The Exhaustive History of Every George R.R. Martin Winds of Winter Update

Contemplating how A Song of Ice and Fire’s conclusion could stretch to three books rather than the planned two, Martin gives his first Winds of Winter estimate for around 2014.

The first taste of Winds of Winter takes us to Dorne, and we’re all so excited, all so naive, all so innocent: surely previews mean it’s coming soon?

Okay that’s a bit silly. Maybe this book’s further off than we thought.

Make up for that little joke last month with an actual preview, this time taking us to Braavos for some Game of Thrones trademark misery.

The first, but sadly not last, time George R.R. Martin has to ask people to stop speculating about his health, and he starts off strong, with a hearty “fuck you” and the above middle-finger.

Nice of him to get our expectations in check early into the year. Martin coincided the news with the release of a trailer for Game of Thrones’ fifth season, which is deeply funny.

A whole Sansa chapter of her mastering her disguise as Littlefinger’s daughter distracts us from the fact the book’s not coming out this year.

But in a lengthy update, Martin doesn’t say it’s not going to come before the end of 2016, either. Hope springs eternal?

Martin promises to buckle down and focus on solely finishing Winds of Winter before any other projects. As we now know, Martin has successfully completed quite a few other projects since saying this.

We’re off to Dorne again for another chapter! Sounds like he really is buckling down.

A purported paperback release date gives us as close to a potentially “definitive” date we’ve had so far. At this point we’ll take anything.

“I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year),” Martin writes.

Seven months on, Martin is less optimistic. But hey, at least his Targaryen history book Fire and Blood is coming along and should be out in this window too!

Martin’s two-year window shrinks down to a single year.

Ian McElhinney, who played Barristan Selmy on the show, said that actually. Martin is pretty quick to refute it. “Why would I sit for years on completed novels? Why would my publishers—not just here in the U.S., but all around the world—ever consent to this? They make millions and millions of dollars every time a new Ice & Fire book comes out, as do I. Delaying makes no sense.”

Martin, perhaps relieved (slightly) that people will let up (slightly) on asking him when it’s coming out, gets to start repeatedly answering a new question instead: is his book going to be as bad as the ending of Game of Thrones was on TV?

On a roll this month, Martin goes grand in his latest estimation: announcing he plans to head to WorldCon 2020 in New Zealand, he declares that if he doesn’t bring a finished manuscript of the book with him, “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.”

We’re days away from House of the Dragon launching on HBO, and admittedly, Martin has indeed not written any scripts for the show yet. Winds of Winter is also not done, either.

Everyone thinks they’re going to be inside for a few weeks, maybe a few months at most, while this little coronavirus thing blows over. Martin at least thinks being inside will give him a chance to really hunker down and write.

We all realize we’re going to be inside for much longer than we previously thought. Martin remains optimistic though: “I have bad days, which get me down, and good days, which lift me up, but all in all I am pleased with the way things are doing.” Don’t we all, George, don’t we all.

The year 2020 might have sucked for most of the entire world, but for George R.R. Martin? “The best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it. Why? I don’t know.” He’s very cagey on that meaning it’s nearly done, however.

Fictional George R.R. Martin attends the first annual Hellfire Gala on the living island Krakoa. Is Winds of Winter finished in the Marvel Comics universe? Do the Stepford Cuckoos now know everything that’s going to happen after psychically scouring his brain? These are the true mysteries of X-Men comics in 2021, not “who killed the Scarlet Witch at the Hellfire Gala.”

Almost a year after his fictional sojourn, Martin has seemingly given up on even offering a window. Turns out a book over a decade in writing is long, who would’ve thought!

A few months later after once again reminding us Winds of Winter will play out differently to the show, Martin notes that writing a book for over a decade is quite a challenging experience. Who would’ve thought!

Martin, coming off a covid-19 diagnosis having attended San Diego Comic-Con, says that, seemingly once and for all, done with offering updates on when he’ll be done. “Every time I do, I don’t make it and everybody gets mad at me, and there’s no sense. It’ll be done when it’s done.” Our last update, perhaps? For now at least.