New GRRM Update on ADWD

[Pedro Del Mar]

"Back to Skull Island where Kong is staggering a little"

Doesn't sound promising!!!

 

[Culhwch]

I think the optimistic reports of a finish line in sight may have been, as Mark Twain would have put it, greatly exaggerated. A simultaneous launch with the show has to be out now, doesn't it, with the premiere being only six or eight weeks away?

 

[xLORDSNOWx]

.....and the dance continues.......

 

[The Imp]

I think the optimistic reports of a finish line in sight may have been, as Mark Twain would have put it, greatly exaggerated. A simultaneous launch with the show has to be out now, doesn't it, with the premiere being only six or eight weeks away?

If by this you mean ADWD being published at the same time as the aririn of episode one of GOT, I think that's a yes. Maybe we can hope for an announcement that the book is finished in time for April 17th.

As for "Kong is staggering a little", I'm done trying to parse every word that GRRM types and find meaning in his "clues". I find it slightly aggravating that he can't give us a simple update that isn't full of misdirection and ambiguity. I'm fine with the book not being done, I'd just like to have an idea of where he is in the process. I don't think that's asking a lot from a guy who loves to blog about his life and knows that he has thousands of people who are very anxiously awaiting the book.

Pre-coffee grumpiness at its' best.

 

[Mesanna]

Maybe I have a foolishly optimistic outlook on life, but I took it to mean that GRRM wants to slay Kong (i.e. finish the book), so if Kong is staggering a little, it means that GRRM has given him a good thumping (which I have interpreted to mean he's finished another couple of chapters) and is well on the way to delivering the killing blow!

Yeah, so I'm probably wrong, but leave me alone to enjoy my monkey killing fantasies OK?

 

[Quick Ben]

Maybe I have a foolishly optimistic outlook on life, but I took it to mean that GRRM wants to slay Kong (i.e. finish the book), so if Kong is staggering a little, it means that GRRM has given him a good thumping (which I have interpreted to mean he's finished another couple of chapters) and is well on the way to delivering the killing blow!

Yeah, so I'm probably wrong, but leave me alone to enjoy my monkey killing fantasies OK?

That's how I took it as well.

One more good blow should knock him out

 

[Overread]

Hehe its probably best that he doesn't give a firm answer - with a book he might firmly say "Yes another 2 chapters done" and then suddenly have to take one out and split the other into three Suddenly that firm info is totally misguiding.

So vague answer to guess at is far more accurate - plus it keeps people on their toes a little longer

 

[southron sword]

So vague answer to guess at is far more accurate - plus it keeps people on their toes a little longer

My toes have well and truly worn down to ugly nubs from being kept on them for 5+ years. I agree with The Imp. Give us simple updates.

 

[Culhwch]

Hehe its probably best that he doesn't give a firm answer - with a book he might firmly say "Yes another 2 chapters done" and then suddenly have to take one out and split the other into three Suddenly that firm info is totally misguiding.

Isn't that pretty much what happened with aFfC, and exactly why he does only give vague hints and not firm progress reports and updates?

 

[viZion]

I'd prefer no updates to vague updates. I don't read his blog ever so the only updates I ever get are from you guys when you post here. And the updates you guys do post are often pretty frustrating. I really wonder how much he actually respects his fanbase.

 

[Culhwch]

He's in a bit of a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't situation, though. If he gives specific dates (albeit tentative ones) and whiffs, then the fans are at him. If he gives no updates at all, the fans are at him. Not all fans, of course, but certainly the more demanding, vocal kind. Perhaps in his experience the vague updates he gives now garner the least backlash. I'm sure he's mentioned that his assistant heads off the more spiteful and vitriolic comments on his blog. I suspect there is an absolute heap of that, and possibly more than George even knows nowadays...

 

[xLORDSNOWx]

One only needs to look at the fact that there are 47 pages on this "New GRRM Update on ADWD" thread to realize that we have all been a little misled.

 

[Quick Ben]

One only needs to look at the fact that there are 47 pages on this "New GRRM Update on ADWD" thread to realize that we have all been a little misled.

