George Martin’s Original Plan for Game of Thrones Books Could've Avoided His Biggest Problem

George Martin ’s story with A Song of Ice and Fire’s two final books has been a never-ending struggle, and recently the whole drama might have reached its long-awaited climax.

Back in 2024, the author made a confession saying he wasn’t sure he would be able to ever reach the end of his epic book series, though he later stated that The Winds of Winter had already surpassed a whopping amount of a thousand pages.

Though Martin probably has his own reasons to dive deep into that many details, now trying to give satisfying arcs to all of the story’s numerous characters, he could’ve set himself free years ago if he had followed his original plan for A Song of Ice and Fire.

George Martin Wanted A Song of Ice and Fire to Have Only 4 Books

Now it’s hard to imagine all of the books’ events crammed into just four installments, but that’s what Martin was planning to go with. Ironically, he initially thought to turn the idea into just one short story, but then it somehow surpassed a number of pages that a full book usually has, and the writer had to go against his plans.

Expanding the lore to what only a trilogy of books can handle, Martin realised that he wouldn’t be able to fit it all in 3 books after all.

“I said, “I know this can’t all fit into three here. I’m gonna have to break this first book into two books to get it all done.” Which required a certain amount of restructuring, but I went back and I did that, I took out about 300 pages or so, and that became the beginning of the second book. And I moved things around. And for a while I was saying, “Well, it’s a four-book trilogy”, the writer revealed while talking with Gizmodo several years ago.

A Song of Ice and Fire Eventually Expanded to 7 Books

Apparently, things got quite complicated on Martin’s way, so he just couldn’t abandon any storyline without giving it a proper ending and thus making it to planning a book series of almost double size compared to what he initially wanted.

Limiting A Song of Ice and Fire to just four books could’ve been a good solution for Martin’s long-standing struggle with finishing The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring; the first book took Martin 15 years to work on and is still far from being finished, though, according to the writer himself, he already has more than a thousand pages written for it.

Alternatively, bringing the book series down to just 4 installments could’ve significantly worsened its plot, depriving fans of many events that eventually defined Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow or Tyrion Lannister as some of the most complex characters.