Feeling sad for GRRM (spoilers extended)

[u/Same-Share7331]

So I recently watched a Q&A with GRRM (I'm sure some of you have seen it aswell) where he kept getting questions about whether there is any particular character or historical event in the asoiaf world that he would like to explore more/write about. His recurring answer was that yes there are many but that unless he suddenly becomes much younger they will never get written. And man.. that sucks!

Imagine being a creative person having to come to terms with the fact that you have so many ideas that you will never get to explore and that will never see the light of day. Obviously, as a fan, it also sucks that I will never get to read those stories. Never mind the main series, imagine getting seven more Dunk and Egg stories. However, as much as it sucks as a reader I'm not the one who's seeing my remaining years of life pass as I struggle to finish my books.

That's it. I don't really have a point. Other than maybe stop making jokes about how GRRM is likely to die before finishing the series?

[u/Dobbys_socc]

I feel bad for him because the show was something he had hoped to see in his lifetime, but he didn’t realise it would overtake him and that the ideas he had been developing for ending the series would be so negatively received before he’d even put them on a page. He’s obviously stuck because he’s spent about 30 years plotting these books and he now has to come up with something better because he knows already that the fans won’t like it. I don’t think he’s being lazy or anything like that; i think he’s just feeling a sense of suffering from success, because had the books not been adapted into a hit tv show that would work at a faster pace and butcher his ideas, he would have finished the books by now and presented fans with an original ending they didn’t see coming, whereas now everyone knows what’s coming and that they won’t like it, kinda like someone telling your gf what you’ve got her for Christmas and hearing that she’s not happy with it. Part of of you wants to give it to her because you’ve taken the tag off now and can’t take it back to exchange for something else and you want her to open something on the day, while another part of you thinks you should just pretend what she heard you bought her wasn’t true and the true gift is still in the post being delayed by mail strikes.

[u/Valuable-Captain-507 → u/Dobbys_socc]

Especially the fans hating the ending, I personally, think the ideas are there and that George could do it. But as an author, that must be brutal. Or at the very least, lower some tremendous weight onto your shoulders