‘The Winds of Winter’ (TWoW) Release Date Happening this 2017 Not Set in Stone – Here’s Why

George R.R. Martin last provided a concrete update on his release date plans for "The Winds of Winter" last January 2016. He delivered the news short and straight - the book is not finished and will not come out anytime soon. True enough, HBO's "Game of Thrones" Season 6 premiered and wrapped up, and the volume was nowhere in sight.

And most likely, Game of Thrones Season 7 will hit the TV screen July this year, as planned by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and GRRM will not deliver TWoW or the sixth instalment to the epic "A Song of Ice and Fire". Yes, GoT and ASOIAF fans alike are in uproar already that Martin is taking too long but as reported by Insider the Game of Thrones creator is just being George R.R. Martin.

He writes slow, he takes his sweet time and he hates deadlines. "I have always had problems with deadlines ...  I don't respond well to them ... The deadlines just stress me out," was how Martin viewed deadlines as reported by Insider.

And how GRRM treats the deadline for him to finalized TWoW was not any different. As noted by the same report when the author was asked when really plans the sixth ASOIAF volume to come, his reply: "When delivery [of TWOW] will be, I can't say. I am not going to set another deadline for myself to trip over."

But fans have no reason really to be furious, Insider said Martin's last five ASOIAF instalments or the pacing that was seen with the last five books was clear indication of the things to come - that GRRM will be consistently if not painfully slow as he progresses from one book to another.

Take for instance the first trilogy "A Game of Thrones", "A Clash of Kings" and "A Storm of Swords" that came out in 1996, 1998 and 2000, respectively, and separated only by two years. But Martin took on a glacial pace for "A Feast for Crows", which was published in 2005 or five years after its immediate predecessor was first printed.

Then it was a 6-year wait for "A Dance with Dragons" as the book only came out in 2011. Originally, GRRM planned for the book to be on the shelves by 2006 but his natural writing pace got the better of him.

Now it's 2017 and there is no clear indication that Martin will outrace the GoT version put together by Benioff and Weiss. With the absence of any updates or GRRM still not committed to a deadline, the likelihood is Game of Thrones Season 7 will run its course and The Winds of Winter will remain elusive.

And any update from Martin, though a blog post by Winter Is Coming is convinced that GRRM doesn't owe his legion of fans one, would be useless as the GoT creator will surely end up not beating it.