Lol, it's worse when you look at the opening post of this thread and the GRRM update on his 'official' website written in early 2008:

The problem with doing these updates is that each of them is an attempt to predict the future, and if there's one thing that I have proved beyond a doubt these last few years, it's that I'm very bad at predicting the future, especially when my own work is concerned. I suppose I incline too much toward optimism.
My last formal update on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS was dated February 15, 2007.
If that seems like a long time ago to you, join the queue. It seems like forever and a day to me. When I wrote that update, I was sick of writing updates. So I tried to make that last update the final update, and ended it by saying, "The next update will be the one that announces that the DANCE is done."
Like all my other predictions about this book, however, that one turned out to be wrong. Ten-and-a-half months have passed, the book is still not done, and lately my mailbox has started filling up once again with readers pointing out that my last update is ah, quite old.
.....
Last February, when I wrote the previous update, my intent was to finish and deliver A DANCE WITH DRAGONS by the summer, so I could take off for the worldcon in Japan with a clear conscience, and follow it with a book tour through several other Asian countries. Obviously that didn't happen. I ended up cancelling the whole Asian tour and missing worldcon for the first time since 1985, so I could stay home, focus on the book, and make an all-out effort to finish it by the end of 2007. Unfortunately, that didn't happen either.
It is now 2008. I'm still working. There are no short cuts. It's a chapter at a time, a page at a time, a word at a time. I'm further along than I was, but not as far as I would like. During the last year, I had some good days (and months), some bad days (and months), and some days (and months) that I thought were good that turned out to be bad. The book is getting longer, and more importantly, the book is getting better. I've changed my mind about some of the things I said in earlier updates and on my Live Journal, and I reserve the right to change my mind again, though I am hoping I won't have to. Believe me, no one wants to finish this book more than me.
Sorry, I won't give you chapter and verse about the details of what I've been doing and undoing. I've never liked to talk much about a work-in-progress. Too much can and does change. Seeing as how I made you wait so long between updates, however, I'll throw out one small teaser, and mention I'm adding some chapters from the point of view of one of the characters featured in the first lot of Ice & Fire miniatures from Dark Sword, a character who has never had a POV in any of the earlier books.
This summer I am scheduled to travel to Spain to speak at Semana Negra in Gijon, make some appearances in Madrid and Barcelona, and then head over to Portugal to visit with my publishers and readers there. I want to have A DANCE WITH DRAGONS done and delivered before I leave. If that happens, the book will likely be published in the fall of 2008 in the U.S, and somewhat earlier in the U.K. I am pleased with the way the writing is going at the moment, and I think these projections are realistic ones... but as you all know, I've been wrong before. So I am not swearing any blood oaths here.

Update - A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin's Official Website

Late 2007? Summer of 2008?

Depressing (and eerily similar to noises we've been hearing for the last 6 months)

 

[the smiling weirwood]

Is it time to post again about GRRM not being your bitch?

 

[Dolorous Edd]

Is it time to post again about GRRM not being your bitch?

No, but he has become something of a **** tease. Anyway, see you all again in 5 years, or when he finishes the book. Whichever comes first.

 

[Dolorous Edd]

May have to change my custom title.

 

[Wiggum]

Yay optimism!

 

[Boaz]

Edd, good to see you in here!

WARNING!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!

I know it's frustrating mates. I devoured AGOT and ACOK and only had to wait one (mayhaps, two months) for ASOS.

But I encourage myself with GRRM tackling Kong with this thought... he will not resort to implausibility.

My biggest pet peeve with authors of fiction is that they often paint themselves into corners. Many authors have brilliant beginnings to stories. Many authors have incredible plot developments. Many authors have nail biting tension in their books. BUT they often, in my opinion, go too far to achieve tension and put their protagonists in absolutely inescapable situations... and then they implausibly rescue their heroes via deus ex machina.

I know it is easy for me to criticize, especially through the anonymous form of the internet. But in my opinion, most authors do not know how to resolve plots and end stories. Or mayhaps they just stretch them for the almighty dollar.

Mr. Martin has earned my trust by killing off characters when he's painted them into corners instead of miraculously rescuing them. Yes, I admit that Davos, Arya, mayhaps Jon (once or twice), and mayhaps Brienne have survived miraculously (or nearly miraculously). But think of all the others. I cannot list them here, even in white font for you to highlight because it's too dangerous.... but you know there are at least a dozen major and peripheral (yet integral) named characters who had to die because the situation demanded it.

So I am trusting that GRRM is struggling mightily with King Kong as he did with the Mereenese knot in order to plausibly save or kill off his characters.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Good news...........


"And on other fronts... it's still snowing on Skull Island, but one of the krakens is done and t'other is down to the last tentacle. Closer and closer... inch by inch, word by word, step by step..."

 

[Mesanna]

@Crooksy73 - Yeah I read his latest post too. It definitely sounds like he's on the homeward stretch. I'm sticking with my foolish optimism!

@Boaz - Didn't GRRM say he was killing off a bunch of characters in the next book or two, or am I getting mixed up with theories that I read on the internet? I for one would quite enjoy seeing the Iron Islands being crushed out of existence!