<P> With around 1600 pages in manuscript length, A Dance with Dragons was eventually published in July 2011 after six years of writing, longer in page count and writing time than any of the preceding four novels . The story of A Dance with Dragons catches up and goes beyond A Feast for Crows around two - thirds into the book, but nevertheless covers less story than Martin had intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliff - hangers . Martin attributed the delay mainly to his untangling "the Meereenese knot", which the interviewer understood as "making the chronology and characters mesh up as various threads converged on (Daenerys)". Martin also acknowledged spending too much time on rewriting and perfecting the story, but soundly rejected the theories of some of his critics that he had lost interest in the series or would bide his time to make more money . </P> <P> Martin believes the last two volumes of the series will be big books of 1500 manuscript pages each . The sixth book will be called The Winds of Winter, taking the title of the last book of the originally planned trilogy . Displeased with the provisional title A Time for Wolves for the final volume, Martin ultimately announced A Dream of Spring as the title for the seventh book in 2006 . Martin said in March 2012 that the final two novels will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and that the Others will appear in the book . </P> <P> The Winds of Winter will resolve the cliffhangers from A Dance with Dragons early on and "will open with the two big battles that (the fifth book) was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle (...) of Slaver's Bay . And then take it from there ." By the middle of 2010, Martin had already finished five chapters of The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Arianne Martell, and Aeron Greyjoy, accumulating to around 100 completed pages . After the publication of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, Martin announced he would return to writing in January 2012 . He spent the meantime on book tours, conventions, and continued working on his The World of Ice & Fire companion guide and a new Tales of Dunk and Egg novella . </P> <P> In December 2011, Martin posted a chapter from The Winds of Winter from the viewpoint of Theon Greyjoy; several other chapters have been made public since . Four hundred pages of the sixth novel had been written as of October 2012, although Martin considers only 200 as "really finished"; the rest needs revising . In 2011, Martin gave three years as a realistic estimate for finishing the sixth book at a good pace, but said ultimately the book "will be done when it's done", acknowledging that his publication estimates had been too optimistic in the past . Martin did not intend to separate the characters geographically again . </P>

When did george rr martin start writing winds of winter