Yes it does seem Martin is stuck after ADWD. He has too many povs stuck far from each other and has only 2 books to finish the series. This is due to the expansion in feast and adwd. Apparently he has rewritten Winds lots of times but can't make it work. He even posted 11 chapters of Winds back then.

 

I wouldn't really compare Rothfuss with GRRM since George is still writing books, tv shows unlike Rothfuss who just doesn't feel like writing anymore. Grrm is stuck with Winds due to massive issues he himself created with Adwd and affc.

 

https://thehawke.github.io/twow-excerpts/

If anyone is curious here is 9 chapters of winds.

 

He's 100% stuck. He's been trying to unravel the Meerenese Knot for more than a decade. His latest post makes me think he's finally got one end of the rope and is making some decent progress on untangling it.

That said, I don't see George thinking that he absolutely has to wrap up his story in TWOW and ADOS. ASOIAF was only supposed to be 3 books. Then it got push got split into two. If he needs another book to finish it, I say we all welcome The Land Of Summer (my working title).

 

The less charitable interpretation is that Martin wrote himself into an incredibly convoluted corner that he has no idea how to write himself out of without Season 8 levels of disaster.

 

I stand by my theory that he's got quite a bit written out, but he doesn't want it to go to making another awful tv series, and as such is waiting for the whole phenomenon to die (It already has, for the most part. I haven't heard anyone in real life say 'Game of Thrones' for at least two years.) before publishing it, which may well be after he dies.

 

While I haven't listened to his podcasts, he did reveal quite a bit of information.

Towards the end he discusses *The Winds of Winter* and drops the news that he is finishing up a Tyrion chapter. He estimates one more chapter will bring Tyrion's arc to a conclusion (for TWoW). Several other characters are also "close" to being done. He does caution that some other characters are not as close to being done, but this is the first time he's ever said he's close to finishing anything to do with the book, which is encouraging news.

This news combined with how upbeat his latest status was, makes me think he might have broke through his writers block/knots. He likely has to rewrite/write half the book still, but I do have a bit more hope.

I still don't think we will see book 7, but I'll say 2024 for a release of WoW

 

Honestly i hope he scraps whatever outline he had for Got season 6-8 and goes in completely new direction. Those seasons destroyed the show and might the books if its the same. Especially has to change Daenerys ending. I think her going mad single handed destroyed whatever goodwill the show had. I think a lot of people including myself just watched show for Daenerys.

 

You're going to likely be disappointed with Dany if the books ever come out. Her little dysentery-fueled fever dreams in the Dothraki sea points to her moving from civilization builder to bloody and fiery conqueror. I think it's going to be when she gets to Westeros only to find Aegon VI on the throne and beloved.

 

I dunno. I don't think the fanbase was upset that Dany went all Mad Queen. I think were they were upset because she did it over only 2-3 episodes. Remember, this is the woman who allowed her husband to melt her brother's face with a pot of molten gold, sacked a city after setting a man on fire for insulting her, and crucified 163 men and women in retribution.

We have this idea that she's squeamish because she refused to follow the Shavepate's perfectly reasonable and culturally acceptable idea of killing her wards or the Great Masters of Meereen in retribution for the Sons of the Harpy killings, but she'd already done shit far more horrible than that.

If you stretch out her going mad over a book or two, I think the fans would not only accept it but love it. I can see her going totally nuts when she takes the time to go to Asshai and when she finally crosses the Narrow Sea, Westeros has fallen in love with a Blackfyre (Aegon VI is absolutely a Blackfyre), when Barristan is eventually killed in Westeros, when the Lords not only refuse to bend the knee but laugh at her, when a dragon or two dies, etc etc.

 

The vast majority of the problems with season 8 can be laid at the feet of terrible pacing as a direct result of the show being only 6 episodes or so. There just wasn't enough time to do even half of what they actually did, and it was awful as a result.

 

It’s a big, big book, I’ve said that before. it’s a challenging book. It’s probably gonna be a larger book than any of the previous volumes in the story. Dance with Dragons and Storm of Swords is the biggest book so far with 1500 pages but I think this one is going to be longer than that by the time I’m finished with it and I think I’m around three-quarters of the way done maybe.” - GRRM

 

Does anyone care about his excuses anymore? People make it out like this mereenese knot is some unprecedented challenge no other writer has ever faced and that's why it's taking more than a decade to unravel this cosmically complex gordian knot of a plot. No. It's taking this long because GRRM is bored with the main series and has been working on a hundred other projects. Book 5 released the same year as Season 1 of GOT. Gee, I wonder what's been taking up his time. Maybe the two tv adaptations have something to do with it.

 

Meh. Not excited or sad until they get released or he dies. I won't even be upset if they don't come out at this point. It just is what it is. At least I have two TV shows I love out of it, ending of 1.0 notwithstanding, and very likely several more on the way.

I am quite quite sure we get Winds. I am quite quite double unsure we get Spring. I'm at 8/10 sure we get Winds. 0.01% sure we get Spring

 

Remember when he talked about how he would finish Winds of Winter by 2020?

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2019/05/21/thanks-new-zealand/

 

Meh. It'll get done or it won't. I used to follow his NotABlogs and interviews and cons religiously and I just don't have it in me anymore

 

I gave up on this series a few years back. Honestly, between the ridiculous gap (11+ years & counting) between books & how terrible the show became over the last few seasons, the series is dead to me.

 

Sanderson's the man to finish it. If only GRRM would let someone else finish it.

 

It won't be Sanderson.

If anyone writes it, it will be Daniel James Abraham (The Dagger and the Coin Series, The Expanse Series). He has collaborated with Martin on numerous occasions, and is the writer behind the Game of Thrones graphic novels. Moreover, the person he wrote The Expanse with, Ty Franck, was one of Martin's assistants. They are the most likely ones to take over if Martin allows it.

 

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that it was never getting finished, and it took me years to make my peace with it.

Then House of the Dragon came along and sucked me back into the books and the world, and now I'm angry again.