[chris37]

Whoops, I also forgot to mention that I do not think any of the writers, Martin has 2 co-authors, have written themselves in the corner.

Reading the books twice now, it is very clear that they knew exactly where they were going very early on, because there are direct hints of what is coming, if not neon flashing road signs.

Considering that there were years between releases of the books, it is obvious that they have a map or an outline of where they are going and how they want to get there.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Whoops, I also forgot to mention that I do not think any of the writers, Martin has 2 co-authors, have written themselves in the corner.

He does? That one is news to me - I've been reading the books since the 'A Game of Thrones' was published, and I'd never before heard that Martin has collaborators in writing the books. Did Martin reveal this recently?

it is very clear that they knew exactly where they were going very early on, because there are direct hints of what is coming, if not neon flashing road signs.

I have no doubt that Martin has always known the broad outlines of the story plots and how things will end, but as we saw in his decision to abandon the five-year narrative gap and pick up the story the next day in 'A Feast for Crows', how he gets there is being made up as he goes along. And in his 'Not A Blog', he's spent a lot of time talking about the Meereenese Knot he was trying to untangle his story-line from.

He didn't seem to have this much trouble with the first three books, which all came out within a few years of each other. These days he seems to complain a lot about how hard it is to write the story.