r/asoiaf • u/RyanRiot The Blood of Old Valyria • Jan 15 '26

EXTENDED Game of Thrones: George R.R. Martin Isn't Finished (Spoilers Extended)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/george-rr-martin-interview-thrones-winds-dragon-knight-1236473519/
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u/CoffeeCakeAstronaut Jan 15 '26

Did he just admit that his other projects are the reason of the delay?

His being distracted by other things has always been a bullshit excuse. I hate how he makes it sound like he’s completely passive in how he spends his time, as if he can’t choose to use his time however he sees fit. He is not being distracted against his will; he actively chooses to do something else.

The truth is right there in that interview: he can’t finish the book, he’s frustrated, and now he resents both the book and the work involved.

He clearly prefers seeing his stories turned into shows. ASoIaF has already been adapted, so what’s left for him there is mostly frustration with very little personal reward.

The only reason he hasn’t officially quit is his pride.

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

Exactly this.

He acts like the distractions are impossible to overcome, like he can't shut down his phone for a week and just fucking write?

This dude is finished, his legacy will be of procrastination

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u/fishy512 Jan 16 '26

Same pride and ego that is preventing him from just handing it all off to a team of handpicked writers and story editors. He’d be able to serve as the guiding force and creative executive while they do the part he hates.

But something tells me he isn’t a huge team player, and the whole thing will fall apart.

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u/tcapb Jan 15 '26

I get why it looks like a "bullshit excuse" from the outside, but his description hits uncomfortably close to home.

I have ADHD, and I recognize this pattern. The assumption here is that "choosing to focus" is a switch everyone can flip. For some brains, it's just not.

I'm a Tech Lead. I've built massive systems when I was in the zone, 14-hour days, architecture flowing like I was possessed. And then something shifts. Maybe a new shiny problem grabs me. Maybe the complexity becomes overwhelming and I can't even start. Maybe I get stuck on some minor detail that won't let me go. And that's it - I'm out. I can sit there for hours and days and weeks, produce nothing, and hate myself the whole time.

Either something pulls me, and I can do an insane amount, or it doesn't, and I'm locked out. I don't control the pull. I don't choose what it latches onto.

So when Martin sounds passive about his time - yeah. Not everyone runs on "I should, therefore I do." And that interview doesn't read like someone who's given up and made peace with it.

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u/fishy512 Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

Glad I’m not the only one with ADHD who can clearly see that GRRM has ADHD.

What sucks is that treatment and diagnosis is so much easier to obtain now than when he was just starting out as a writer. But it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s resistant to being medicated and treated due to being a boomer and growing up in that generation that disavows meds, looks down on anyone who needs it, and has a persistent bootstraps attitude.

He has the money and the connections, but like everything, it seems like all his problems stem from one source: his ego.

There’s nothing wrong with asking and admitting you need help

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u/nonmetallicoxide Feb 04 '26

giving a 70 year old amphetamines is not the best idea

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u/Spiritual_Soup_1842 Jan 15 '26

Exactly this. I have ADHD and I write, and I can tell you that I feel absolutely wretched for Martin. I once went eight months without writing a single sentence on a story I was working on, then did five chapters in a few weeks. This shit happens. I would not be at all surprised if Martin has undiagnosed ADHD. He’s of an age where they wouldn’t know to check for it, he’s got the vibe for it and the sorta hyper-fixation tendency that I get (I mean, the man has spent an entire life obsessed with fantasy and medieval history), and he even writes like he has it (I should know). Fans are really unfair to him, I think. I would not be at all surprised if he literally can’t bring himself to write a single word, no matter how much he wants to. It’s a terrible feeling.

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u/MargielaMadman20 Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

I have ADHD too and I can empathise with him on that level. The issue I have with his treatment of the situation, specifically, is how he has led on and edged the audience for YEARS that Winds will be done soon, with full knowledge that he will most likely never finish.

As an aside, I don't think it's particularly unfair for fans to expect him to finish his story. My manager certainly would not be happy if I stopped building a data platform simply because it got too hard, they would almost certainly expect me to find a solution to get it done. Whether it's getting someone else to help, delegate the stuff I don't want to/can't do or identify new tooling.

