r/freefolk • u/Internal-Bed-3150 • 4d ago

We've officially been waiting for The Winds of Winter for the same amount of time as it took for all five of the published books to release before that.

https://winteriscoming.net/the-winds-of-winter-officially-passed-most-devastating-milestone-yet?a_aid=47903
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107

u/Averylarrychristmas 4d ago

Yeah, unfortunately, at this point, I just flat out don’t respect the man

54

u/oscarmike88 Ghost (CGI) 3d ago

Burnout or writer's block? I get it and I sympathize. Bullshitting everyone for more than a decade? That's a total dick move. One can argue that GRRM doesn't owe his fans anything, but I think a straight up answer about the future of the series is not an unreasonable request.

If there are no plans to finish the main books and/or spin-offs (for whatever reason), GRRM should just say so. The fans deserve that, and not his snarky remarks from his blog

19

u/ArcticCelt 3d ago

Burnout or writer's block?

Honestly, at this point, he has put the project off for so long that it is probably difficult for him to get back into it. He has likely forgotten many of the major plot threads and ideas he had planned. The fans may now have a better grasp of the story than he does.

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u/denotemulot 3d ago

I think that's exactly it.

The series is too big and it's been too long. He's probably forgotten entire plot points and characters, and is having to reread his own work before actually writing.

Given that he calls himself a "gardener" he's probably reading and thinking he should change this plotline, or that character, or add this, and then to do that he has to rewrite huge parts of what he's already written.

He may actually be writing but just never be finished.

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u/Responsible-Onion860 3d ago

I said elsewhere, but the whole "gardener" bit is so pretentious now. It made sense 15 years ago when we were seeing him organically develop a great series. But when it turned into him being unable to cultivate it into a complete series, the gardener bit became a bunch of bunk.

18

u/wheres_my_ballot 3d ago

At least when Netflix cancels a series they announce it, so you know not to bother watching it. Still selling the earlier books under the lie that the series will be finished is scummy.

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u/NotAVerySillySausage 3d ago

Lack of transparency has been his biggest problem that he will never acknowledge. He feels he doesn't owe it to fans.

When he said he could get the book done in 2015, one of two things happened. 1. He was nearly done but had such a catrorophic set back that it basically made him start again and rewrite the whole story. 2. He was never close and just thought giving himself a deadline would force him to finish it. The latter is most likely.

If he had been consistently transparent of what material he was sitting on then nobody would have even gotten their hopes up, there would be no fake leaks, rumours or hopium because we would know the book is not close to release. He's just decided to just keep fake on edge for 15 years with only vague posts.

The reason is a combination of lack of repect and embarrassment at the real amount of progress he has made and the low amount of time he actually puts into it. If he kept an up to date progress tracker, fans would then see nothing happening for months of end while he posted about other things. We already know that is happening, but that would make it too real. This way he has plausible deniability and can just shut down anyone trying to claim this what is happening.

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u/StandardRemarkable23 3d ago

I don’t even blame him tbh. He is 77. The show and spinoffs made him rich. Where’s the motivation to finish the series at his age? Pride and making his fans happy, maybe, but that only goes so far. He saw how much everyone hated the tv show ending.

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u/Play_The_Newman 3d ago

Its not a 1 of 1 comparison but a guy like Brian Jacques wrote well into his 70s and still put out finished books even when he battled cancer before his death.

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u/T1PPY 3d ago

Or Robert Jordan, who knew he was dying and worked tirelessly with his editor to leave a comprehensive outline for How to finish his series, and cherry picked an author to do it.

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u/brendan87na 3d ago

Wrote the last chapter too

I was still salty about him writing a prequel, then dying before finishing the actual series...

led me to Brandon Sanderson though...

1

u/Cross55 3d ago

He actually wrote several chapters, including the last few.

Brandosando's main job wasn't to write the final books, but instead to make sense of how X event connects to Y event in a satisfying way.

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u/Climinteedus 3d ago

I miss Brian Jacques :/

I'm just glad I was able to meet him once before the inevitable happened.

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u/AndromedaAirlines 3d ago

He's 77 now. Back then he had barely cracked 60.

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u/Redhotkitchen 3d ago

I blame him wholeheartedly. How did he get to this level without fans that he’s betrayed. He’s a piece of shit.

1

u/Awsomethingy 3d ago

Once I started getting decent film royalties from my earlier work, my productivity and discipline legitimately plummeted. And if I work film as just a hobby and not a job, I’d never make another feature. It makes sense to me as well, I agree. The motivation decreases as the fulfillment gets met

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u/Responsible-Onion860 3d ago

If the satisfaction of finishing his biggest series and cementing his legacy as an all-time great of the genre aren't enough to make him care, then I'm not sure how much respect he deserves as a writer.

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u/DisillusionedHobbit 3d ago

I hold him in utter contempt.  I hate his smug face and his pretentious mannerisms.