George Martin "Painted Himself into the Corner": Here's Why Winds of Winter Is Stuck

Summary:

• George Martin 's new A Song of Ice and Fire book has been in writing since 2011.
• In 2018, the author's friend said he had killed a character he needed and felt stuck.
• Some fans believed it was a death from an earlier book while others claimed it was a TWoW decision.
• Five years later, the situation remains unclear and The Winds of Winter is still not released.

George Martin's lackluster writing performance with The Winds of Winter is one big meme. It's been over twelve years since the last A Song of Ice and Fire book, and an entire TV show based on it has already started and finished since then. Fans have grown so accustomed to this fact they hardly even feel frustrated anymore.

But few people have any idea why the book has been in writing for so long. GRRM doesn't share his creative struggles with the readers — but he shares them with his friends who might just disclose the truth before an entire audience.

Diana Gabaldon Knows Why George Martin's Stuck

The author of the Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon is not just a colleague but also a close friend of George Martin. The two of them often share their ideas and struggles, and Gabaldon actually revealed her friend's biggest problem with The Winds of Winter back in 2018 while speaking to fans. This video was shared on Reddit.

According to the Outlander author, she and Martin were having lunch together and she asked him about his progress on his "newest book." To that, GRRM said that he found himself stuck because of the decision he (supposedly) made in one of the previous A Song of Ice and Fire books.

"I'm having all kinds of trouble. Have you ever killed somebody off that you later realized that you needed?.. I just painted myself into a corner," Martin replied, according to Diana Gabaldon.

An experienced writer herself, Gabaldon wasn't surprised by her friend's revelation and gave Martin advice on how to take care of his precarious situation.

"‘If you paint yourself into the corner,' I said, ‘What you do is you get a new bucket of paint and you paint yourself back out and do the floor behind you. I mean, you can revise history — it's easy if you try,'" the Outlander author explained.

Though revising history is, indeed, a common practice among authors and screenwriters, it doesn't seem like Diana Gabaldon's words boosted GRRM's performance. We're still waiting for The Winds of Winter, but after learning about Gabaldon and Martin's talk, we're curious to know which character he meant.

Fans (Kind of) Figured Out Who GRRM Regretted Killing

After the video was published, George Martin's fans flooded the comment section with their theories and explanations for the author's words. Most of them agreed that the character GRRM mentioned must have died in one of the previous books and that, most likely, it wasn't one of the major (POV) characters, either.

Still, it was clearly someone important enough to influence the game of thrones in a way no one else could — otherwise, Martin wouldn't have been stuck on that.

"It would have to be someone not easily replaced. Oberyn's role for example could easily be filled with a Sand Snake. Maybe Maester Aemon? Introducing another wise old Targaryen this late in the story would not be easy," Qwertywalkers23 suggested.

Kevan Lannister was another popular guess considering that he was a pretty important political figure who could change the balance dramatically. But all in all, the first five books of A Song of Ice and Fire had too many deaths: it could even be Ned Stark for all we know (though that would have been utterly hilarious).

Some fans, on the other hand, suggested that George Martin referenced one of his latest decisions in The Winds of Winter since otherwise, the "paint yourself back out" advice wouldn't make much sense.

"It sounds like a TWOW death from the way she talks about telling him to just undo it, if it was from a previous book this isn't an option. Also, she says that it's GRRM talking about the new book. If there was a death in an early chapter, and many chapters follow on from this narrative that's a huge issue," another user pointed out.

The saddest part about all these discussions is that they happened over five years ago. Whether George Martin is still stuck in the same corner or has painted himself into a new one since then, the weather forecast remains the same: no Winds.

Source: Reddit