Winter is coming — and has been for a good two decades. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga kicked off with 1996’s 694-page A Game of Thrones, and then marched onward at a steady clip, as far as epic fantasy goes. Martin published the first sequel, the 768-page A Clash of Kings, in February 1999, and followed it with 973 more pages in the form of 2000’s A Storm of Swords. The pace slowed as Martin tore through the 753-page A Feast of Crows, which took five more years to publish. He would eke out A Dance with Dragons, a whopping 1,056 pages, in July 2011. There has not been a mainline ASOIAF book since, despite the proposed sequel, The Winds of Winter, being teased as far back as 2006.
Martin takes an enormous amount of flack from his fans for being a notorious multitasker outrun by prolific fantasy authors and pageturner savants. What the haters gloss over is that he clearly loves the work, having published novellas, sci-fi series, and spinoff books of A Song of Ice and Fire, throughout his so-called “lull.” Meanwhile, he has overseen — and feuded with! — multiple HBO series based on his works. He also can’t help but share how far he’s come, and how far he still has to go, in his quest to complete A Song of Ice and Fire.
In honor of 20 years of updates on The Winds of Winter, and a year without any updates whatsoever, Polygon wanted to look back at the equally epic footprint left behind by Martin’s personal blog (er, not a blog) updates on the status of the next ASoIaF. In this collated memoir, a writer of great emotion, brutal honestly, and mild frustration beams through. In reading, ask yourself: Who among us has a commitment to go this hard for this long?
March 28, 2006: Teasing books 6 AND 7 oh hell yeah
Oh, and I’ve also come up with a new title for the seventh (and final, I hope, I hope, I hope) volume of the series — A DREAM OF SPRING. I like the sound of that a lot better than A TIME FOR WOLVES, which has been my working title for book seven up to now, and I also think it gives a better sense of the book that I want to write. So — A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, then THE WINDS OF WINTER, then A DREAM OF SPRING. Shouldn’t take me long (hah).
Sept. 6, 2006: A publish timeline
There’s no way to project a firm publication date at this time, but my best guess is that The World of Ice and Fire will be released in late 2007 or early 2008, after A Dance With Dragons but before The Winds of Winter.
Feb. 15, 2010: Plotting Winds out in public
Just musing aloud here, so don’t anyone get all hysterical… but depending on how long the book comes out, moving some of these finished chapters into WINDS OF WINTER may make sense. Structurally you could make a good case for making DANCE a perfect parallel to FEAST; different cast of characters, but exactly the same time frame, so both books end on the same approximate date. Then WINDS could pick up the action for both sets of characters the following day.
June 27, 2010: Winds of Winter gains two chapters!
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS just got a little shorter. What’s happened is, I’ve decided to move two completed chapters, from Arianne’s POV, out of the present volume and into THE WINDS OF WINTER. This is something I’ve gone back and forth on. Arianne wasn’t originally supposed to have any viewpoint chapters in DANCE at all, but there’s this… hmmm, how vague do I want be? VERY vague, I think… there’s this event that would of necessity provoke a Dornish reaction. The event was originally going to occur near the end of the book, but in one of my forty-seven restructures I moved it to the late middle instead […] good news for WINDS OF WINTER, since I now have four chapters done for that one.
July 31, 2010: 100-plus pages written!
The good news is that I seem to have written more than a hundred pages of THE WINDS OF WINTER already.
May 19, 2011: More shuffling into Winds
At one point late in the process DANCE was considerably longer. The page count had gone beyond 1600 and was creeping up toward 1700, to my alarm. (At 1700 pages the book could not have been published in a single volume). Several things happened to bring it back down […] my editors and I made some decisions as to where to end this book which involved shifting a few chapters back into the next volume, THE WINDS OF WINTER. With a series like A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, there are always judgment calls to make as to where to end one book and begin the next.
June 01, 2011: A long To Do list that doesn’t really include Winds
…and behind all that, of course, lurks Son of Kong: the WINDS OF WINTER.
Aug. 14, 2011: Joking about Winds while linking to a Foxtrot comic
If WINDS OF WINTER begins, “It was a dark and stormy night,” you’ll know it’s not me.
