Fans would love to get "The Winds of Winter" updates in greater frequency from George RR Martin but the reason it's not happening is simple - there's nothing to report, coming from the author himself. In blog posted this week, GGRM explained why TWoW-related updates are hard to come by and gave assurance that the book is top on his list.
Martin wrote at the start of the week there too many things on his plate right now, reiterating an earlier revelation that apart from The Winds of Winter and "A Dream of Spring" - the last two books to complete his epic "A Song of Ice and Fire" novel, his working too on other projects. HBO has revealed of the plan to create spinoffs of "Game of Thrones" and Martin said he's part of the ongoing work to present five pilot scripts that hopefully will serve as "successor shows," for GoT.
Then there are the other books and it seems the dearest to Martin right now, next to the remaining ASOIAF volumes of course, is the "Wild Cards" series. GRRM said his work on the series at the moment is more of editing and some rewriting but he admitted wanting to write a Wild Cards title again like back in the days.
"Truth be told, I'd love nothing better than to write some more Wild Cards stories ... and I have stories to tell," Martin said in his blog.
However, the GoT creator likewise clarified that working on a Wild Cards book is next to impossible at the moment. "All that will need to wait until I've finished WINDS OF WINTER, and maybe DREAM OF SPRING as well," GRRM declared, which should serve as solid assurance to ASOIAF fans that the novel will be finalized before he gets to jump to another book project.
In the same blog post, Martin addressed the grievances coming from fans, foremost is why TWoW progress updates are not provided on regular basis. The author said he can actually do updates and yes even weekly but what fans will only get is a canned status that says: "Still working on it ... not done yet."
The bottom line, TWoW remains a work in progress and the author doesn't feel like updating the fans when there is nothing exciting to break. And that is the chief reason updates on The Winds of Winter will not be dispensed by the ASOIAF author, and more so when demanded by fans.
In a related report from Winter Is Coming, the fan site took note of question addressed to Martin - that the delays plaguing TWoW, soon to be six years in the making, could lead to the book ending up unfinished. There are speculations among fans "that he might not live to finish the Song of Ice and Fire series," WiC reported.
To which GRRM has a ready reply: "My own hope is to live another thirty years and write thirty more books."
Back in May, Martin announced "I AM STILL WORKING ON WINDS OF WINTER and will continue working on it until it's done." GRRM, however, stopped short of providing a definite release date for TWoW though rumors indicate that with the heavy workload confronting the author the book publication is unlikely to happen this 2017.
