'The Winds of Winter' Release Date, Spoilers: Anticipated Novel Won't Be Taking Cues from HBO's Smash Hit

When George R.R. Martin started writing the first notes that would eventually turn into his epic saga "A Song of Ice and Fire" ("ASOIAF"), television deals were the farthest thing from his mind. But "The Winds of Winter," the upcoming sixth book to his now beloved series, may have already been seeded in those scribbles back in 1991.

Since the first book,"A Game of Thrones," came out in 1996, Martin's small fleet of novels has slowly created a following of fans. They became so dedicated to the intricacies of his work that when HBO announced that they were taking the author's work and turning it into a live-action series in 2007, non-"ASOIAF" fans became curious about who this Mr. George R.R. Martin was.

In an interview with Time, Martin recalls the early days prior to his discussions with David Benioff and Dan Weiss that would give birth to the HBO series that half the world now knows and loves. At the same time, Martin also highlights the realization of how much creative control he would lose upon signing off the rights to the television series to the network with a household name.

Martin laments the differences the show had to make in respect to the limitations of television as a more public medium. One of the examples he highlights are the differences between how Daenarys' Dothraki wedding was handled between the novel and the show, which was sort of muddled the intent of the Dothraki queen's origin.

The prominence of Martin's works has also made him more prone to scrutiny, such as backlash over the prevalance of rape in his stories. Much of this contentious content had been filtered before reaching the big screen and the writer has accepted this fact.

With "The Winds of Winter," Martin has already committed to not taking any cues . While the author admits that his writing has become more improvisational as he matures, he does state that the 16 years of the characters and the world he created would not be moved by the success that was birthed by the television series he still works with yet has less creative control over.

Martin has already teased about the importance of the characters that we may never see in the series again, such as Lady Stoneheart. Fans of the television series may never know if it was Martin's intent to truly make a heroine out of Brienne of Tarth, or if the ambitious knight would become another casualty of war and hate.

While fans of both the books and the show still wait for an official announcement on "The Winds of Winter's" release, Martin is pretty sure that the whatever happens in "A Game of Thrones" season 8, "The Winds of Winter " and "A Dream of Spring" will be pretty far removed for those not following the novels.