Dec. 28, 2011: Absolute torture in the form of Winds teaser chapters
As a Christmas gift to all my loyal fans and readers, I’ve just replaced the (long published) sample chapters from A DANCE WITH DRAGONS on my website with an unpublished sample chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER. […]there will be a different sample chapter from WINDS OF WINTER included at the end of the paperback edition of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS when that is published next July.
May 12, 2012: Update: actively writing many things at once
WINDS OF WINTER. Yes, I’m working on that too. At the moment, I am writing about the Dothraki. More than that, I sayeth not, you know I don’t like to talk about this stuff.
June 23, 2012: Hmm maybe Winds of Winter is not close to done
THE WINDS OF WINTER. Also known as ‘Son of Kong.’ Working on it. Lots to do.
Jan. 08, 2013: Proof of life, six months later
For all of you who have been clamoring, I have a somewhat belated Xmas/ New Year’s gift, a new sample chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER. […] I have a lot more writing to do. On WINDS, and half a dozen other projects.
March 13, 2013: GRRM recommends you find something else to read for now
Look, if you love A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, and want “something like it” to read while you are waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for me to finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, you really need to check out Maurice Druon and THE ACCURSED KINGS.
October 29, 2013: Confirms the exact Winds chapter included in the paperback
And yes, the paperback of DANCE does include a sample chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER […] we’ve included the first Ser Barristan chapter from the novel-in-progress.
March 25, 2014: Teaser for a teaser
With season 4 of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES almost upon us, I thought the time was ripe for me to give my readers another taste of WINDS OF WINTER. So I will shortly be posting a new sample chapter there. (If you have not read the Arianne chapter that has been up there lo these many months, better do so soon, because Arianne will be coming down when the new sample goes up). The new chapter is actually an old chapter. But no, it’s not one I’ve published or posted before, and I don’t even think I’ve read it at a con (could be wrong there, I’ve done readings at so many cons, it all tends to blur together). So it’s new in that it is material that no one but my editors (well, and Parris, and David and Dan, and a few others) have ever seen before, but it’s old in that it was written a long time ago, predating any of the samples that you have seen. The first draft was, at any rate. I’ve rewritten it a dozen times since then.
March 27, 2014: Winds breaks the GRRMnet
The upload of the new sample chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER created so much traffic to my website and blog that the servers crashed.
I mentioned that this chapter had quite a history. It’s true. The first draft was written more than a decade ago. Originally, it was intended to be the opening Arya chapter after the infamous “five year gap,” her first appearance in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS as initially conceived. Then it was supposed to be a part of A FEAST FOR CROWS, after I abandoned the five year gap and split the books. Then it was going to be the concluding Arya chapter in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. But it seemed more like an opening chapter than a closing one, so shortly before ADWD was published my editor and I agreed to remove it from DANCE and shift it over into WINDS.
April 15, 2014: Winds must come first
[…] the unfinished novella was indeed set in Winterfell, and involved a group of formidable Stark wives, widows, mothers, and grandmothers that I dubbed ‘the She-Wolves,’ but ‘The She-Wolves of Winterfell’ was never meant to be more than a working title. The final title, when I finish the story, will be something different. There’s also another Dunk & Egg novella that I’ve got roughed out in my head, with the working title ‘The Village Hero.’ That one takes place in the Riverlands. There’s no telling when I will have time to finish either of these, or which one I will write first. I don’t expect I will know more until I’ve delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER
Dec. 09, 2014: Martin insists he will not pull a Taylor Swift with Winds
[…a] rumor arose that the ’12 Days’ were actually a countdown [… not to Xmas, but] to the publication of THE WINDS OF WINTER, or the announcement of its completion and/or pub date. Sorry. Not true.
I am still working on WINDS. When it’s done, I will announce it here.
March 02, 2015: Winds competing for brain space
Back from Texas. I had a marvelous time at Texas A&M, presenting them with the five millionth volume for their library, a first edition of THE HOBBIT […] But now I am home again, facing the usual mountain of mail and email, and of course the monkeys on my back… those noisiest of them being HIGH STAKES, volume twenty-three in the Wild Cards series, and of course the Son of Kong, THE WINDS OF WINTER.
