

George R.R. Martin's character arc writing style is different. There is a term in literary circles called the Gardener Writing Approach. That is, when he begins to explain a character, it is much more descriptive. A character is saying something to someone, why he is saying that word, the expression on his face while saying the word, the surrounding environment, the history behind saying this word—everything is written in so much detail that many times the reader forgets the direction of the real story after reading five or six pages.

Comparison Between TV Series and Book Series

Although George Martin has an idea of what will happen at the beginning and end of a scene, the events in between are entirely dependent on intuition and luck. George Martin has no control over when his pen takes the story. If you watch his previous interviews, then you will clearly understand - such a huge world and his plan of world building was not in George Martin's mind before, it was written down. He has a clear idea of what will happen at the end of Game of Thrones, but sometimes he has arranged the story of so many characters and kingdoms so beautifully, it takes time to match his Gardener Writing Approach to properly organize them.

The third reason I personally believe is the super flop ending of the Game of Thrones TV series. I have several videos on my channel where I tell you how these two makers of D&D quickly ended the Game of Thrones series by ignoring all the requests and suggestions of George R.R. Martin. Although the fandom among us is pretty fed up with Seasons Seven and Eight, Seasons Six, Seven, and Eight made D&D after the five-book story ended, relying on George R.R. Martin's last draft of Winds of Winter. And my personal theory is that George R.R. Martin canceled his already written manuscript after seeing the huge negative reaction to the ending of Game of Thrones. Gee, I guess George R.R. Martin changed the ending from the game show and started writing The Winds of Winter again in 2019. This is why he could not complete the book till now.

A fourth possible reason is George R.R. Martin's Writer's Block. Many writers come to a point in their careers when they run out of new writing ideas. George Martin wrote about this in one of his blogs—"I write and cancel. Then I write again." Maybe old Martin falls in this circle.

But if I take reason number five, then the issue of writer's block flies away. While we were all waiting for Winds of Winter during the Game of Thrones show, George Martin published the book Fire and Blood, which was the prequel story. From which the House of the Dragon show is now running. So many people think that old Martin might be writing some other prequel story instead of continuing the original story. Although we haven't got any new book from him till now after 2018. So it is difficult to say whether the theory is completely right or wrong.

The sixth reason, which I will tell you now, is that many fans like me get very hyped when they are in a bad mood. According to many, George R.R. Martin is fed up with the huge popularity and success that the show Game of Thrones has achieved. He no longer feels any obligation to write subsequent books. He is living a comfortable life by selling the copyrights of series after series to HBO. Although personally I am not willing to accept it. But with so many upcoming Game of Thrones spin-off announcements, it's really scary.

The seventh and final reason that seems most realistic to me is George R.R. Martin's age. He is currently 76 years old. No matter how excited a person is in his young age, it is really difficult to maintain passion for something at 76 years old. Specifically, he has been writing The Winds of Winter since he was 61. A lifelong penmanship that penned this vast world of Ice and Fire, at age 76, should stop fans like me from expecting him to have the same energy and skill as the wizard of old stories.

Fan Reactions and Expectations

Perhaps the publishers will extract a few fragments of The Winds of Winter from his complete manuscript if old Martin ever suddenly moves to the land beyond the clouds. But I have given up hope that A Dream of Spring will ever see the light of day in this epic world of fire and ice.

Are you still living in hope, or have you given up hope? Let me know in comment.

All Image Source: IMDB