George R.R. Martin has provided an update on the status of his next book in his popular A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, the basis for Game of Thrones, confirming Winds of Winter is not done, with no set date on when it will be finished or released.

"I won't make excuses. There are no excuses," Martin said in a post on his LiveJournal. "No one else is to blame. Not my editors and publishers, not HBO, not [Game of Thrones showrunners] David [Benioff] & Dan [Weiss]. It's on me. I tried, and I am still trying."


The author went on to say he's not sure when it will be done or published, noting he's still months away, "and that's if the writing goes well." Martin also said he has no intention of setting another deadline for himself "to trip over."

With Game of Thrones' sixth season set to premiere in April, Martin's publishers initially wanted the manuscripts from Martin before the end of October, as everyone wanted the sixth book to be released before Season 6 of the TV series. While that "seemed very do-able" to him in May, he wasn't able to make that date. As such, he was then given a new deadline and was told if he could complete Winds of Winter by year's end, it would still be ready for release in March.

That clearly hasn't happened, so Martin has returned to his original stance on the novel's status, saying: "It will be done when it's done. And it will be as good as I can possibly make it."


As such, Winds of Winter won't be out before Season 6 and, Martin acknowledges, will "maybe" spoil parts of the novel. "Look, I never thought the series could possibly catch up with the books, but it has," he explained. "Given where we are, inevitably, there will be certain plot twists and reveals in Season 6 of Game of Thrones that have not yet happened in the books."

That said, Martin notes that "because the show and the books have diverged, and will continue to do so," some of the show's forthcoming big moments may end up not being spoilers for the novels at all, adding that there are several characters who have died in the TV show who are still alive in the books, and others not introduced at all (at least yet), among other differences.

Says Martin, "For years my readers have been ahead of the viewers. This year, for some things, the reverse will be true. How you want to handle that... hey, that's up to you."

Game of Thrones: Season 6 debuts in April.

It's unreal how long it takes for him to write a book. I'm not bashing him too much, though, since he does incredible story-telling.

But...

1. I'm not surprised people are worried he's going to die before he completes the ASOIAF series. It seems like it may happen.
2. It's impossible that he'd write an entire new book (the 7th book of the series, the one after Winds of Winter) before the Game of Thrones show finishes

So idk what to expect. I'm assuming GoT will still be top-tier show as always, but he's gotta get going...

Sometimes these corporate greedy people ruin everything for an artist. If he thinks he needs time they should give it to him, not force him to do it and complete it. I think an artist's freedom is everything. Take that away from them and then you get crap.

Look at some of the best works in music, books and all other things. They didn't expect it to be so good, but they had the time so put their heart and soul into it and released something when they felt it was ready. Thats how we have gotten some of their best works, because thats when they were massively creative.