One of the frequently asked questions by all of George RR Martin fans is when the next book in the series is going to be done? I'm going to try and make an assumption, and discuss a little about what The Winds are blowing our way.

What we know so far is that GRRM finished around 100 pages of the book already, which actually isn't much considering that his last four were around 1000, and that it took him 6 years to finis A Dance with Dragons, although he had almost 500 pages written.

Good news is that, those were only draft pages, and these are finished chapters. But GRRM announced that he is returning to the writing in January 2012. So there probably won't be any update on The Winds until next year. And this is bad omen to the readers which still dread the famous six year hiatus between A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.

My opinion is that this time GRRM doesn't have the leisure time to write at his own pace. Main reason for that is A Game of Thrones series from HBO. It had phenomenal success, and lured many new readers to his work. But it also put large pressure on Martin to finish two remaining planed books ahead of series.

For now seasons are planed to be filmed in time frame of two years per season, and there is four books remaining, with second book now in production, it gives some rough estimate of 2015 as last possible year to finish the book in time to begin filming on season connected to it. But, although if that happens on time, it only gives GRRM another two years to finish last book in the series, and he probably won't allow himself to get in that kind of tight spot.

So my reasoning is as follows, GRRM is famous for his slow writing, but this time, with fame, comes the responsibility he never had before. No longer he has only his loyal fans ready to forgive everything he decides to do, this time, with expanding his fandom, there are many people not willing to endlessly pardon his quirks. And also with HBO pressuring him to keep the schedule, GRRM will be forced to come to some compromise between his habits in writing and demand of the audience.

My guess is that he will do his best to finish The Winds of Winter in the next three years. Leaving him relatively enough time of four years to finish last book, which he would give his best to make worthy ending for his best selling series. This could be good, but also bad news. GRRM never wrote under this kind of pressure, and many argue that every next of his books were longer but weaker then previous. So this may go both ways, maybe this will force him to be as concise as in his first three books, or he will slack off trying to meet the deadlines.

We will see, I can only hope that GRRM will find the strength to return to the series that made him famous, putting aside everything that distracted him these years. Many fear that his inspiration diminished over the years. I don't think so, it is only that GRRM had too much time and he has gone too broad, and I believe that this little pressure will do good to him and his writing.