What we know so far about Martin’s The Winds of Winter, a decade in the making and counting.
Martin, July 2023"And, yes, yes, of course, I’ve been working on WINDS OF WINTER. Almost every day. Writing, rewriting, editing, writing some more. Making steady progress. Not as fast as I would like... certainly not as fast as YOU would like... but progress nonetheless."
It has now been almost 13 years since the latest installation of A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dance with Dragons, was released on July 12, 2011. Almost every year it seems, Martin predicts that the next book, The Winds of Winter, is coming soon, or promises fans that he continues to work on the series.
It has been so long between A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter that in this time span, the entire eight seasons of the television show could have been developed, written, filmed and aired. In fact, if Martin does not released The Winds of Winter before June 21, 2026, the time taken between Books 5 and 6 will officially become longer than the time taken to publish the entirety of Books 1 to 5.
As the wait goes from years to decades, fans are increasingly losing hope that Martin will ever finish The Winds of Winter, let alone A Song of Ice and Fire. As of April 2024, the most recent update came from Martin in November 2023, when he promised he was still writing, but admitted he was “struggling” with the series. Let’s recap everything Martin has said about the release of The Winds of Winter over the years.
April 2011
Shortly before the publication of A Dance with Dragons, after receiving copious amounts of online abuse for what was already deemed an unacceptable wait of six years for the fifth book, Martin said:
Hopefully, the last two books will go a little quicker than this one has, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be quick. Realistically, it’s going to take me three years to finish the next one at a good pace. I hope it doesn’t take me six years like this last one has. I have a million ideas. I have some other novels I want to write. I have a lot of short stories – I love the short story. But I’ve got to finish this first and then I’ll decide what I’m inspired by at that point. If I’m not in some old folks’ home.
In the same interview, he also admitted:
“Maybe I tossed a few too many balls in the air, but I have to keep juggling with them now.”
October 2012
Martin says:
I’ve already written 400 pages of my sixth book. However, of these 400 pages, only 200 are really finished because I still have to revise the other 200 pages, which are in a rough version and I still have to work on them a lot. But you have to keep in mind that the last book, Dance with Dragons, was 1.500 pages long and this one will be more or less the same extension, so I have a lot of work. I hope after this tour I can go back home in order to write as a possessed man. But the sixth volume won’t be released in 2012 or in 2013. I really look forward to publishing it in 2014, but I am really bad for predictions, you may know it. And then, there is another fact: when I finish this saga I will be judged for the quality of the books, not for the speed of my writing.
April 2013
Two years after A Dance with Dragons, Martin said that he has finished a quarter of The Winds of Winter.
April 2015
Four years after A Dance with Dragons, Martin said that he was determined to finish The Winds of Winter by 2016, before the sixth season of the television show aired.
September 2015
Separate unofficial comments by the Spanish editor and the Polish translator, who have each been asked to reserve time or prepare for the next novel, suggest that The Winds of Winter was slated to be released in 2016.
January 2016
Martin publishes an update on his blog, confirming that he was unable to meet an end-of-2015 deadline established by his publishers for release before the sixth season of the television series came out:
THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.
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.
January 2017
A year later, Martin replies to a comment on his blog with the following:
Not done yet, but I’ve made progress. But not as much as I hoped a year ago, when I thought to be done by now.
I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year).
July 2017
Martin confirms on his blog that The Winds of Winter won’t be released in 2017, and expresses wishes that it might be out in 2018, with maybe even Book 7 to boot:
And, yes, I know you all want to know about THE WINDS OF WINTER too. I’ve seen some truly weird reports about WOW on the internet of late, by ‘journalists’ who make their stories up out of whole cloth. I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages. Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic. I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say. Whether WINDS or the first volume of FIRE AND BLOOD will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two. A boy can dream…
April 2018
Martin confirms at least four times over the course of the year that he is continuing to work on The Winds of Winter, and reveals that Fire and Blood, the first novel of the prequel covering the history of House Targaryen, will be released before the fifth instalment to A Song of Ice and Fire.
No, winter is not coming… not in 2018, at least.
You’re going to have to keep waiting for THE WINDS OF WINTER.
Later that year, Fire and Blood hits the shelves on the 20th of November, 2018.
May 2019
A year later, Martin writes on his blog about his trip to New Zealand, where he was attending the World Science Fiction Convention:
As for finishing my book… I fear that New Zealand would distract me entirely too much. Best leave me here in Westeros for the nonce. But I tell you this — 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.
March 2020
The beginning of the COVID pandemic brings another update on Martin’s blog where he promises he is working on The Winds of Winter every day during lockdowns:
Truth be told, I am spending more time in Westeros than in the real world, writing every day. Things are pretty grim in the Seven Kingdoms… but maybe not as grim as they may become here.
Around this time, Martin is also working on various TV shows as an executive producer, including the Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death.
February 2021
In his blog post “Reflections on a Bad Year“, Martin says he has had a good year with writing The Winds of Winter in 2020 and hopes it to be released soon:
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.
That’s what 2021 is for, I hope.
I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, assholes on the internet take that as a “promise,” and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful.
I have a zillion other things to do as well, though. My plate is full to overflowing. Every time I wrap up one thing, three more things land on me. Monkeys on my back, aye, aye, I’ve sung that song before. So many monkeys. And Kong.
March 2022
The new addition to what seems to be becoming an annual update on the state of The Winds of Winter brings sombre news as Martin admits to having made less progress on the novel in 2021, being busy with other projects including the second novel of Fire and Blood, the Dunk and Egg novellas, and various TV shows including House of the Dragon:
I look around, and I don’t know where 2021 went. I blinked and it was gone. Not a year that I am going to mourn much, any more than 2020. A global pandemic, so many deaths (including friends of mine, as well as celebrities of all sorts), politics grown increasingly toxic… it was a year best forgotten. I did, however, get a lot of work done in 2021. An enormous amount of work, in truth; I seem to have an enormous number of projects.
I know, I know, for many of you out there, only one of those projects matters.
I am sorry for you. They ALL matter to me.
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.”
October 2022
Martin appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and says that he has completed approximately three quarters of The Winds of Winter. Later that same year, he tells Colbert again that he has written around 1200 pages and has 500 left to go.
July 2023
A new blog post reassures readers that Martin is still working on the novel:
And, yes, yes, of course, I’ve been working on WINDS OF WINTER. Almost every day. Writing, rewriting, editing, writing some more. Making steady progress. Not as fast as I would like… certainly not as fast as YOU would like… but progress nonetheless.
November 2023
In an interview with Bangcast, Martin says he is “struggling” with this “big mother of a book”:
I have like 1,100 pages written but I still have hundreds more pages to go. It’s a big mother of a book for whatever reason. Maybe I should’ve started writing smaller books when I began this but it’s tough. That’s the main thing that dominates most of my working life.
And that’s the latest update, as of April 2024! I’ll keep this updated as the drought continues.
If you enjoyed A Song of Ice and Fire, in the meantime, you might want to check out some other similar series I enjoyed:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Told in Kvothe’s own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.
A high-action story written with a poet’s hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.
Dune by Frank Herbert
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.
Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
DOG AND EAR: BOOK REVIEWS AND LITERARY CONVERSATION 
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