March 08, 2015: A blunt acknowledgement
THE WINDS OF WINTER did not come out in 2014, as some of you noticed.
April 02, 2015: Fine, take a chapter!
For all of you who have been howling for another taste of THE WINDS OF WINTER … My faithful minions have just translated the first Alayne chapter from WordStar and uploaded it to my website. Yes, I know, I’d said there would be no more sample chapters, but (1) it had been more than a year since Mercy, (2) lots of you were asking, and (3) Anne Groell and my friends at Bantam twisted my arm.
May 18, 2015: Go read the previous chapters!
[…]for those who may be curious as to the road the books are taking, I direct you to the WINDS OF WINTER sample chapters on my website.
June 10, 2015: I’m trying to work here!
[…]I am going to return to that chapter I’ve been writing on THE WINDS OF WINTER now, thank you very much.
Jan. 1, 2016: Ugh, sorry y’all
Back when this was one long long long post, before Live Journal sent it to the cornfield, I mentioned opening with Dickens’ line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” […] You wanted an update. Here’s the update. You won’t like it.
Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You’re disappointed, and you’re not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed… but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, ‘I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER’ on or before the last day of 2015.
But the book’s not done. Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there’s a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those ‘no pages done’ reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there’s also a lot still left to write. I am months away still… and that’s if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t.) Chapters still to write, of course… but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures […] I am going back to my stance from last March, before all this. It will be done when it’s done. And it will be as good as I can possibly make it.
The outpouring of support in response to my post on THE WINDS OF WINTER has been astonishing.
May 10, 2016: Sample switcheroo!
And… because I know how much bitching I’d get if I offered a new sample from Wild Cards without also doing one from A SONG OF ICE & FIRE… we’ve also changed the WINDS OF WINTER sample on my website, replacing the Alayne chapter that’s been there for the past year with one featuring Arianne Martell. (Some of you may have heard me read this one at cons) […] And no, just to spike any bullshit rumors, changing the sample chapter does NOT mean I am done.
June 12, 2016: Winds spotted in the wild
We had a great time in Baltimore and NYC […] I did a lot of signing, a kaffeeklatch, a special fund-raising dinner where I changed tables for every course, an interview, the opening ceremonies (crabs and paddleboats and pirates, oh my), and read the Damphair chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER.
May 14, 2017: Stilllllllll working on it
I AM STILL WORKING ON WINDS OF WINTER and will continue working on it until it’s done […] WINDS OF WINTER, five successor shows, FIRE AND BLOOD […] four new Wild Cards books […] it’s a good thing I love my work.
July 22, 2017: Fire & Blood might come first
Whether WINDS or the first volume of FIRE AND BLOOD will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say […]
May 20, 2019: Uh, still working
THE WINDS OF WINTER is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done. I won’t say when […] but I will finish it […]
May 21, 2019: Ha, ha just kidding… maybe?
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.
April 14, 2020: Pandemic-era update: writing Winds
No big news here, but it has been a week or so since my last blog post, so I thought I would say hi. I am still up in the mountains, doing the social distancing rag, and writing WINDS OF WINTER. I have good days and bad days, but I am making progress.
June 23, 2020: On a COVID-driven roll.
I am spending long hours every day on THE WINDS OF WINTER, and making steady progress. I finished a new chapter yesterday […] It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go […] I hope that both Covid-19 and THE WINDS OF WINTER will be done.
Aug. 15, 2020: Dispatch from a mountain cabin.
I am back in Westeros again, once more moving ahead with WINDS OF WINTER.
Nov. 8, 2020: Getting those Winds reps in.
I continued to work on THE WINDS OF WINTER as well. No, sorry, still not done, but I inch closer. It is a big big book […]
Feb. 2, 2021: 2020 was a big year for Winds
I wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages of THE WINDS OF WINTER in 2020. The best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the isolation. Or maybe I just got on a roll. Sometimes I do get on a roll. I need to keep rolling, though. I still have hundreds of more pages to write to bring the novel to a satisfactory conclusion.