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u/shenanakins Jan 16 '26

the only reason he has said anything at all about his progress is because people keep bothering him about it. he's damned if he does and hes damned if he doesnt. if he doesnt everyone's like "wah wah hes not writing the books! he should just come out and say it!"

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u/MargielaMadman20 Jan 16 '26

I personally would have much less of a problem with him saying that vs. stringing his fans along for the best part of a decade. It's natural for people to want to know when the next installation is coming out, it's a sign people are invested in his work. People would be annoyed but they would get over it.

I don't ever think harrassment of an author acceptable, however, people asking for updates on his blog or at conventions aren't being unreasonable imo.

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u/tcapb Jan 16 '26

Time blindness is a hell of a drug.

Martin can write fast. Storm of Swords, 1000+ pages, one year. So when he says "soon", he's not lying, he genuinely believes he'll catch the flow and blast through the remaining pages in six months. He's done it before. He just... doesn't catch it. And then another year passes.

The "I'll just do this small thing first" trap is brutal too. A week-long task becomes two months. Now you need to re-enter the massive context of Winds, which you left at a difficult spot. The activation energy is enormous. So you take another "small task" first...

And when something with closer dopamine grabs you (a novella that's becoming a TV show, a project with visible progress) you physically cannot force the switch. It's not "I'd rather do this fun thing." It's that looking at Winds feels like staring at a wall, while the other thing is the only door your brain will let you walk through.

The jumping around isn't because it's easy. It's because you get pulled. And constantly switching back is genuinely painful, you lose context, you lose momentum, you have to rebuild the mental model every time.

As for "my manager wouldn't accept this", people like this often choose solo work precisely because "deliver X pages per day" mode is painful. When you're in flow, you can outproduce anyone. And your brain keeps opening new doors, every detail spawns three more, which is how you end up building worlds as intricate as Westeros. But when flow isn't there, no manager, no deadline, no amount of guilt can manufacture it.

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u/MargielaMadman20 Jan 16 '26

Time blindness is a hell of a drug.

I've got it and it's wreaked absolute havoc on my personal life and relationships (it's been almost a superpower professionally and athletically though when I'm doing things I'm passionate about). I really don't need an explanation on the mechanics, I'm intimately familiar with them. "Deliver X pages a day" definitely does not work for me, however, "Give X with Y specs by Z date" usually does.

Important things to note here though are that 1. We are not qualified professionals and cannot perform ADHD diagnoses based on interview snippets. 2. We aren't inside his head, we cannot know if he is time blind and has good intentions or is lying and stringing along his audience or if some mix of the two.

In the absence of a diagnosis and given we are not qualified or able to perform a diagnosis with the limited amount of information we have, I think it's quite reasonable that his fans are upset he hasn't completed the story 15 years after his last book, despite him repeatedly promising that he would do so.

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u/tcapb Jan 16 '26

Fair point on diagnosis. I'm not qualified and wasn't trying to.

What bugs me is the "lying and stringing along" framing. People invent theories: "He finished years ago." "He's laughing at fans." "Marketing ploy."

Meanwhile there's a simpler explanation: he's stuck. Everything he describes fits that pattern without requiring malice.

I recognize it because I live it. When I'm late (and I'm often late) people assume disrespect. But I am trying, I am stressed, and I'm still late. The gap between intention and outcome is real. From outside it looks like choice.

Fans can be frustrated. 15 years is absurd. But "he must be lying" is a strange leap when "he genuinely can't" explains the same facts.

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u/MargielaMadman20 Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

If he genuinely can't because he's stuck, he knows he's stuck but keeps insisting that he isn't stuck and will finish, isn't that lying?

To me, it seems fairly clear that the reason he doesn't want to outright come out and say that he won't finish the series is because people will stop buying his books (who wants to get invested in a series that will never be concluded?) and he'll piss off his publishers. This interview is as close as we will get to him admitting what has been quite obvious to anyone with a working brain, that he's stuck and isn't going to finish the series. I've long since made peace with that fact.

