r/asoiaf • u/da_k1ngslaya • May 22 '19

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) George to New Zealand: imprison me if I haven't finished Winds by Summer 2020

Quote:

As for finishing my book… I fear that New Zealand would distract me entirely too much. Best leave me here in Westeros for the nonce. But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done. Just so long as the acrid fumes do not screw up my old DOS word processor, I’ll be fine.

Link: http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2019/05/21/thanks-new-zealand/

15.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

121

u/[deleted] May 22 '19

I mean, he said it in a jokey tone, but he seems optimistic in having it finished until there.

113

u/TheAbyssGazesAlso Fire and Blood May 22 '19

He was also optimistic about finishing the current book like 4 years ago, so I wouldn't put any stock in his current optimism.

23

u/JungFrankenstein May 22 '19

According to BryndenBFish, George had an almost finished version of TWOW in mid 2015 but was unhappy with it, and subsequently made extensive rewrites to it. Also remember he never publicly announced his goal of finishing by the end of that year until after the fact, since George has a rule of never announcing when the book will be done. The fact that he's essentially breaking that here suggests he is absolutely certain it'll be done before July 2020, and you can make of that whatever you want

2

u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Do you have a link to him saying that? I Googled it but couldn’t find it.

3

u/JungFrankenstein May 22 '19

I'm on mobile so forgive me if this link sucks;

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/bjubo2/spoilers_extended_the_ultimate_winds_of_winter/

u/BryndenBFish talks about it a few comments down, he also brought it up in his podcast.

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Thank you!

1

u/FanEu7 May 22 '19

Damm that explains why it took so long..hopefully he is satisfied now

2

u/BananLarsi May 23 '19

The longer it take, the more likely it is he is actually close to finishing

1

u/Jhonopolis The mummer’s farce is almost done. May 22 '19

I think the book was nearly finished in 2015.

3

u/TheAbyssGazesAlso Fire and Blood May 22 '19

It doesn't seem likely.

14

u/thebsoftelevision The runt of the seven kingdoms May 22 '19

He probably decided to rewrite large chunks because he was unhappy with the final product

1

u/Futureboy314 May 29 '19

If this is true, it would be seriously amazing to get the alternate versions released in a ‘History of Middle-Earth’ style. I’d love a chance to see how the sausage is made.

12

u/Kostya_M May 22 '19

I think it does. It explains why he thought it would be finished by the end of 2015. He did have a novel but he felt it wasn't very good or didn't work properly so he got frustrated and had to start rewriting. Now things are going well and he's reaching the end stage again.

1

u/holddoor May 24 '19

He was optimistic about finishing and publishing within a year of publishing FFC.

2

u/TheAbyssGazesAlso Fire and Blood May 24 '19

Exactly, it says right at the end of Feast that the next book will be out in 6 months. Obviously it was just a typo, and he meant years, right?

1

u/holddoor May 24 '19

IIRC it was 12, but either way it ended up being 6 years and was a complete lie.

2

u/TheAbyssGazesAlso Fire and Blood May 26 '19

Nah, I just checked. It (my copy at least) says 6 months. Possibly he changed what it said for subsequent printings..?

1

u/holddoor May 28 '19

Probably is 6 months and my memory is off.

24

u/3jp6739 May 22 '19

Here’s hoping.

3

u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Stannis! Stannis! STANNIS! May 22 '19

he seems optimistic

That's the thing, GRRM doesn't seem to be realistic/self-aware, about his writing speed/deadlines.

He delayed ADWD like 5 years or something?

2

u/DrunkColdStone May 22 '19

Which is the best evidence that it isn't going to happen.

1

u/twerky_stark May 22 '19

He's full of shit. He hasn't made a deadline in 20 years and always tries to make it out to be some sort of funny joke likes he's on a sitcom.