March 9, 2022: One year later
Yes, of course I am still working on THE WINDS OF WINTER. I have stated that a hundred times in a hundred venues, having to restate it endlessly is just wearisome. I made a lot of progress on WINDS in 2020, and less in 2021… but ‘less’ is not ‘none.’
The world of Westeros, the world of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, is my number one priority, and will remain so until the story is told. But Westeros has become bigger than THE WINDS OF WINTER, or even A SONG OF ICE & FIRE. In addition to WINDS, I also need to deliver the second volume of Archmaester Gyldayn’s history, FIRE & BLOOD. (Thinking of calling that one BLOOD & FIRE, rather than just F&B, Vol 2). Got a couple hundred pages of that one written, but there’s still a long way to go. I need to write more of the Dunk & Egg novellas, tell the rest of their stories, especially since there’s a television series about them in development.
June 23, 2022: Saw a friend
Yes, WINDS OF WINTER. No, have not forgotten. I was back with Tyrion this past week.
July 08, 2022: Back in the field.
I am working on it, I have been working on it, I will continue to work on it. (Yes, I work on other things as well) […] I have been at work in my winter garden.
Aug. 12, 2022: Manifest manifest manifest
I hope to wrap up the story line for one of the viewpoint characters of WINDS OF WINTER this week. Maybe even two. Meanwhile, work continues on all the other GAME OF THRONES successor shows […]
Dec. 28, 2022: Winds mentioned as one of many
Yes, WINDS OF WINTER, yes, yes. And HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, season 2. And several of the other successor shows […] We are also still developing the Wild Cards tv series […] And I have Wild Cards books to edit.
April 14, 2023: “Just” doing a lot of work here
I just need to finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, and then do either A DREAM OF SPRING or volume two of FIRE & BLOOD […]
Dec. 6, 2023: Solidarity over Winds
I also spent three days with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. Starting with a visit to the studio where HOT D is being shot. (I had originally planned to visit there months ago, but the WGA strike put an end to that, and instead I stayed here in Santa Fe, working on WINDS OF WINTER and walking a picket line).
May 21, 2024: Again frames other planned writing as post-WINDS work.
[The Hedge Knight] will make its debut next year… and if it does well, THE SWORN SWORD and THE MYSTERY KNIGHT will follow. By which time I hope to have finished some more Dunk & Egg stories (yes, after I finish THE WINDS OF WINTER).
July 9, 2024: A meeting is not an announcement
sorry guys, but no […] That’s not how it works […] When WINDS OF WINTER is done, the word will not trickle out, there WILL be a big announcement […]
Sept. 9, 2024: Turns out working on tons of TV does slow output
Writing came hard, and though I did produce some new pages on both THE WINDS OF WINTER […] I would have liked to turn out a lot more. My various television projects ate up most of those months.
Jan. 28, 2025: More on writing Dunk & Egg… after Winds
And once I finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, I will need to get hopping on ‘The Village Hero’ […]
April 07, 2025: Shut up, internet!
No, I am not announcing the completion of THE WINDS OF WINTER, the sixth volume of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE. Please don’t start any rumors to that effect. I am so tired of having to issue denials every time some offhand comment of mine, most having nothing to do with WINDS, somehow convinces half the internet that the book is imminent. It’s not. No. (Maybe I need to stop making offhand comments).
April 08, 2025: Big announcement! Extinct animal alive again.
I promised an exciting announcement in that last blog post of mine, the one I wrote last night that went up this morning on my Not A Blog. Big news coming on April 8, I said, and no, it was not going to be the delivery of THE WINDS OF WINTER […] I’ve been holding my tongue for months now, sworn to silence yet dying to tell the world. Pardon my shouting, but… THE DIREWOLF IS BACK.
May 28, 2025: To anyone who thinks he’s given up
Some of you […] don’t care about anything but WINDS OF WINTER […] Thing is, I do care about them. And I care about Westeros and WINDS as well.
It has now been one year since George R.R. Martin last updated fans on the status of The Winds of Winter. But you know what? A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was awesome so all is forgiven.
Free George R. R. Martin from The Winds of Winter
If he doesn’t want to write it, I’m not gonna make him. It’s fine. I’m fine.
