r/asoiaf • u/[deleted] • Nov 08 '20

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) Another Big Notablog Update on WINDS: GRRM Inching Closer, Working on Westerlands POVs, Dorne and Oldtown!

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2020/11/08/back-to-westeros/
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u/[deleted] Nov 08 '20

Some thoughts:

  • GRRM has been revising older sample chapter to include some very older chapters. The very old chapter is probably Arya's Mercy chapter.

  • There were two gut-punches which slowed progress in August and September. The first is likely the reaction against his WorldCon award winner reading and highlighting SFF authors with problematic race and gender views. I'm not sure what the September one means

  • Interesting that George has been shifting to Oldtown a time or three of late. Feels like he's deep in Samwell's story - a POV he was writing about back in August.

  • More Cersei and Tyrion chapters. That puts us up to 5+ Tyrion chapters and 4+ Cersei chapters for TWOW.

  • Down in Dorne: Areo Hotah. 4+ Areo Hotah chapters.

All that minute stuff aside, I think we're slowly approaching the finish line. So, say your prayers.

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u/TeamPangloss Nov 08 '20

Does he mention the Westerlands? I can't see it.

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u/[deleted] Nov 08 '20

It was my attempt to put a spoiler-free title and not identify the POVs in question: Tyrion and Cersei.

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u/LChris24 Nov 08 '20

I think you did a good job avoiding a spoiler. Its always a fine line, "give enough information to make people interested/want to click" but not enough to "spoil anything for people who don't want spoilers".

Its definitely led to some pretty corny titles by yours truly lol

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u/The_Coconut_God Nov 08 '20

On the flip side, when I read the title I thought that George had just revealed some major arc taking place in the Westerlands.... xD

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '20

i think he read your Exodus theory and liked it

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u/Arctic_Daniand Nov 08 '20

Sorry man I don't trust you anymore.

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u/[deleted] Nov 08 '20

After all we’ve been through, this is a personal betrayal of the trust I’ve tried to fake my way into receiving.

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u/EndGamer93 Nov 08 '20

I had a feeling that the preview chapters weren’t set in stone. It’ll be interesting to see how much the chapters we’ve been reading for years will ultimately change.

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u/Fishb20 Nov 08 '20

It's pretty wild george managed to completely pass over an entire presidency without publishing TWOW

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u/[deleted] Nov 08 '20

It's always nice to hear from George, but I recently went through his old ADWD updates. Kinda made realize that you really can't read anything into these posts other than "it's being worked on."

Even in 2008, he was giving "it's not done, but it's getting closer" updates. I remember a few "the work is going really well" updates too. It'll be out when it's out. Reading those old posts taught me that there's no point in predicting when.

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u/DabuSurvivor Nov 08 '20

Yeah pretty much, and "it'll be done when it's done" is one thing he himself has consistently said, even, which clearly overrides/undermines any specific updates. It's still fun to see little things like this but I agree people shouldn't get all fixated on it then lose their shit when it's wrong.

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u/WhizBangNeato Nov 09 '20

The difference is those ADWD updates are why for the last 9 years hes been near radio silent until the last few months. So something made him decide to do updates again

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u/fvertk Nov 08 '20

I think the moral with ADWD is that he DID eventually finish it with those updates. He's a slow but meticulous writer at this point. And honestly, ADWD was close to the same quality as the first 3 books, so keep going George, you'll get your magnum opus done eventually.

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u/zeppelincheetah Nov 08 '20

After updating us on the books extremely rarely (sometimes less than once a year) this is the 4th book update this year!

  1. June 23rd

  2. July 19th

  3. August 15th

  4. November 8th

Maybe it's almost done for real this time? Perhaps late 2021/early 2022 release? One can dream...

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u/Bennings463 Nov 08 '20 edited Nov 08 '20

You know, I do criticize elements of ASOIAF on this sub sometimes, but I really do want to say I think ASOIAF is absolutely excellent and I think GRRM honestly sounds like a really good person.

Like, I don't want to go all armchair psychologist here, but...does he sound kinda like he needs help to anyone else? It reads a bit like he thinks he's let us all down and that's honestly really sad to see.

I know he's never gonna read this, but...you really are brilliant at this, George. We wouldn't all be here if you weren't.

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