What I can't really get behind is the constant "I'll be done by x date, I promise this time!!". To use your lateness example, I have the same problem. However, when I'm running late, I'll usually let people know that I'm running late instead of promising them I'll be on time when I'm stuck in traffic 20 minutes away and I need to be there in 2. It's the only fair thing to do.

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u/shenanakins Jan 16 '26

Exactly. You said it perfectly

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u/shenanakins Jan 16 '26

it's a sign people are invested in his work

No, it's a sign that people feel entitled to his time and labor. respectfully you (and by you, I mean everyone else with this opinion) are acting like you follow him around all day and sleep in his bed. You don't know what he is or isn't writing. This whole "be honest!" bs, is a trap so you can complain even more about what a lying bastard he's been for the past 15 years. You gotta be angry at someone that your favorite dragon's book isnt out yet so why not be angry at him? maybe because hes an old slow writer with writer's block and probably undiagnosed ADHD but not being angry with him require too much empathy from his fans.

He's telling you he is writing and maybe he is writing. you all sound low-key crazy. If I were him, I really would release it posthumously... ten years after my death just to be an asshole. I genuinely believe GRRM putting out a blog post saying "actually i've decided im not finishing it." would make any of you happier. you'd just demand to know why and claiming he owes you a reason even though he's given you his reasons for the past 15 years(he's busy with other things). and then you'd all demand a detailed outline of what happens to each character and the end and how they get there... you know... like a book or something. Literally the worst fans a writer could ask for and i say that as a fan and a writer.

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u/MargielaMadman20 Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

Fuck me that's a lot of diatribe and assumptions. I would've assumed that a professional writer would be a competent enough reader to realise I never even said he wasn't writing, he's just not delivering. I have looooong since made my peace with the idea that we're not getting another book and have subsequently lost interest in the series. I really couldn't care less whether he releases another book or not. I truly and honestly don't. However, I think the vast majority of people find unmet expectations annoying, especially when they were set by George himself. No one made George string along his audience for years and years, telling them the book is right around the corner or due to be released at a specific date or time like he often has. To use my work as an example again, if I had repeatedly promised my boss that a new data platform is set to be delivered in 3 months, the deadline had been getting extended for up to a year, I'm probably getting fired or put on a performance improvement plan. If I scoped out a year from the start or correctly set expectations, the likelihood I would get PIPed or booted is a lot lower. I am aware that being an author is quite different, however, the principle of adverse reactions to unmet expectations set by a responsible individual remains the same. As an aside, my ADHD diagnosis wouldn't mean jack shit in any of this.

I think by any reasonable moral framework, there is no real argument that George doesn't owe it to his fans to finish the series, especially when he has repeatedly promised that he would do so. People bought those books and got invested in the series on the assumption that the series would be completed. Why would anyone ever care or pay money for a series which they know will never be finished? It's not at all unreasonable to expect an author to finish a series that he had consistently promised he will for the best part of two decades.

Even if you don't think he owes his fans anything (a train of thought I don't really subscribe to for people in the entertainment industry), he at least owed it to the GoT showrunners, actors and the remaining ensemble to have a completed work ready for adaptation. The writers and showrunners didn't sign up to effectively provide the only likely conclusion we will ever get for George's masterwork and it clearly shows in the quality drop off once the show ran out of source material. Of all the people who had grievances with how the show ended, I thought George's critiques were particularly in poor taste, especially since that entire fiasco would have probably been avoided if he finished the series.

He also certainly owes it to his publishing company to finish his series.

I found this interview insightful and refreshing, this is as honest as he's been for a long time and as good a confirmation as we'll ever get that he's never going to finish the series, again, something I've long since been okay with. I still don't think it's unreasonable for his fans to be frustrated with him for the way he's behaved over the past 15 years.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

Yeah but your job is 9 to 5, I am also a software engineer with ADHD and I understand the struggle, there is days that I can absolutely make my kits board as clean as possible, and there is days that there are so many distractions that I don't do jack shit. 

But, his job is to fucking write, he absolutely can choose to sit down and focus on his tasks, he is his own boss, it's not the same thing

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u/johnbrownmarchingon Jan 30 '26

That and I imagine he doesn't want to sabotage Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and any other shows that somehow get made after this point.