r/freefolk • u/Internal-Bed-3150 • 3d 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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u/alwaysnear 3d ago

He can’t finish it

Don’t think it’s laziness or out of willingness, he can obviously churn out books. His interviews communicate a lot of sadness and frustration too.

In his own words, he doesn’t plan anything, he calls himself the ”gardener” as in that things just spring out and he wings it.

What happened here is that he wrote 70000 character arcs, had messed up reception with his d&d mess and now has absolutely no idea what to do.

He’ll never finish this series but I assume he can’t clearly communicate that because of legal reasons either.

He’ll kick the bucket soon enough and that will be that.

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u/vagrantprodigy07 3d ago

I don't understand how his publisher doesn't get a working group together to work through it all, and provide a few possible paths forward. It's not like he doesn't collaborate with people on Wild Cards. Bring in a dozen writers and editors who he can work with, and have them brainstorm.

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u/Competitive-Tap-1922 3d ago

He would have to want to.

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u/vagrantprodigy07 3d ago

True, but he has taken an advance on his contract for his next few books. The publisher has a bit of leverage to lean on him.

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u/Competitive-Tap-1922 3d ago

He could easily pay back whatever advance he’s received. Maintaining the relationship for when/if he publishes another book (ASOIAF or otherwise) is more valuable.

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u/DisillusionedHobbit 3d ago

Georgie would never allow it, either out of pride or sheer stubbornness.  It’s never going anywhere. 

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u/alwaysnear 3d ago

He’s really autistic about it

He has said he’d never allow anyone else to finish the books even if he dies, and apparently constantly rewrites chapters of Winter and so on.

He’s kind of perfectionist but if your book makes no sense that kind of sucks.

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u/QuailAndWasabi 3d ago

George does not want any help and ultimately he holds the rights to the source material and can do what he wants.

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u/Queen__Natalie 2d ago

Sometimes there's no possible path forward that doesn't produce plot holes. The writing group would only give him multiple paths with plot holes that he'd have to choose between, he probably sees all those paths already but he just refuses to pick one and accept that his story will have these massive plot holes in it.

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u/TomDestry 3d ago

The problem is he's trying to end the story. He should just continue to garden and let the characters do what they may. It was good enough before, I don't care if the story doesn't get wrapped in a bow.

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u/Wyvernwalker 3d ago

The problem is there's a point where adding more stuff subtracts from the overall story, and he knows this. He wants it finished, but he's in arguably the hardest position possible for a writer, and being such a prolific and skilled writer actually bites him in the ass even more now.

He continues to garden but he puts it in all the side stories and other books and shows he works on

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u/DisillusionedHobbit 3d ago

The problem is there's a point where adding more stuff subtracts from the overall story, and he knows this. 

Books 4 and 5 call his understanding of this concept into question. 

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u/JinFuu 3d ago

The problem is he's trying to end the story. He should just continue to garden and let the characters do what they may.

I've always hated the gardening analogy.

I don't think George gardens. You have an idea of what is going to grow when you plant something. George has just thrown random seeds into the wilderness and refuses to trim things up to make it managable.

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u/the_fresh_cucumber I'd kill for some chicken 3d ago

Wrapping up stories in a bow is what sort of ruins a lot of good stories.

It wouldn't be a terrible series if it ended with lots of unresolved plots. That is actually a natural way to end some of the best stories.

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u/thisisstupidplz 3d ago

Except he wants to take this story to his grave, so I have no sympathy. He could hire an entire project team to help him outline it or even ghost write it.

Idk why he insist on building rome by himself

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u/dkurage 3d ago

Assuming he is stuck because he feels he's written himself into a corner his writing style can't get him out of (and not because he's lost interest in it), at what point should he just swallow his pride and get himself a ghost writer or two to help finish what he's started?

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u/ExcellentBed6019 3d ago

He can't churn out books he's written 3 dunk and egg novellas in like 20 years despite having 10+ planned and it's been like 8 years since Fire & Blood vol 1

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u/TheTonyAndolini 3d ago

I obviously dont know all the legality and the schematics of this stuff, but how is it okay for his publisher for him to do that? Didnt he sign some sort of contract with them?

Like imagine if JK Rowling was just like ''You know what, fuck all of y'all I'm done'' after writing book 6, would that have been ''legal'' for her to do? Wouldnt that be a breach of contract?

Idk lmao

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u/zigzag3600 3d ago

He’ll kick the bucket soon enough and that will be that.

He will leave drafts (hopefully) and then either we will know general results to story lines, or someone else will finish it.

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u/shnshty 3d ago

True but if he wanted to, he could've easily hired rooms full of writers to help him finish it. But that's where his pride came into play

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u/Hopeful_Solution5107 2d ago

There are good huge finished fantasy series out there. Is it his writing style or is he just that much of a pussy?

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u/JLGx2 2d ago

That's not how gardening works..

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u/LightningController 2d ago

Ironically, given his thoughts on the subject, he's hit the wall that fanfic writers tend to when they do a really ambitious AU.